Can a small, budget-conscious prospect development shop build its own secure AI tool? In the latest issue of Connections, Nikolai Shchelkov, MSIS, MBA, shares how he designed and tested a secure, offline agentic AI prototype at Eastern New Mexico University. Running entirely on a single laptop with zero budget, this tool allows researchers to ask natural-language questions of their donor giving history and get immediate, calculated results without risking sensitive constituent data.
Get ready to enhance your prospect management at Plug In to Pipelines, a virtual two-day conference held June 2-3. This event dives into sophisticated metrics, AI-driven health assessments, and strategies for building the next generation of major gift pipelines. Whether you are a solo practitioner or part of a large team, you will gain actionable insights on tracking portfolio movement and maximizing limited resources from experts across the sector.
In part two of this series on adopting new technologies, we dive into a realistic scenario that explores how cross-functional teams can effectively vet tools such as LLMs and Generative AI. Following a university director’s journey to investigate AI’s benefits and risks, the article highlights the necessity of a formal team charter and executive buy-in. By leveraging diverse expertise—from engineering to industrial process modeling—the team identifies critical risks, such as "hallucinations," that could impact donor relations. Ultimately, the story demonstrates how disciplined, collaborative research leads to strategic recommendations that prioritize institutional reputation over media hype.