On Tuesday 3 March, we were delighted to host The Connected Nonprofit: Connecting Fundraising, Finance and Mission with AI, delivered with one of our partners Pragmatiq.

The 45-minute session brought together expertise from across fundraising and finance, combining insight, live demonstrations and practical discussion around how AI, powered by Microsoft Copilot, is transforming nonprofit operations across Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and the wider Microsoft ecosystem.

Our own, Matthew, led the finance discussion, drawing on more than 20 years in the Dynamics channel and multiple successful implementations with charities and not-for-profit organisations – including the Samaritans, hospices and membership bodies such as Buckinghamshire Business First. He was joined by Curt, Sales Director at Pragmatiq, and Simon, Pre-Sales Solution Architect at Pragmatiq, who led the fundraising demonstrations.

Connecting Fundraising and Finance - Why It Matters

Curt opened the session by outlining the pressures nonprofits face: rising demand, increased scrutiny from trustees and funders, and the need to achieve more with limited resources.

From our experience at Creative, Matt emphasised a common issue - fragmented systems. Fundraising teams often manage campaigns and donors in one platform, while finance teams operate separately in accounting software. Data is exported, rekeyed and manually reconciled, creating inefficiencies and risk.

As Matt explained during the session:

“The alternative is disparate systems, disparate data, and reporting not in a timely fashion. Having everything across one platform really allows you to drive all that connected data - and the whole Copilot stream that comes across all of the platform as well.”

The Microsoft platform addresses this by giving fundraising and finance teams interfaces tailored to their roles - but underpinned by a shared data foundation. Fundraisers use a CRM designed for engagement. Finance teams work in a finance-first system. The data behind both is the same.

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From Proposal to Donation: Fundraising in Action

Simon demonstrated how fundraising is managed end-to-end within Dynamics 365 using Pragmatiq’s Fundraising Accelerator. Campaigns, appeals, funds and proposals sit within a clear structure, enabling charities to forecast income and manage donor relationships strategically.

He walked through a live corporate proposal to Bright Nail Limited - £4,230 linked to a Winter 2025 campaign and a corporate appeal. The proposal followed defined stages, tracking the ask, timeline and expected income against a specific fund.

Donor commitments were shown alongside proposals for individual givers. A key feature was the ability to split a single gift across restricted and unrestricted funds, with built-in validation to ensure allocations always match totals - critical for organisations managing complex funding structures.

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Events and Automated Donor Communications

Events were another focus. Whether managing London Marathon places, hosting webinars or running ticketed fundraisers, the platform handles registrations, QR code check-in, Teams integration and linked donation pages in one place. Registrations flow directly into the system - no manual entry required.

Integrated marketing through Customer Insights Journeys enables automated follow-ups. Simon demonstrated a journey triggered by an event check-in: an immediate thank-you email, followed by a later touchpoint. Copilot assists with building audience segments using plain-language prompts.

As Curt noted:

“You can create these multi-stage journeys based on people’s interactions - it makes marketing work while you sleep.”

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Simplifying Gift Aid

Gift Aid is essential but often administratively heavy. The system records declarations against donor records, storing method, date and supporting documentation. When claiming, eligible transactions are gathered into batches automatically, with rules applied to flag exceptions and prevent duplicates.

Export files are generated at the click of a button, ready for submission to HMRC. For organisations processing high volumes of donations, this significantly reduces manual effort while improving audit confidence.

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Finance Excellence with Business Central

The session then moved to finance, where Creative’s expertise is central. Matt demonstrated how Business Central supports charity-specific financial management.

The chart of accounts is structured around sector needs: donations, legacies, investments, Gift Aid, grants, government funding, and restricted versus unrestricted income. Reporting aligns with SOFA requirements, with year-on-year variance analysis and filtering by fund, income type or department.

Income channels are fully supported - including direct debits, Stripe payments, and reconciled transactions from platforms such as JustGiving. Ledger entry lists can instantly become pivot-style reports. In the demo, Matt asked Copilot to create a pivot table with funds as rows and accounting periods as columns - which it generated immediately.

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The Payables Agent: AI in Action

One of the most striking demonstrations was the Payables Agent within Business Central. The agent monitors an invoice inbox, reads supplier invoices, extracts data, codes to the correct general ledger accounts, checks VAT, and creates a draft purchase invoice for review.

As Matt explained:

“This is not about replacing finance professionals - it is about removing manual administration so they can focus on analysis and strategic oversight.”

The result is faster processing, improved accuracy and more time for strategic work.

Business Central also enables detailed cost analysis by event, campaign, GL account or department, helping charities ensure initiatives generate a surplus and comply with grant conditions.

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One Platform, Shared Data

A central theme throughout was that fundraising and finance need different tools - but shared data. Integration via Dataverse ensures transaction statuses in Business Central automatically update in CRM. Fundraisers can see whether pledges have been paid. Finance teams can analyse income by campaign or fund. There is no duplicate entry or manual reconciliation.

As Simon summarised, users stay in the system suited to their role, but the data flows between them - delivering collaboration and a single version of the truth.

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Reporting for Trustees

The session concluded with reporting through Microsoft Power BI. Simon demonstrated an interactive dashboard showing corporate forecasts, Gift Aid volumes, and donations by campaign and fund. Reports can be filtered dynamically or exported as paginated PDFs for trustee meetings.

Microsoft provides around 100 pre-built Power BI reports, with full customisation available. When systems are connected, reporting becomes faster, more reliable and far less manual.

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An Investment in Impact

Curt addressed licensing directly, noting that Microsoft provides nonprofit discounts typically around 80% off standard pricing.

As Matt reinforced:

“We always see the platform as an investment, not a cost. You’re investing in better data, in Copilot, in automation, in much better structured data.”

At Creative, we are proud to work alongside Pragmatiq to bridge fundraising and finance. When systems, data and teams are aligned, organisations are better equipped to focus on what matters most - delivering meaningful change.

If these challenges resonate with your organisation, we offer a free 30-minute discovery call to explore what a connected Microsoft platform could look like for you.

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