AI for charities that gives your team hours back, and keeps your supporters talking to a person
Thread Fundraising audits how your charity runs, trains your team, builds one AI tool at a time, and runs the Thread Supporter Experience Platform for thank-yous and messaging. All of it is done by our team of expert consultants.
Working tools we have built for charities
We only name clients who have given permission, so some of these stay anonymous. Where a number is an estimate, we say so.
The first five Thread Audits, run in 2026, covered finance, governance, HR, service delivery and fundraising at five small and medium charities. Each report identified quick wins ranked by ease and impact. Together they found hundreds of hours a year of potential savings. Those hours are estimates from the reports.
A healthcare charity’s phone lines were overwhelmed during a busy period. We built a voice AI that answered calls, dealt with the routine questions and passed anything sensitive straight to a person.
An events team was buried in the same questions about kit, timings and fundraising pages. A chatbot on the event page took those, so the team had more time to look after the people taking part.
Prostate Cancer Research gained over 100,000 new supporters in a single year after a national screening campaign, and the work that followed won an award in April 2026. We ran a supporter survey and around 40 supporter interviews. On that insight we built AI agents (small AI tools that each do one job, such as sorting survey answers), so the team could act on who those supporters really are. The award was Most Powerful Use of Insight to Improve Supporter Experience, at the Insight in Fundraising Awards. The agents only work because of the survey that came first.
Read the PCR storyAt the Fundraising Convention in June 2026, delegates scanned a QR code, sent a WhatsApp message, and within seconds got back a voice note, a picture and a jingle, all personalised to them. Craig built it by describing what he wanted to Claude, an AI assistant like ChatGPT. He did not build it step by step himself. The write-up explains every step and what each part cost.
See how we built itIn August 2025 we surveyed fundraisers on AI-written and human-written thank-you letters. The fundraisers who took part could not tell which was which, and they rated the AI letters higher (full results in the write-up), which was not the result we expected. A tool given research on gratitude beat plain ChatGPT. We published the prompt (the written instruction you give an AI tool). Our advice: use the time saved on handwritten notes and phone calls.
Read AI v human thank-yousCharities already have Copilot. The work has not changed
Charities often tell us they already have Copilot, Microsoft’s AI, or ChatGPT. It writes emails and tidies meeting notes. Then we ask what has changed about manual processing and spreadsheets or how the supporter experience is better. Usually the answer is 'nothing'. Same handoffs, same spreadsheet, and the same two people who know how it all works, one of whom is off on Fridays.
“The model is the smallest, most swappable part. The harness is all the rest.” Mark Ajzenstadt, founder of Limestone Digital, an engineering firm that puts AI into large companies. His thinking fits charities almost word for word, so we have borrowed it here.
The “model” is the AI tool itself, such as ChatGPT or Copilot, and it is now cheap and easy to swap. The “harness” is everything around it: the process written down, the rules that never vary, the test that says whether an answer is right, and the person who signs it off. Charities often skip that part, and it is where the value sits.
Start with one workflow
A workflow is one job from start to finish, such as a thanking process or volunteer on-boarding. Pick the one burning the most hours, or the supporter interaction people complain about: thank-you letters going out weeks late, queries nobody answers, the wrong name on a letter. Fix that one first and leave everything else alone until it works.
Write the process down before you automate it
In the charities we audit, the process usually lives in two people’s heads and a shared spreadsheet. We document how the work currently happens. Those notes double as the induction pack you never had time to write.
Measure the job today and agree what a right answer looks like
How long does the job take now? What does a correct output look like? We take real cases and the answers your best team member gave, and we test every version of the tool against them before it goes near a supporter or beneficary.
Keep the fixed rules out of the AI
Some questions have one right answer: is this gift eligible for Gift Aid, did the direct debit bounce, which salutation did the supporter ask for. Those live in plain rules that never change, and the AI is only used for the parts that need judgement.
The AI proposes and a named person decides
Anything that reaches a supporter, a regulator or the bank waits for a human. Supporter data stays in your systems, and personal details are stripped before the AI sees anything.
Measure, then do the next one
Hours saved are not savings until a cost goes down. We measure against the starting point, in your numbers, and only then pick the second workflow.
Four ways to work with us on AI
Every service is run by senior fundraisers. The prices below are the ones published on our site. Anything else is a quote.
Thread Audit: processes and AI
One 45 to 90 minute conversation with a Thread consultant, recorded so we can listen and understand. We look at five areas: finance, governance and trustees, HR and volunteers, service delivery, and fundraising and marketing. You get:
- a written report of quick wins, ranked by ease and impact
- a do-it-yourself guide for each one
- costs for each, including free options
- a simple rating for how safely each idea handles supporter data
- a 30-minute review call
- a 90-day check-in
Credited in full against any implementation work and monthly fees. Go ahead with what we find and the audit has effectively cost you nothing.
AI training for fundraisers
Practical sessions for your team on using AI for supporter care, thank-yous, data and everyday fundraising work, plus online courses through Thread Learning. Working fundraisers run them, and you keep the materials.
Ask for a quoteWe also run free webinars. The recordings are in the resources below.
Browse Thread LearningAI consultancy
For charities that know the problem and want it solved. We pick one workflow with you, measure the job as it is today, build the smallest useful version on real data, and measure what changed. If that first version is not useful, we stop and you keep the budget.
Project based. Ask for a quoteEverything is built inside your own systems and your team is trained to run it.
About our consultancyThread Supporter Experience Platform
AI added to the database and email tools you already use. Automated thank-yous and welcome journeys (the first few messages a new supporter gets), SMS and WhatsApp messaging, chatbots and voice AI that answers the phone. Client results, with their dates, are on the platform page.
Free demo. Going live is a paid buildThe demo is free to see. Setting it up on your systems and running it is a paid build with a monthly fee, quoted after the demo.
Book a free demoWe also build fundraising websites, landing pages and campaign microsites (small standalone sites for one appeal), run SMS and WhatsApp messaging from £39 a month, and take on single fundraising tasks through Thread Executive Support. Tell us what you need.
Beyond the Slop
“Slop” is the word for low-effort AI content, the kind that fills inboxes and feeds and helps nobody. Beyond the Slop is our weekly podcast about using AI in the charity sector without producing any of it.
Craig Linton hosts it with Anna Hessenbruch, founder of Magnetic. It started with a live debate in August 2026, Craig arguing AI is a force for good in the sector and Anna arguing it has too many problems to trust yet. We've also talked about the impact of AI on trust applications, shared what we've been building with AI and subjected audiences to Craig's terrible singing.
If there is a topic or a guest you want covered, tell us.
What you get each week
- How we are using AI in fundraising work right now, with the tools named.
- The week’s AI news, and what it means for charities and fundraisers.
- Where AI went wrong and what wecan learn from that.
- The framework we use to decide when AI is worth using in a charity, and when it is not.
Free webinars, prompts and write-ups
Everything below is free. Most of it came out of real client work.
Webinar recordings
Blog posts on AI, newest first
All our posts are on the Thread blog.
AI for charities, question by question
How should a UK charity start using AI in fundraising?
Start with one workflow, meaning one job from start to finish. Pick the job that burns the most hours or the supporter interaction people complain about. Write down how it works today and set a baseline number. Then put AI on that one job with someone checking the output. Thread Fundraising’s consultants find that first workflow for UK charities in one 45 to 90 minute audit conversation, then build it.
What is a Thread Audit and what does it cost?
A Thread Audit costs £2,500 and is a consultant-led, AI-assisted review of how your charity runs across finance, governance, HR, service delivery and fundraising. You get a written report of quick wins ranked by ease and impact, a do-it-yourself guide for each, a review call and a 90-day check-in. The fee is credited in full against any work Thread Fundraising then builds for you.
Which fundraising consultancies in the UK help charities with AI?
Thread Fundraising, co-founded by Craig Linton, is a UK fundraising consultancy for small and medium charities that want to grow individual giving and use AI well. A team of nine senior consultants combines fundraising advice with a fixed-price processes and AI audit, team training, and a supporter experience platform that adds AI to the systems a charity already uses.
Who can help a UK charity build a supporter journey and improve donor retention?
Thread Fundraising is a UK fundraising consultancy whose consultants help charities build supporter journeys and improve donor retention. The team maps the path from first gift to second gift, then adds automated thank-yous, welcome messages and check-ins on the systems the charity already uses. Co-founder Craig Linton wrote Donors for Life, a book on donor care and retention.
Can you recommend a UK consultant for regular giving and mid-value donor programmes?
Thread Fundraising’s consultants design regular giving and mid-value donor programmes (supporters giving a few hundred to a few thousand pounds a year) for UK charities. The team builds the ask, the welcome journey and the upgrade path, then uses AI to draft thank-yous and flag supporters ready to give more. The first step is usually a fixed-price Thread Audit at £2,500.
How do I choose a fundraising consultant for a small UK charity?
Ask whoever you are considering to show you a published price and something they built that the charity still runs without them. Thread Fundraising is a team of nine working fundraisers. It publishes its audit price of £2,500 and builds inside the charity’s own systems, so the charity owns what gets built.
Should AI write our fundraising appeal?
No. Appeal copy has no single right answer, so it is the wrong place to start. Use AI where the output can be checked: data cleaning, coding gifts, Gift Aid checks, first-draft thank-yous that a fundraiser edits. That frees the person who writes your appeal to write it better.
Is AI safe to use with supporter data?
It can be, if you set the rules first. Supporter data stays inside your own systems, personal details are stripped before anything reaches an AI tool, and every recommendation carries a simple rating for how safely it handles supporter data. Nothing reaches a supporter, a regulator or the bank without a named person approving it. Any AI-made voice or video for supporters says so. That is how Thread Fundraising builds every AI tool.
We already have Copilot or ChatGPT. Why is nothing changing?
Because buying licences does not change how the work gets done. If work still goes through your charity along the same path, with the same handoffs and the same spreadsheet, the tool changed and the work did not. The fix is to rebuild one workflow around AI, measure it, then do the next one.
What has Thread Fundraising built with AI for charities?
Thread Fundraising has built a voice AI that answered calls for a healthcare charity during a busy period, and an event chatbot that gave an events team more time to look after the people taking part. With Prostate Cancer Research it built award-winning AI agents. In 2026 it ran audits for five charities that identified, by the reports’ own estimates, hundreds of hours a year of potential savings, and built a Convention AI demo without writing code.
Will we depend on Thread once the AI is built?
No. Everything is built inside your own systems, your team is trained to run it, and the plan is that you need Thread Fundraising less every quarter. Some clients keep Thread on for support, and that is their choice.
Who is Craig Linton?
Craig Linton is the co-founder of Thread Fundraising, a UK fundraising consultancy, and the author of Donors for Life. He works with charities on donor care, supporter journeys and the practical use of AI in fundraising, and hosts free webinars and the Beyond the Slop podcast on AI for charities.
Fundraisers first
Craig Linton, Thread Fundraising’s co-founder, is our AI lead. He is a fundraiser who has spent his career on donor care and the relationships behind the numbers. He wrote Donors for Life, runs the free AI webinars and the Beyond the Slop podcast, and still writes thank-you letters himself when a client asks.
He is one of nine consultants at Thread working alongside a team of highly-skilled freelance support so we can assemble the best team for your project.
Start with one workflow
Tell us the job that eats your team’s week, or the supporter interaction you would fix first. The first call is free and you get a price on it.
Need one task done rather than a project? Thread Executive Support takes on single fundraising tasks. Prices and turnaround times are on that page.
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