But with AI tools and savvy prompting, today, anyone can make a professional looking video. At least one that checks the boxes without breaking the bank. We take you through our end-to-end process in making one, learning as we go.

So you can recreate it.

Quick notes

-We’re not professional designers, video editors, coders, or content creators; just scrappy entrepreneurs and problem solvers with some marketing backgrounds.

-We probably could have followed better practices in creating more optimized prompts for AI, but what we did here worked for our purposes (and the 80-20 rule)

-Our workflow involved

• Using standard stock images and videos

  • Sourced from tools like Canva and Unsplash

• Using existing images and videos

  • Sourced from the organization we made the video for

• Generating new images with AI

  • Using ChatGPT/DALL-E

• Generating short video clips

  • Using tools like Runway ML and Google’s Veo

• Putting all of the pieces together with Capcut’s video editor

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Here’s the process Daniel from the Fundraising Dispatch team followed in order to develop this overview video for our friends at Global South:

1. I asked ChatGPT

I'm going to make a marketing / promotional video for one of the organizations I work with. What is the recommended process that video production companies / agencies follow? The idea is that they usually write a storyboard / script first right?

It gave me a full summary (redacted a little bit to keep things short here).

Yes — you’re absolutely right. The most effective marketing and promotional videos always follow a structured pre-production process before filming or editing starts. Agencies and production companies typically use a proven framework that helps ensure clarity, consistency, and results.

Here’s a recommended end-to-end process used by pros:

🎬 Professional Video Production Workflow

(For marketing/promo videos — adaptable for live-action or animated)

🧠 1. Discovery & Strategy | Goal: Understand the client, audience, and objective.

• What is the goal? (Brand awareness, product launch, conversions?)

• Who is the target audience?

• What platforms will the video appear on? (Instagram, YouTube, Website, etc.)

• What is the CTA (Call to Action)?

📄 Deliverable: Creative brief or strategy doc

✍️ 2. Scripting & Storyboarding | Goal: Plan the story, structure, and visuals before production.

Script Writing

• Written like a screenplay (voiceover + on-screen dialogue or titles)

• Include structure: Hook → Problem → Solution → CTA

Storyboarding

• Visual sketches or frames matching the script

• Helps pre-visualize scenes and transitions

• Can be done in Canva, Figma, Google Slides, or traditional sketch

📄 Deliverables: Final Script + Storyboard Deck

🎥 3. Pre-Production | Goal: Prepare everything needed before shooting or animation.

• Schedule shoot dates

• Scout locations / Confirm studio or remote assets

• Cast talent or record voiceover

• Gather branding assets (logos, fonts, colors)

• Plan B-roll, props, wardrobe, etc.

📄 Deliverables: Shot list, production schedule, asset checklist

🎬 4. Production (Filming or Asset Creation) | Goal: Capture or build the visuals.

• For live-action: Shoot according to script + storyboard

• For animation: Begin creating scenes/assets

• Record voiceover or sound bites

📄 Deliverable: Raw footage or animation scenes

🎞️ 5. Post-Production | Goal: Edit and finalize the video.

• Video editing (CapCut, Premiere Pro, Final Cut, etc.)

• Add text overlays, transitions, animations

• Sync with music or sound effects

• Apply brand look and feel

• Color correction, audio mixing

📄 Deliverables: Rough Cut → Final Cut → Final Delivery File

📤 6. Review, Feedback, and Export

2. So I started to put together my outline and the start of my script:

I knew I had to:

• Tell a story visually

• Introduce the problem (my compelling hook)

• Showcase the solution (why us, why now)

• Highlight the traction and impact

• Hit a CTA

3. That’s when I realized… I’m going to need to generate some images

Just like your deck outlines the problem you solve before crafting your “why us, why now,” a video, to capture your audience’s attention and pull on the right strings should do the same.

Rightfully so, the majority of the visuals readily available from the organization focused on their solutions and the success of their work and farmers, not the broken system they’re trying to fix.

To tell a complete story, I needed “footage” that further illustrated the challenges. Rather than having the organization stage or recreate them… I knew that existing stock photos/videos combined with some creative uses of AI could help showcase the story behind their impact and the need for their powerful solution.

So I went back to ChatGPT:

Act as an expert video storyteller and AI prompt generator. What are good prompts I can use to feed back to you, ChatGPT, to generate images I can later use to generate videos for b roll in a video project to support my client who works in combating food waste in agriculture.

GPT:

Absolutely — here’s a full guide to help you generate AI images for B-roll using prompts that support your client’s mission of combating food waste in agriculture.

These prompts are designed for tools like DALL·E, Midjourney, Runway, or Pika, and work great for creating visuals you can stitch into animated or narrated video content.

🎬📷 AI Image Prompt Themes for B-Roll on Agricultural Food Waste

🧺 1. Wasted Harvest / Spoilage

Great for emphasizing the problem visually.

Prompt: "Rotting tomatoes and spoiled vegetables scattered on a dirt farm path, flies buzzing, overripe produce discarded after harvest — cinematic natural lighting, rural background"

Variation: "Mounds of uneaten bananas turning black in a rural African market, shot from above, environmental documentary style"

🏚 2. Inefficient Storage Systems

Shows what leads to post-harvest loss.

Prompt: "Leaking wooden grain silo in a rural African village, spilling maize onto the ground — overcast skies, photojournalistic realism"

🌽 3. Surplus / Overproduction Without Buyers

Highlights the paradox of abundance and loss.

Prompt: "Overflowing crates of unsold tomatoes in a rural marketplace, no customers in sight, golden hour lighting, empty atmosphere"

🧑🏽‍🌾 4. Farmers Experiencing Loss

💡 5. The Opportunity: Solutions / Innovation

Prompt: "Cold storage solar-powered container in the middle of a rural farmland, young farmers unloading crates of fresh produce, success scene"

🚜 6. Logistics / Transportation Challenges

🌱 7. Before/After Contrasts

🎥 Recommendations for Use in B-Roll

• Style: Use “cinematic lighting,” “documentary realism,” or “shallow depth of field” for more natural footage-like appearance.

• Color: Stick with natural lighting and earth tones for an authentic feel.

• Aspect Ratio: Generate at 16:9 (landscape) to save editing time later.

4. But I’ve seen this before. I needed better prompts to get better outputs/results

Me:

I really like your first four prompts. Should you expand on them with more detail to be able to generate great images that I can use later for videos?

GPT:

🧺 1. Wasted Harvest / Spoilage

🎯 Theme: Problem → Visual shock → Emotional impact 🎨 Master Prompt:

“Rotting vegetables and overripe fruit scattered across a dirt farm path, including spoiled tomatoes, wilting lettuce, moldy cucumbers, and squashed mangoes. Flies hover in the warm air. The background shows an abandoned crate tipped on its side, empty farmland behind. Early morning golden hour light, cinematic realism, wide shot with shallow depth of field, dusty rural environment, documentary-style composition.”

🔄 Variations:

• Add: “close-up of a single rotting tomato covered in white mold, soft focus”

• Add: “half-covered by plastic tarp, partially sun-dried, decomposing in layers”

• Swap lighting to: “harsh midday sun casting dry shadows”

• Replace environment: “in a rural open-air market stall, empty of customers”

🏚 2. Inefficient Storage Systems

🎯 Theme: Systemic failure → Infrastructure gaps 🎨 Master Prompt:

“A dilapidated wooden grain storage structure in a Sub-Saharan farming village. Sacks of maize spill from torn burlap bags, some visibly moldy. The floor is dusty, cracked. A rusted tin roof lets in beams of sun through holes. The image captures ambient neglect and fragility. Shot from a low angle, late afternoon light, handheld-style framing with cinematic grain, muted earth tones.”

🔄 Variations:

• Add: “banana bunches ripening too quickly, black spots spreading, no refrigeration”

• Swap crop: “sacks of cowpeas or millet rotting from bottom up”

• Add character: “young farmer inspecting damage with a worried expression”

🌽 3. Surplus / Overproduction Without Buyers

🎯 Theme: Ironic abundance → Economic disconnect 🎨 Master Prompt:

“Dozens of overflowing wooden crates filled with freshly harvested but unsold tomatoes stacked in a rural roadside market. No customers in sight. Some tomatoes are bruised or beginning to rot. Flies gather on the surface. A bored vendor slouches in the background, fanning themself in the heat. Shot from above and slightly to the side, natural light filtering through makeshift tarps, rich red and green colors against dusty browns. Cinematic realism, photojournalistic tone.”

🧑🏽‍🌾 4. Farmers Experiencing Loss

🎯 Theme: Human impact → Emotional weight → Personalize the issue 🎨 Master Prompt:

“A smallholder African farmer, mid-40s, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and worn shirt, sits beside several sacks of spoiled maize and wilted greens. The farmer is hunched forward, hands covering face in frustration. Behind him, empty market stalls suggest low demand. A faded signboard hangs overhead. Golden hour lighting from the side casts long shadows, capturing the emotion of quiet despair. Shallow depth of field, neutral color palette, editorial photojournalism look.”

🔄 Variations:

• Change emotion: “instead of frustration, show exhausted determination — wiping sweat from brow”

• Add community: “two farmers talking quietly, holding spoiled crops between them”

• Gender variation: “female farmer with child on back, sorting through spoiled produce”

🧠 Expert Tips for Visual Consistency (for later video use)

• Use consistent lighting cues: e.g. always "golden hour," "documentary realism"

• Keep camera perspective in mind: vary between wide shots, medium scenes, and close-ups

• For each of these prompts, try generating 4–6 angles (establishing, human-focused, detail/macro, reaction)

Side note: we share more on effective prompt writing

Here:

And here:

5. Then I plugged each prompt one by one into GPT’s image generator

And the output… I could work with.

So I kept going. Asking ChatGPT to coach me into giving it prompts for optimized pictures… based on the story I wanted to tell:

Now how about some prompts to showcase the actual land and produce growing. This will serve as b roll to support the claim: “In Kenya, potato (the country’s second most important food crop - after maize) yield has fallen from 21 tonnes per hectare in 2008, to 8 T/ha today. A reduction of more than 60%.”

And the result:

Now, I had enough to start the process of making a video. I knew the tool to use but I didn’t have the skills to use it correctly.

6. So I had Chat GPT help with me prompts to (now) turn those images into B ROLL video clips.

Me:

Ok. Now. Continue your role as an expert video storyteller, editor, and AI video generation specialist. What prompt do I need to feed into Runway ML (alongside these images) to generate effective B ROLL for my purposes?

GPT:

Absolutely — now that you've got these powerful stills capturing food loss, drought, and smallholder farming challenges, the key to using Runway ML (or similar video-generation tools like Pika or Sora) is prompt precision.

Here’s how to craft Runway-ready prompts that turn your images into smooth, cinematic B-roll that supports your food waste in agriculture story:

🎬✅ GENERAL STRUCTURE FOR RUNWAY B-ROLL PROMPTS

Format: [Subject] performing [Action] in [Setting], captured with [Camera Style] and [Mood]

🔑 KEYWORDS TO INCLUDE IN RUNWAY PROMPTS

ElementExample KeywordsSubject“Kenyan farmer”, “rotting potatoes”, “stacked crates of produce”Action“inspecting spoiled crops”, “walking along cracked field”, “looking over produce”Setting“dusty farm road”, “rural marketplace”, “potato field in drought”Camera Style“cinematic drone shot”, “handheld close-up”, “shallow depth of field”Mood/Tone“documentary-style”, “quiet despair”, “warm natural light”

🔁 EXAMPLES BASED ON YOUR IMAGES

🧺 1. Rotting vegetables on farm road

Prompt: “Rotting tomatoes and spoiled vegetables scattered along a dusty Kenyan farm path, flies buzzing around, wooden crates tipped over in the background, golden hour light, handheld camera, cinematic realism, slow pan across produce”

🏚 2. Dilapidated grain storage

Prompt: “Inside a rural Kenyan grain shed with torn sacks of maize spilling onto the floor, mold visible, sunbeams shining through holes in the roof, slow zoom-in, documentary realism, muted earth tones, handheld film grain”

🧑🏽‍🌾 3. Farmer facing crop failure

Prompt: “African smallholder farmer stands in cracked potato field, hands on hips, surveying wilted plants, distant haze, dry air, cinematic drone pullback, warm but desaturated tones, tense emotional atmosphere”

🥔 4. Low-yield harvest

Prompt: “Close-up of African farmer holding small, underdeveloped potatoes in gloved hands, soil-dusted and dry, soft light, shallow depth of field, emotional focus on the fragility of the crop, film-style realism”

🧴 5. Marketplace with no customers

Prompt: “Open-air rural market in Kenya with unsold vegetables, vendor fanning herself in the heat, stacked crates of produce starting to spoil, wide-angle lens, natural overhead lighting through tarp, slow camera drift, subdued tension”

🎞️ BONUS: FOR USE WITH IMAGE-TO-VIDEO IN RUNWAY

If you're using image-to-video mode:

• Attach the still (e.g. discarded potatoes, wilted field)

• Use the exact prompt as written above

• Consider adding:
  "slight wind movement", "natural camera shake", "flies buzzing", "sunlight flicker" — to increase realism

🧠 Pro Tips:

• Keep prompts under ~50 words

• Use documentary-style and real-world lighting cues

• Add “slow camera movement” for emotional pacing

• For post-harvest scenes, “flies buzzing”, “decay slowly spreading”, and “sunlight flickering through dust” work great

Want me to format these into a Runway-ready storyboard prompt sheet, or generate preview videos next using these prompt structures?

And here’s where I realized I made my first big mistake

My image was getting cut off before I could use it to create a video output in my intended format.

7. I had to go back to Chat GPT to make sure the images it gave me were in the right format 16:9, (1920 x 1080)

A quick fix. But I needed to do it for most of the images it had generated for me.

8. Now I was ready plug my optimized prompts into RunwayML (the video generation tool)

And here’s what I got.

*Note, I downloaded each output, spliced them together, and sped up each clip for the sake of this post (and your attention).

The results were pretty good… right? Minus this weird, random (I guess) bike…? That Runway decided was necessary in my video.

(It didn’t even have pedals…)

Well maybe their next video generation model will improve on this. 🤷‍♂️

9. So I obviously did some prompt refining and generated multiple outputs when I wasn’t happy with the results

And I kept moving along between ChatGPT and Runway.

• Hey GPT: Help me make a prompt to generate an image to convey this idea.

• Hey GPT: Ok; use said prompt to generate the image (16:9 Ratio please!)

• Hey GPT: Great! now help me with a prompt to make the magic happen with Runway ML for this image. The prompt should be optimized for taking those images and putting them through (alongside the prompt) to Runway ML for the purpose of generating B - Roll for the 16:9 resolution promotional video.

• Daniel: [Download the image]

• Daniel: [Upload to Runway ML]

• Daniel: [Paste the Prompt]

• Hey Runway ML: Generate!

• Daniel: [Enjoy Results]

• Daniel: [Rinse and repeat - making any necessary edits]

Turning

• Ideas into Prompts

• Prompts into Images (and more prompts)

• Images into Videos

10. I addressed some hiccups along the way

Was I being too mean to Chat GPT? I mean… I said… please.

11. And I repeated the whole process also using the organization’s assets and existing stock photos and videos

I.E.

• I downloaded the organization’s images from their farms, labs, & cold storage facilities

• I searched Google for more ideas and inspiration

• And asked GPT to work its magic to help me with prompts for Runway.

  

• Then, as I did before, I used Runway ML to create short 5 - 10 second video clips based on these images and prompts

With the results looking like these short clips (made into gifs for the purpose of this post):

• And I found and downloaded other relevant stock videos (for B roll) on Canva and Unsplash

12. Before finally… plugging everything into Capcut, following my script, and putting my video editing “cap” on.

And after some trial and error (let’s say 6 hours)… this was the final result!

See how Global South’s mission to reduce food waste and increase potato farmer income in Kenya was showcased in a video made with the help of AI.

That’s a wrap!

The entire process here took a fair amount of time, a lot of prompts, and plenty of trial and error, but resulted in a promotional video that would’ve otherwise cost thousands of dollars to contract.

The real lesson here:

You don’t need to be a designer, an editor, or a filmmaker to create powerful marketing assets anymore. You don’t need a studio. You don’t need a creative agency. You don’t need a production team.

You just need time, the willingness to experiment, a story to tell and the right AI tools in your stack.

The tools aren’t perfect. The outputs aren’t perfect. But they can be used for a cost-effective way to help your mission-driven organizations show funders and prospective customers/project partners what you do and why your work is necessary.

Want all of the above in a more direct step-by-step guide you can use to make your own marketing assets and promo video?

Paid subscribers will find a link to a document below.

Subscribe now

Stay tuned for more walkthroughs, tutorials, and behind-the-scenes looks into building with AI.

Read more

That’ll show you our first set of ChatGPT hacks/tips/tricks/quick wins.

Let’s start easy before we show you how to dominate prompts, generate compelling images/videos, plan content posting calendars, build entire marketing playbooks, and so many more ways to help you automate, fundraise, sell, and scale with AI.

Part 1 got our toes wet:

1. Digitizing handwritten notes

2. Setting calendar events

3. Reading and reacting to screenshots

4. Summarizing / analyzing PDFs (and other) files

5. Finding the right tool/software/solution for you

Part 2 dives deeper:

6. Reacting to pictures

7. Learning to use new tools/software effectively

8. Optimizing prompts

9. Using ChatGPT for lead gen

10. Using ChatGPT for lead enrichment, data entry, and qualification*

*the star of the show

6. Reacting to pictures

So our previous post goes into how ChatGPT can react to your handwritten notes and screenshots. I.E. images. Here are some other use cases for this.

Example 1: What’s happening here?

At Fundraising Dispatch, we know marketing. We know B2B sales. We know about optimizing business operations. We know about cold outreach to funders. But we’ll be the first to admit that we don’t know a lot about sustainable agriculture.

Lucky for us, we have a personalized encyclopedia at our fingertips.

Example 2: “Hey ChatGPT, what’s that cool thing over there?” or “What is this that I’m looking at?”

Example 3: “Make a prompt for this photo to upload into an AI video editor”

We’ve got a whole post/walkthrough (coming soon) about the best AI tools for image/video and how to use them to create a polished promo video for your organization. Make sure you’re ready for it.

Subscribe now

Want a sneak peak?

See how Global South’s work to reduce food waste and increase potato farmer income in Kenya was showcased in a video we made with the help of AI tools.

Here are more things you can do when you give ChatGPT your images:

• Upload your logo (or draft of it) and have GPT isolate, recolor, or refine elements.

• Take a picture of a billboard, poster, community board… etc and ask GPT to pull out contact info, deadlines, or any text for digital use.

• Upload a cool photo or design you saw on the street (like packaging or wall art) and ask GPT to describe the color palette, fonts, and mood and then turn that into inspiration for your own brand kit.

• Give GPT an image from your site visit or event and ask it to make it into a social media post or to integrate it in your next investor update newsletter.

• Same as the above with your own physical product - start there and let ChatGPT give you endless marketing assets.

• Looking at something cool in another language? Take a picture of it and ask for the translation.

7. Learning to use new tools/software effectively

Here is a basic example of us starting to learn to use Make.com.

And when we wanted to save time clicking around in a new client’s ESP (email service provider).

Or get Daniel’s phone ready for a photoshoot.

No more YouTube video tutorials on a new tool. Just our GPT tutor. More use cases:

• How do I set up Slack channels so my marketing, sales, and ops teams stay organized without pinging everyone for everything?

• Walk me through how to create a LinkedIn banner in Canva with my logo in the top right and text that’s legible on both desktop and mobile.

• I want to update my ecommerce store’s product images in bulk without breaking my SEO.

• IN Google Forms how do I add conditional questions so that only respondents who answer ‘Yes’ to Question 3 see Questions 4–6?

8. Using ChatGPT as your prompt optimizer

Here is Daniel playing around with an early Vibe coding tool.

It works great for generating prompts to then generate images or videos too.

In summary - before giving ChatGPT any prompt

• Tell it the outcome and output you want

• Be specific with your parameters and intention

• Give it the prompt you have drafted

• Ask it to refine and optimize

Premium Subscribers, catch an extra exclusive prompt optimizing tool below

Subscribe now

9. Using ChatGPT for your lead gen &

10. Using ChatGPT for your lead enrichment

At least from our perspective, one of AI’s largest impact in day-to-day business operations is in B2B sales and marketing. ChatGPT can help you find and learn more about target customers, channel partners, and customers.

Though the more specific your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is, the more difficult it is for ChatGPT to generate quality leads for you.

The real gold mine in leveraging GPT in your sales is in lead enrichment. I.E. giving it a list of target orgs you have already identified (or acquired elsewhere) that you want to learn more about and qualify for your sales / fundraising efforts.

Below, premium subscribers will see an end-to-end walkthrough on:

Lead Gen

• ChatGPT’s 2023 attempt to generate valid leads

  • It failed

• ChatGPT’s 2025 attempt to generate valid leads

  • It took some trial and error, back and forth feedback, and opening up the ICP… but we finally got 15 super specific organizations to target into a clean spreadsheet format with valid data:
    
    ORG INFO: Name, Summary, Website, Number of Employees, Annual Revenue, Country of Registration, General Email, Year Founded
    
    C-SUITE INFO: First Name, Last Name, Job Title, LinkedIn Link

Lead Enrichment

• The prompts we fed ChatGPT to get the exact information we wanted on potential investors in African social enterprises:

  • About / Funding Thesis

    Website

    Sectors

    Investment Type

    Geography Requirement

    African SMEs in Portfolio

    Ticket Size

    Unique Criteria

    Contact Email

    Key Investor (Partner, Principal, CIOs etc) Name & Title

    LinkedIn links (Valid Only)

• And how we ended up with a clean list to then leverage in our outreach based on client SME sector, stage, and geography.

Do you have a list of funders or potential customers (that you maybe got off of Crunchbase, the Africa Big Deal Database, Apollo.io, a LinkedIn influencer’s post, etc.) and want to isolate who is relevant to you?

Or maybe you just want to save yourself and your team time by leveraging Grant & Co’s database of 3000+ social impact funders and proven outreach processes to sit back and line up pitch meetings with qualified grantors and investors without lifting a finger?

Get in touch with daniel@thegrant.co.

Otherwise, read on for more on using ChatGPT to find and qualify new potential customers and/or funders.

Read more

Your best funder is your customer.

Your best ticket to fundraise effectively?

A lean team (equipped with the tools and skills to succeed), slow burn, automation, and prospective customers knocking on your door.

The vehicle that propels you and your organization forward in 2025:

AI is here to stay. Like the internet in the 90’s.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a founder of a multi-million dollar company, starting your own impact fund, a nonprofit leader, copywriter, marketing intern, an entrepreneur building side hustles, or anything in between… effectively leveraging AI in your and your team’s day-to-day operations will help you work faster and smarter.

It will help you scale and will help make you more attractive to funders. It will help you find them and communicate with them.

There are so many powerful new tools available to organizations, but most of us still just use ChatGPT as the new Google search.

AI can be overwhelming.

That’s why we’re launching a new initiative to provide our subscribers (you) with exclusive step-by-step AI walkthroughs, optimized prompts, business use cases you can follow along and replicate, and behind-the-scenes looks at building businesses with, not only AI, but AI-powered SaaS, creative tools, and AI agents.

You’ve trusted us to bring you new grants, fundraising tactics, and B2B sales strategies that work. Now we’re pulling back the curtain on how we use AI to do it faster and at scale.

Register as a “+AI Tutorials Subscriber” to catch every guide & insight. Click here.

The best place to start:

What’s coming next?

• Great, easy ways to use Chat GPT (or your favorite LLM). Part 2.

• The best image and video generators out there

  • And how to use them to get the results you’re looking for

• Creating an entire promotional video with AI

• The most cost effective AI tools

  • What gives you the best bang for your buck

• ElevenLabs: What its for and how to use it

• Make.com: What its for and how to use it

• Vibe Coding: End to end walkthroughs turning ideas into Apps

• How AI runs entire social media accounts while you sleep

• Leveraging AI your lead gen

• Leveraging AI in your pipeline management

• Creating an AI influencer/training instructor

• Connecting AI tools together

• And more!

All on top of building automations and AI agents to do all of the above and otherwise ignite social enterprises and impact missions in 2025!

You’ll follow along and learn alongside us as we use AI to build new and scale existing businesses. Maybe an EdTech platform, AI UGC social media accounts, fully automated sales outreach, marketing agencies, vibe coded SaaS platforms, consultancies - the sky’s the limit!

This isn’t a pile of “cool AI tricks” you could get from YouTube. It’s our actual playbook… the prompts, workflows, and tool stacks we use inside our own operations, with the missteps, tweaks, and wins for you to see.

Our hope is that our tutorials will help you replicate and champion similar projects in your own entrepreneurial and/or social impact journey.

And that you’ll use them to train your teams and add value to your network.

Share Fundraising Dispatch: Guides, Tips/Tricks, New Grants

So what now?

Start with:

Where you’ll learn how (and why) to use your favorite LLM to

1. Digitize handwritten notes

2. Set calendar events

3. Read and react to screenshots

4. Summarize / analyze PDFs (and other) files

5. Find the right tool/software/solution for you

Jump right in

And keep an eye in your inbox for more from Fundraising Dispatch: Building with AI.

Make sure you don’t miss a thing.

Subscribe now

And yes… posts on new grants and fundraising resources aren’t going anywhere!

“Building with AI” is just another layer to help you operate faster, scale bigger, and fund more of the work you care about.

Catch our latest posts on all things fundraising:

Coming soon:

Your funder "pitch" call is 45 minutes max. Here's how to make the most of it.

• More than 75 examples of questions you should be asking your potential funders when you pitch

5 more great, easy ways to use ChatGPT in your day-to-day (Part 2)

1. Reacting to pictures

2. Learning to use new tools/software effectively

3. Optimizing prompts

4. Using Chat GPT for lead gen

5. Using Chat GPT for lead enrichment/data entry*

*The gamechanger

But it made mistakes. It couldn’t search the web. It couldn’t read screenshots. It couldn’t integrate into existing systems.

They wanted our team(s) to integrate it into every aspect of our work. I found that trying to use it effectively ended up taking EVEN MORE of my time. It wasn’t worth it. One more: “As of my last update in January 2022, I don't…” and I would have lost it!

That is no longer the case.

Today, there are thousands upon thousands of new AI tools, more popping up every day. There are also thousands of AI guides, gurus, and others trying to sell you their “proven systems”.

Here at Fundraising Dispatch… we just want to help show you different ways we use AI in our businesses (both those already existing and newly launching) and our day-to-day. Hopefully this can help you and your team/org/fund/portfolio/grantee optimize operations, find and secure new customers, and, ultimately, make fundraising and scaling your organization easier.

Follow along on our journey by becoming a “+AI Tutorials Subscriber”.

Subscribe now

Psst… no time for the full tutorial and commentary below? (Though I’d recommend reading the full walkthrough). Catch the summary here.

Without further ado.

5 great and easy ways to use ChatGPT in your day to day.

Are there thousands (if not more) of great ChatGPT hacks/tips/tricks/quick wins out there? Of course!

Are there things I’ve (Daniel) probably missed even in showcasing these? Of course!

Are there likely more efficient solutions to processes I took? Of course!

These are just 5 everyday things I do with ChatGPT that I thought the world should know about. Nothing too fancy or technical (yet) - just basic stuff that worked.

1. Digitizing handwritten notes

2. Setting calendar events

3. Reading and reacting to screenshots

4. Summarizing / analyzing PDFs (and other) files

5. Finding the right tool/software/solution for you

Some background before we jump in

I don’t know how to code, I mean, maybe some basics here and there…

But I have cursory knowledge on how some technical things work and I like to figure shit out. So some of the screenshots below will take you through my trial and error.

You might not get the full context but that’s ok. I plan to have more in depth posts, examples, walkthroughs, and tutorials on these use cases in-action later. And if you are super technical… this might seem really basic to you.

But ultimately, I think at least one of these Chat CPT hacks will save you time, energy, and sanity.

We’ll talk all about automations, agents, AI in marketing, and more in future posts.

For now, let’s just start with some basics you should be using ChatGPT for.

1. Digitizing handwritten notes

Call me old school. (Or just old). But there’s something about a pen & paper that a phone or laptop just can’t match.

• It looks rude if you take your phone out during a meeting (even if you preempt your colleagues that you’re not texting, you’re just taking notes).

• Some people get queasy looking at screens when they are in a vehicle.

• My laptop battery is completely shot. I can’t use it unless it’s plugged in (and I’m prone to forget my charger).

But more importantly…

• If you work in the field, you don’t always have the ability to access a (charged) digital device or reliable Wi-Fi.

• I don’t know about you… but I retain information better when I see it in my own handwriting. And sketches, diagrams, and mind maps don’t translate well to keyboard. (Yet?)

• Some of my best thinking happens away from my devices at odd hours (any night owls here?) or in random encounters over coffee/beer with a friend.

But once you fill up your notebook… what then?

Are you really going to transcribe all of the information you need to put on a Google Doc or in an email later? Does it become a project for your EA or intern? Are you going to pay your little cousin to type it out?

• Example 1: Transcribing my chicken scratches

Granted… I didn’t give ChatGPT a lot of good material to work with. And I’m sure it now understands the pain that all of my high school teachers felt having me as a student (I know I sure do now).

But the results were pretty good!

• Example 2: Transcribing my to-do list

But when I actually took good notes. The results were flawless.

Think about everything you can do with this! The use cases are almost endless.

• Combine and circulate your and your team’s handwritten notes from a meeting

• Turn field notes into reports, grant narratives, or customer insights

• Clean up brainstorming scribbles into structured strategy docs

• Transcribe feedback (surveys) collected offline (e.g. from a workshop, focus group)

• Digitize flip-chart notes from a team offsite: draft proposals, memos, or entire decks just from ideas on whiteboards

• Capture handwritten margin notes on financial reports or transcribe physical contract markups into review-ready bullet points

• Turn deal notes from in-person meetings into CRM updates and next steps

• Capture questions/objections jotted during discovery calls into training material

• Whatever your heart (and pen and paper and I guess your phone camera) desires!

Let’s take the handwritten to-do list concept further.

2. Setting calendar events

Continuing my example above…

So I thought ChatGPT could do it directly based on being connected to my Google account. Turns out that wasn’t the case (but I do think Claude has this feature).

Another item to add to my Make.Com automation to-do list (and to tell you about later). But for now, let’s keep things simple.

I asked it to manually create the files.

And with Outlook… it was as easy as double clicking the file

With Gmail… not as easy, but I just asked ChatGPT to help:

It worked.

Would it have been faster to set up three separate invites for myself in my calendar? I honestly don’t think so.

And especially not when I want to do all these kinds things without clicking a million different things in my Google Calendar:

• Block off Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00 -2:00 pm from now until end of September for Fundraising Dispatch deep work

• Block off travel days based on this list of upcoming work trips

• Pre-load reminders for grant/reporting deadlines from a spreadsheet

• Add national holidays as all-day events

• Pre-schedule reminder blocks 2 days before each team member’s birthday

• Create alternating week schedules (e.g., Week A: internal standup / Week B: 1:1s)

• Load all team-wide events into .ics for quick internal distribution

HEADS UP!

I went on to ask GPT if it can send actual meeting invites (to others) this way. It can’t.

👉 .ics files are best for blocking time or importing events for yourself. For invite-based meetings, it's best to use Google Calendar directly or an integration like Make.com.

But hey. I like the idea of being able to set events for myself just by chatting, downloading, and uploading (and never again having to play the time zone game).

I’m excited to build the (future) automation to do it even better and faster. And to show you, too, of course!

3. Reacting to screenshots

So it’s pretty clear above that I took a picture of my hand written notes and gave it to ChatGPT to work some magic with it.

Here’s the real game changer.

And it’s been available since GPT’s “4o release in May 2024.”

Example 1: Learning a new tool step-by-step

While I was building my first automation in Make.Com, I’d literally check in with ChatGPT every step of the way. I wanted to understand not only how to get the result I wanted, but what different inputs meant. And I could do it all just by snipping in what I was seeing.

Example 2: Fixing problems

Without a deep technical background… I wouldn’t have even known where to begin. Wait around for Make’s customer support? Scour Reddit chains? Bother my friends in India?

Here are more useful ways to feed ChatGPT your screenshots:

• I take thousands of screenshots from social media posts all of the time. I can have GPT do things like, transcribe the text, organize the names of all of the creators in a spreadsheet, interpret the tool people are talking about (behind their lead magnet paywall) and more much.

• Screenshot your Monday.com, Trello, or Asana board; GPT can extract action items, group them, and even draft a status update email.

• Some webpages only show certain content when you hover over something (i.e. you can’t copy and paste it) but a screenshot + ChatGPT solves that problem!

• Mobile apps, backend panels, or CRM tools might not let you copy and paste drop down menus or export settings but you can screenshot them. GPT can then explain what each toggle does or help you choose the right config.

• Give ChatGPT a graph or an analytics dashboard from a deck!

• Caught a rendering issue in your website or app? Want to translate elements of your UI easily without going into Figma or wherever your copy lives?

Your ChatGPT has a fever. And the only prescription… is more screenshots.

Quick break for comedy… who remembers this gem? Did this clip make it outside of the U.S.? If you can’t see it, try searching “More Cowbell SNL” on Google.

4. Summarize/Analyze PDFs (and other) files

But why stop at screenshots when you can feed GPT entire files?

When I first tried… I had to be sure it wasn’t making stuff up (as it tends to do).

Now I was ready for summaries.

I even asked GPT to give me a summary of section one of this specific post, using it to help me build off it.

But why stop at a file when you can feed GPT your whole workspace?

ChatGPT’s got a fever… remember?

When you connect ChatGPT to your Google Drive or other tools/file repositories… you can have it reference your entire library in your prompts.

We’ll show you how to connect, optimize your folder structure and take advantage of having GPT behind the scenes, later. Just be careful with your sensitive data!

5. Finding the right tool/software/solution for you

• Example 1: When ChatGPT helped me save ~$180 a year

I’ve always used Godaddy.com to buy domains and build and launch websites. Sure, tools like Squarespace and WordPress are all around better… more customizable, more integrate-able, more optimized for SEO, etc. But Godaddy was cheap(er) and easy(er).

I didn’t want to spend more $$$ than I had to, and more time learning how to use a new tool. I just wanted to get something live and running I could show to potential new clients. Once I had regular revenue coming in, I could upgrade.

So I built basic websites like Nativos.Us and KungFuPiano.com. They did the trick.

But today I have a million different ideas for websites and businesses all leveraging automation and AI. I don’t want to spend $120 today or $17 a month to just have a hosted and functioning website.

ChatGPT helped me find Caard.co for $19 a year.

I started with:

“Godaddy will cost me $200 a year for a basic website. I need something cheaper. Can I use a custom domain to a linktree site?”

And I did a deep dive on all of the options it gave me. Caard was the best short term solution for what I wanted today.

Imagine trying to search for this on Google… I’d have spent hours upon hours.

• Example 2: When ChatGPT gave me a better solution I didn’t even ask for.

And now I use it each and every day. And BONUS I even learned a new cool trick while writing this post.

See here.

• Example 3: Finding the best video generation tool

I tried a few. Some worked better than others. I’ll share more soon.

Bonus: Generating Images

Did you like my corny cowbell joke above? I think ChatGPT did too.

That’s a wrap!

Woof! That was a long one. We’re obviously still trying to figure out the best way to get you all of this powerful information in a way that’s readable and palpable. Not sure copy-pasting my ChatGPT threads into Word docs and screenshotting them is the way forward. Maybe video tutorials?

Maybe… I’ll just ask ChatGPT. 🤣🤣

Have any feedback you’d like to share? Or would you like to just kick around some ideas about Building with AI?

Part 2 Coming Soon!

6. Reacting to pictures

7. Learning to use new tools/software effectively

8. Optimizing prompts

9. Using ChatGPT for lead gen

10. Using ChatGPT for lead enrichment/data entry*

*The star of the show

Heads up. We’ll keep this free for now.

But eventually, Building With AI content will be reserved for our “+AI Tutorials Subscribers.”

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P.S. This was funny

P.P.S. The Fundraising Dispatch team can make mistakes. Check important info. 😁