How AI Search Is Changing Donor Discovery for Nonprofits

Donors aren’t just searching for nonprofits anymore — they’re asking artificial intelligence (AI). That shift is already reshaping how nonprofits are discovered — and ultimately, which organizations donors choose to support.

Instead of clicking through search results, users are turning to tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews to get immediate answers about causes, organizations, and where to give. Increasingly, they are finding that information without ever visiting a nonprofit’s website.

During the session, “The AI Factor: How Donors Discover and Choose Nonprofits in the Age of Algorithms,” at the 2026 Nonprofit Fundraisers Symposium, speakers described how AI is transforming search into an answer engine — where visibility depends on being included in the response.

“The landscape is getting really messy,” Alisa Scharf, vice president of AI and innovation at Seer Interactive, said. 

“People don't have to click around and piece together information,” TJ Peeler, vice president of client strategy at AGP, added. “... People now expect one clean, credible, complete response.”

Visibility No Longer Means Website Traffic

One of the most immediate impacts of AI search is declining traffic from traditional search engines as users get answers directly within search results or AI tools without visiting a website. 

“SEO used to be about brand awareness …,” Peeler said. “Now this is really changing because it's less about page views as a measurement, and it's more about are you being pulled into AI and cited as a source of information?”

But that doesn’t necessarily mean nonprofits are losing engagement. Instead, the donor journey is shifting.

Early-stage discovery is increasingly happening inside AI platforms. By the time users reach a nonprofit’s website, they are further down the funnel and more likely to take action, Peeler said.

“So it may mean that you have the same impact,” Peeler said. “People at the awareness stage weren't converting a lot, but once they go further down the funnel, they're more likely to convert. And since that awareness traffic is moving to a different channel, your channel on the website is going to continue to convert more.”

Still, there is a tradeoff: If a nonprofit is not surfaced in those early AI-driven answers, it may never be part of a donor’s consideration.

“So the two most important things to know are: One, don't panic, and two, don't block AI from crawling your website,” Peeler said.

5 Steps to Position Your Nonprofit for AI Search

That shift in how trust is built doesn’t make search engine optimization irrelevant — but it does redefine its role.

Historically, nonprofit SEO focused on keywords, rankings, and driving traffic to specific pages. In an AI-driven environment, visibility depends less on ranking for a term and more on being recognized as a credible source.

As Scharf noted, search engines are sending far less traffic relative to the amount of content they index, with ratios worsening significantly in recent years. So, what does it take to stay visible — and credible — in an AI-driven search environment?

1. Audit How AI Describes Your Organization

Start by searching your nonprofit in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. What information appears? What sources are cited? How does it compare to peer organizations?

This exercise can reveal gaps, inaccuracies, or missing context that may affect how donors perceive your organization.

“The one thing everyone needs to make sure they do is go back and [search] themselves on ChatGPT and see what it says about you as an organization,” Peeler said. “What is it pulling from? What did it say that is surprising?”

2. Structure Content for AI, Not Just SEO

Unlike traditional search, AI tools don’t provide keyword data — making it harder to understand how users are discovering information.

“[Google's original search algorithm] made a little more sense to us,” Scharf said. “You can do a little more to optimize and figure out how it works, what the different elements are. That is not true in an AI search world.”

Seer Interactive found that brands cited in Google’s AI Overviews received 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than brands that were not cited. AI tools prioritize clarity, completeness, and credibility over traditional keyword signals. That means nonprofits need to create content that:

• Directly answers common questions.
• Clearly explains your mission and impact.
• Is regularly updated and backed by expertise.

The goal is no longer just to rank in search results — but to be understood, trusted, and cited within AI-generated answers.

Tools like SparkToro can help identify where audiences spend time, allowing organizations to focus their efforts rather than trying to be everywhere at once.

“You'd be surprised how much data they have,” Scharf said. “Sparktoro takes it, aggregates it so you can query it, and get insights relevant to your website.”

3. Build Authority Beyond Your Website

Being visible in AI search means showing up beyond your own website. AI systems also pull from third-party content, reviews, media coverage, and community discussions. If your organization isn’t showing up in those spaces, it’s less likely to be surfaced in AI-generated responses.

“It doesn't mean you have to be everywhere, but you do need to know where your audience is looking for information or looking for community — and being there,” Peeler said.

Scharf cautioned against overreacting to declining traffic by abandoning owned channels entirely.

“You're going to see less and less traffic over the next few years, and …  you're going to get those CEO messages saying, ‘Why do we even have a website anymore? Why don't we just go all in on Facebook?’ Do not do that. It's not a good idea.”

4. Align Your Brand Across Channels

Showing up isn’t enough — your message also needs to be consistent across all channels.

“If ChatGPT says something because it's pulling from reviews, and it's pulling from other sources of information, and they go to your website and see something else, that’s a lost trust moment,” Peeler said.

To avoid that, nonprofits should align how they describe their mission, impact, and programs across all channels. Clear, consistent narratives help reinforce credibility.

“What others say about you now matters more than what you say about yourself,” Scharf said.

5. Shift Metrics From Traffic to Action

As AI changes how users interact with search, traditional metrics like pageviews are becoming less meaningful. Seer Interactive found organic clickthrough rates fell 61% for queries with Google AI Overviews, while even queries without Google AI Overviews were down 41% year over year.

“This can feel like a real crisis, but it means that how people are using the internet generally is changing,” Peeler said. “And we have to adjust what we measure and how we optimize it.”

Instead of focusing on traffic volume, nonprofits should prioritize metrics that reflect impact, such as donations, email signups, volunteer conversions, and downloads.

“You still need volunteers. You still need donors. You still need people to take [action] on your website,” Scharf said. “But traffic is not the leading indicator that it once was.”

AI Search Is Reshaping How Donors Decide

AI is already shaping how donors discover nonprofits — and increasingly influencing how they decide where to give. Looking ahead, AI is likely to play an even larger role in that process. 

“Instead of people going to your website to make a donation, they ask ChatGPT to go donate to an organization on ovarian research — and it just goes and does the whole thing,” she said. “… You [as the donor] trust that ChatGPT can make that decision for you, which is wild.”

For nonprofits, that raises new questions about how much control they have over how their work is presented — and understood.

“It makes it hard to control the narrative,” Peeler said. “… [People] have access to so much more transparent information because brands aren’t totally in control of the narrative anymore.”