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In this week’s SPN:
AI Browsers - Comet - what it means for donor experience
3 (outcome-driven) approaches to better meet donor expectations
Are you sleeping on a CTV opportunity for Black Friday - Giving Tuesday?
What and where to test when paid social is under-performing
And, plenty of really fab Jobs & Opps!
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AI Browsers: Race to Own the Surface
Perplexity’s “Comet” isn’t just a new interface.
It’s a new way of working with the web. Click the link - it’s a web browser - like Chrome on an insane concoction of goodness knows what. Even just marvel at the look and feel. It’s extraordinary.
I’ve tried to spend what little time I’ve had this week playing around with it. Admittedly I didn’t approach it expecting much - just another iteration of an interface - maybe a smarter version of Chrome with a conversational twist.
What struck me is how naturally it reframes the experience of browsing: you’re not opening tabs, clicking through articles, or juggling sources. You’re giving instructions, pursuing a goal, and letting the system act. It searches, compares, synthesizes, tracks context, even writes messages or extracts key insights, without ever losing the thread.
→ Nor is it about search anymore. It’s about orchestration.
Where traditional browsers focus on showing you where to look, Comet focuses on why you’re looking. It transforms navigation into cognition. You don’t open apps, you start tasks. You don’t scan results, you get structured outputs. The interaction becomes outcome-driven, rather than screen-driven.
What Does This Mean for Donors?
The expectation of a donor’s experience on your homepage is that it soon becomes a live conversation, not a static billboard.
Here are three (outcome-driven) approaches I’m playing with to better meet donor expectations:
Q&A Conversion Hubs (Use Case: Faster Donor Information Capture)
Replace the FAQ page with an AI concierge that answers donor questions and invites the next action (subscribe, donate, advocate) in the same chat.
Early Comet tests show people skipping forms and completing tasks inside the dialogue. Pilot on one high-traffic Program page and benchmark visitor to an action time e.g. how long does it take someone to take an advocacy or donation action on your site today vs putting the ask in chat.
Authority Cards (Use Case: Brand-Voice Control)
Package five must-know facts (promise, programs, proof, differentiator, purpose) into a simple “About Us” snapshot that AI browsers can quote verbatim. Search-engine analysts warn that share-of-model will displace share-of-voice once answers surface before links.
Review and refresh the card monthly; treat it like metadata for the AI era, not a technical exercise.
Conversation Goldmine (Use Case: Always-On Insights)
Feed anonymized chat transcripts into your insight stack to spot fresh donor queries, sticking points in any sign up/cancellation hurdles, and language that supporters are actually using.
“Query mining” is the new listening post for campaign ideas and product road-maps. Start with a weekly review, tag patterns, and loop findings into your content sprint.
→ All three plays here speak fundraising language, brand authority, donor insights - your team doesn’t need to be technical in order to adopt them.
This space is moving fast. Keep an eye on AI Browsers.
Weekly Reads 📚
Have we got personalization all wrong? (Neil Perkin)
Perplexity CEO says its browser will track everything users do online to sell ‘hyper personalized’ ads (Tech Crunch)
Google Launches Entertainment Division With Slate of “Tech Positive” Film and TV Projects (Stage Runner)
“Positive review only”: Researchers hide AI prompts in papers (Nikkei)
Letters to a Young Founder: Immad Akhund of Mercury (The Generalist)
Don’t let AI steal your job (Vox)
The Future of Media Buying is Here – and It’s Not Walled in by Big Tech (Exchange Wire / Trade Desk)
TikTok shop rewires how the West shops (Jing Daily)
Influencing Without the Influencers (NYT)
How Alaska Airlines found a $100M revenue opportunity with Google’s Meridian (Marketing Dive)
Google Cloud lands gig to make 100,000 UK civil servants tech-literate (The Register)
Why LinkedIn is showing you so many old posts (Business Insider)
When Streaming Won’t Cut It and You Need the DVD (NYT)
Q4 Battle Plan w/ CTV
Last week I was talking with a really smart performance marketer friend who runs the paid media team for a large Org. And they shared something interesting.
Paraphrasing: “We’re spending about $250k per month on paid social, and our CACs (cost to acquire a donor) have crept up with the inability to move them back down. We’ve hit a ceiling, and we can’t grow with sustainable unit economics anymore. If this continues, we’re going to have a really rough Black Friday-Giving Tuesday and Q4.”
This is something I’ve heard several times and there are only a few things you can do in this situation:
1. Raise your recommended donation amounts on your donation form or the prices of your swag to make your unit economics better (so you can spend more).
2. Release new programs or product variants/bundles (like UNICEF Marketplace) to see if you can unlock new revenue streams or higher AOVs (launching bundles is easier. But launching new products let alone programs is hard and expensive, and not something you can accomplish overnight).
3. Deeply think through the full funnel from the ad creative variants to the copywriting and positioning, to the targeting, landing pages, offers, opt-ins, and follow-up sequences via email and SMS to see if you can squeeze out more $$. Most Org’s at scale are already doing this, so yes, there’s always more to be done here, but it’s easier said than done.
4. OR, you can test new channels to see if you can find something else that will give you an acceptable CAC so you can keep growing the funds raised column while you figure out your other paid channels and look for more ways to optimize them.
So, typically, when an Org tells me something like this, my advice is to lift a finger and start testing new channels, especially given that the Black Friday - Giving Tuesday (BF - GT) long weekend always comes sooner than you think, so the time to start testing is now. I say this because unlike launching a new program or product, launching a new channel can happen in a few days or at most 1-2 weeks.
The main problem that this particular Org was having was scaling its top of funnel. They’re already doing meaningful amounts of digital revenue and spending a lot on paid social.
What they really needed was more new people to learn about their mission and hopefully convert to being a donor.
They also needed a channel that could move the needle and turn into something that could (if done well) become a new 20% a year growth lever for the brand. They wanted to prioritize testing something that could handle significant spend and hopefully bring in multiple 7 figures of additional digital revenue if it worked.
And as I mentioned, lastly, they wanted one thing that could help them better maximize BF-GT and Q4 in case paid social kept underperforming.
So with all that in mind, we started talking about CTV. I really like CTV right now because it has a lot of these attributes. Massive inventory. Relatively cheap CPMs, lots of attention, and the ad placements are huge and beautiful on most people’s TV screens.
Here’s a little more on why I like it:
Imagine that your supporter just finished dinner. They’re full, relaxed, and scrolling through their favorite streaming app. No Slack pings. No email distractions. No doomscrolling on TikTok. Just them, their deep Crate & Barrel sofa, and the biggest screen in the house.
What would you want to happen next? If you’re anything like me, you’d want them to see your ad on TV in crisp 4K resolution on a 50-inch screen or larger, with sound pumping through their Sonos speakers. That’s exactly where you want to display your Org’s brand.
I think a lot of marketing and fundraising operators are sleeping on this, so I thought I’d write today’s longer post sharing the same advice I gave this Org.
We’ve hit a bit of a turning point with CTV. The average consumer now streams just as much or more than social media. Plenty of data says consumers (your donors) are spending 2+ hours per day streaming TV and during BF - GT, the numbers go up.
With CTV, you get TV’s massive reach combined and the tools to buy and measure are much better than they used to be. Unlike social media, where users are multitasking between apps and swiping through the timeline not really paying attention, streaming viewers are more focused on consumption while they’re watching their favorite long form movies or shows.
Anyway, so I kept it simple and basically said, next week, go to Roku Ads Manager and set up a test. Creating an account takes 5 minutes.
Next Steps
While you’re getting set up, go find your top 10 social video ads and watch them to figure out if any of them make sense for TV. Choose your favorite 3-4 and edit them to 15 and 30-second versions. Include a clear CTA in the last 3 seconds and a link to specially designed landing page like yourorg.com/tv and export them as MP4s, with either 4K or 1920x1080 resolution.
CTV has ad formats that let viewers interact with your ad directly from their remote so they don’t need to separately type out your URL; I’ve written more about this later.
Next, setup your pixel (it takes 10 minutes):
• Do this just like you would for Meta/Google
• Place it on your website
• Set attribution window to 14 day view through
• Turn on enhanced conversions
Set up your targeting:
You can target by location (down to ZIP code), demographics like age, gender, and income, as well as viewing habits and interests based on what people watch.
Try 3 different audience parameters and split test them to see which performs. Submit your assets for approval and wait. You’ll hear back in 24 hours or less. Then start by spending $300/day minimum per ad creative.
Then you measure. Ask yourself:
1. Which creative has the lowest cost per completed view?
2. Which audience has the highest conversion rate?
3. Where should you shift budget to the highest performers?
Use the campaign insights to refine your targeting and approach. See how the early spend compares to your social channels and if it’s working or cheaper, double down.
The Q4 Battle Plan:
Here’s the thing, if you start now (i.e. this summer), you have a few months to figure this out before the November chaos so you can be confident and prepared for Q4.
When I turn on CTV for a new Org I usually plan it out as follows:
• Week 1-2: Test and iterate
• Week 3: Scale winners to $500-1000/day
• Weeks 4 onward, keep scaling the winners depending on CPA
By BF-GT, you’ll have the data to know what’s working. And if I were you I’d begin developing BF-GT creative with special matches and start spending $2-5k/day on those come November. I know Org’s spending $20K/day on TV during BF-GT. The channel scales very well and can handle large budgets when you find winning creatives and audiences.
Wrapping Up
Another thing I love about TV is it gives your ads a bigger canvas. Most ad platforms compress your ads so you get fifteen seconds in a 1:1 or 9:16 vertical format.
Donors are mostly seeing them on a 4-6 inch screen. CTV expands that and allows you to do a lot more. You can run interactive formats or QR overlays all while people are watching. I was in conversations earlier this week where I was curious to see how close we all were to adopting voice commands “hey siri, donate to unicef”as a means to donating when watching TV. Thoughts? My perspective is people have already learnt to ask Siri or whoever to turn their bedroom lights off, so the learnt behavior or discovery is less of an obstacle and when you see something on TV (e.g. wildfires) why faff around taking a QR code pic when you can just tell Siri what to do?
BF-GT weekend thru EOY is the year’s single most active period for streaming on CTV because it’s where the eyeballs are, and with the reach and scale of the channel it’s really an obvious channel to test. You will raise money as a result.
And it’s the one channel that has the scale, it has the targeting, it has the attention, attribution and tools that today make it even more direct response focused than ever before.
It’s surely worth seeing if it can work for your Org.
OK, that’s all for today.
I hope you’ve found one nugget today that you can put into play next week.
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And huge thanks to this Quarter’s sponsor Fundraise Up for creating a new standard for donor experience.
Now onto the fun stuff!
Jobs & Opps 🛠️
Sesame Workshop: VP, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships ($170,000 - $210,000)
Be Pro Be Proud: National Director, Development
The Trevor Project: Chief Advancement Officer ($260,000 - $300,000)
Big Break Foundation: Development Director
Heifer Foundation: VP, Planned Giving ($130,000 - $180,000)
NYU Langone Health: Senior Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations ($213,000 - $275,000)
Earth Justice: Associate Director of Development Technology Solutions ($140,000 - $183,000)
UNICEF: Consultant - Supporter Engagement - Fundraising Specialist
Mozilla: VP, Community ($200,000 - $290,000)
Board of Jewish Education: Senior Managing Director, Marketing & Communications ($185,000 - $220,000)
WWF International: Head, Content & Creative
Ronald McDonald House Charities: CIO ($222,000 - $289,000)
UNICEF: Consultant - Digital Performance Marketing Specialist
NPR: Senior Director, Development Operations ($140,000 - $165,000)
Wildlife Conservation Society: Director, Direct Response ($130,000 - $150,000)
→ Many more job opportunities listed on SPN’s sister site: Pledgr