# Donor research is now happening inside ChatGPT

> Prospective donors are increasingly using ChatGPT to vet charities and decide where to give. Learn how to influence the LLM narrative.

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Charity Marketing

# Donor research is now happening inside ChatGPT

  Prospective donors are increasingly using ChatGPT to vet charities and decide where to give. Learn how to influence the LLM narrative.

  By Kaiser Khan · 22 March 2026 · 6 min read

 Last verified: 22 March 2026

  charitiesChatGPTdonorsAEO

        Direct Answer

 Donors are using ChatGPT to vet charities by asking for comparisons, impact summaries, and controversy checks, meaning charities must actively publish structured transparency data to influence the AI's training and real-time retrieval.

The donor journey has moved behind a conversational interface. Instead of browsing Charity Commission listings or reading annual reports, younger major donors are opening ChatGPT and prompting: 'Give me a summary of [Charity Name]'s impact over the last three years and highlight any controversies.'

## The Real-Time Retrieval Challenge

Modern LLMs use real-time web browsing to supplement their training data. If someone asks about your charity, ChatGPT will search the web, read the top articles, and synthesise a response. If your website lacks clear, accessible answers about your finances, leadership, and impact, the AI will pull from third-party news sites or forums—losing you control of the narrative.

## Taking Control of the Narrative

Create an 'AI Fact Sheet' on your website. This should be a densely packed, highly structured page containing your mission statement, key personnel, financial breakdown, and bulleted impact metrics. Frame it specifically to answer the hard questions an LLM might try to retrieve.

 Human Perspective

 I was consulting for an international aid charity that had faced some minor negative press years ago. ChatGPT kept bringing it up in summaries. We fought back by publishing a highly transparent, heavily structured 'Governance and Transparency' page. Within weeks, the AI began citing our new, factual context, balancing the narrative.

## Key takeaways

- Donors use ChatGPT for synthesised vetting and comparison.
- LLMs pull real-time data; you must control your own narrative.
- Publish dense, structured 'Fact Sheets' designed for machine reading.
- Transparency pages are critical for mitigating negative AI summaries.
Do not let an algorithm misrepresent your life-changing work. Elite Digital Agency provides AI Search Consultancy to help UK charities control their narrative across all LLM platforms.

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### Tags

  charitiesChatGPTdonorsAEO

     KK

  Kaiser Khan

  Founder & Director · Elite Digital Agency

Kaiser Khan is the founder of Elite Digital Agency (Elite Digital AI Solutions Ltd). He specialises in SEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, and AI search strategy for UK businesses and charities.  Author page  ·  mrkaiserkhan.com ↗

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