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Think Tank / Philanthropy · Build
How a think tank ran its $50M fundraise without burning out a small team
A global think tank needed to raise $50M, run salons across three cities, and recruit fellows. The team was small. AI handled donor research, event logistics, and recruiting so people could focus on the decisions only humans can make.
The problem
A think tank was building fast. Americas, Europe, and Asia heads. Salons in Paris, London, and Napa. A $25M raise for the institute and $25M for a labs arm. Fellow recruiting on top. The development team was small. They needed leverage, not more headcount.
What we built
- Leadership walked out of the first session with a full picture of every bottleneck. We brought global team heads together and used AI live to map every donor pipeline, event flow, and recruiting touchpoint. One page of synthesis. A consulting firm would have taken six weeks to produce that.
- A development team of 3 now researches donors as fast as a team of 12. AI runs deep research on each prospect, including giving history, board seats, and connection paths, then drafts a one-page brief and suggests a cultivation sequence.
- Event invitations feel personal even at scale. AI drafts a custom invite for each guest, tracks RSVPs, and sends the host a morning briefing before each Paris, London, or Napa salon. It includes who every attendee is and who the host should talk to.
- Fellow candidates get screened against the institute's actual criteria, not just a job board search. AI reads public writing, checks ideological fit, and drafts outreach. The team decides who moves forward. AI removes the haystack.
- The principal gets a Sunday digest instead of late-night calls from three continents. AI collects each region's weekly progress and produces a single summary. Leadership stays informed without the overhead.