Finance & Accounting · Donately + Claude
Donately MCP with Claude: Streamline Donor Management and Recurring Giving
The short answer
Claude works with Donately through the Model Context Protocol, an open standard that acts as a secure adapter between the two. Once connected with an API key, Claude can read donation, donor and campaign information and help with recurring giving tasks, while your organisation controls what it can access and approves consequential actions.
What is Donately?
Donately is a fundraising platform used by nonprofits and fundraising teams to run online giving in one place. It covers campaigns, donations, recurring gifts, donor records, donation forms, peer-to-peer fundraisers and webhooks that notify other systems when something happens. Development teams, finance staff and campaign managers typically use it to keep online giving organised and easier to report on.
How Claude connects to Donately through MCP
The Model Context Protocol is an open standard that lets Claude use other software securely. It works like a universal adapter: Claude asks the tool a question or requests an action, and the tool responds within the permissions it has been given. Donately can be connected through its own MCP server or through a secure managed connector, using an API key for sign-in.
Once connected, Claude can typically read donation records, look up donor histories, review campaign performance and check the status of recurring giving. This lets a team ask questions such as which campaigns brought in the most gifts last month, or which regular donors have a failed payment, and receive a clear answer without building reports by hand.
Permissions and approvals keep people in charge. Access is limited to what the team needs, usually read-only at first. Any action that changes donor or payment records can be set to require a person's approval, and every request is logged so the organisation can see what was asked and what was done.
What you can automate
Daily donation summary
Each morning, Claude can summarise the previous day's gifts, including totals, average gift size and any unusual spikes. Fundraising leads get a short briefing without logging in, and they can ask follow-up questions about specific campaigns or appeals in the same conversation.
Recurring giving health checks
Claude can review recurring donations and flag plans that have paused, failed or lapsed. Donor care teams receive a prioritised list with the donor's history, so they can reach out personally and help regular supporters keep giving.
Campaign performance reviews
Before and after an appeal, Claude can compare campaigns on gifts received, conversion from form views and fundraiser activity. Marketing and campaign managers can plan the next appeal using clear, plain-English comparisons rather than spreadsheet work.
Donor enquiry support
When a supporter asks about a past gift or a receipt, a staff member can ask Claude to look up the donor record and draft a reply. A person reviews the draft before it is sent, keeping the response accurate and personal.
Monthly board reporting
Claude can gather giving totals, donor retention figures and campaign results for a reporting period and format them into a draft report. Finance and leadership teams spend less time compiling figures and more time interpreting them.
An end-to-end workflow: Recurring donor recovery
TriggerEach Monday, or when a recurring gift fails to process in Donately
Claude retrieves recurring gifts that have failed or paused in the past week through Donately.
Claude checks each affected donor's giving history and any recent campaign participation.
Claude ranks the donors by lifetime value and drafts a personalised thank-you and update-payment message for each.
The donor care team reviews the list and drafts in the CRM, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 or a similar system, where relationship notes are kept.
A staff member approves each message, and Claude records the outreach date and outcome against the donor record.
Claude includes the week's recovery results in the Monday fundraising summary.
OutcomeDonor care teams reach lapsing supporters faster, with full context and a clear audit trail. Organisations typically see recurring giving recovered sooner, though results depend on donor base and process.
How we set it up
Free automation audit
We review how your team currently handles donations, donors and recurring giving, and identify the workflows worth automating first.
Secure connection
We connect Claude to Donately using an API key, through the official MCP server where available or a secure managed connector. Keys are stored safely and access is limited to the permissions you approve.
Workflow design
We design the end-to-end process across Donately and your other systems, such as Microsoft 365, your CRM or accounting software, with people approving any change to donor or payment records.
Testing with real cases
We test the workflow against past donations, donors and campaigns to confirm answers are accurate and approvals work as intended.
Launch and training
We launch with monitoring and audit logs in place, then train your fundraising, donor care and finance teams to use Claude confidently.
Who benefits
- Fundraising director
- Gets daily and campaign-level answers in plain language without waiting for reports.
- Donor care manager
- Spots lapsing recurring donors early and has full history ready before each conversation.
- Finance and operations lead
- Spends less time compiling giving totals and more time on reconciliation and reporting.
- Campaign and marketing manager
- Compares appeals quickly and plans the next campaign with clearer evidence.
Security and control
- Use an API key with the narrowest permissions your team needs, typically read-only to begin with.
- Require a person to approve any action that changes donor, payment or recurring giving records.
- Keep audit logs of every request Claude makes so changes can be traced.
- Rotate and revoke API keys on a regular schedule and whenever staff change roles.
- Limit personal donor data shared with Claude to what each task requires.
For teams in the US, UK, India and the Middle East
Organisations in the United States and the United Kingdom can use this integration with data handled under their own privacy frameworks, including state privacy laws and UK GDPR. Charities and fundraisers in India must meet the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and organisations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia must comply with their local data protection laws. We choose the Claude hosting region, whether India, the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union, to match your legal and contractual requirements.
Learn more about Claude and MCP
Anthropic's AI model and assistant.
Secure links between Claude and business tools.
How engineers build and change software with Claude.
Hosted agents that run multi-step work.
The open standard Claude uses to connect to tools.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Donately MCP server do?
The Donately MCP server gives Claude a secure way to read and work with your Donately information, such as donations, donors, campaigns and recurring gifts. It translates the requests Claude makes into the right actions in Donately, within the permissions you set, so your team can ask for information in everyday language.
Is connecting Donately to Claude secure?
Security depends on how the connection is set up. We use an API key with limited permissions, store it safely, log every request and require approval for changes to donor or payment records. Regular key rotation and access reviews further reduce risk.
What can Claude do with Donately once connected?
Typically Claude can look up donations, review donor histories, check campaign results and monitor recurring giving. It can also draft messages and summaries. Actions that change records can be restricted or set to need approval, so people remain in control.
How long does setup take?
Timing depends on the number of workflows and the systems involved. A focused integration for a few workflows can often be completed within a few weeks, including testing and staff training. We confirm a realistic timeline during the free automation audit.
What plan or permissions do I need for the integration?
You need an active Donately account and an API key with the permissions your workflows require. Requirements can vary with your Donately setup, so we check your account and access during the audit and recommend the least-privilege option for your use.