OPENING JANUARY 2027
A studio for the people who run fundraising data.
AI does the heavy lifting. Your donor data never leaves the building. And you stay the artist, fully in charge of the final masterpiece.
Be First to KnowJoin the list for first notice and first access.
THE PROBLEM
The reports people keep asking you for still take a week you don't have. The upkeep behind them takes the rest.
Duplicates pile up. Codes drift. Every import needs cleaning before it goes anywhere. Meanwhile your organization bought AI tools and nobody showed you how to use them with donor data, so you're stuck between two bad options: avoid AI and fall behind, or use it and lie awake wondering where your donor records went.
There's a third option. Think of yourself as the artist, and build a studio to match: a place where the AI does the heavy lifting on your reports and the guardrails are part of the design. That's what I'm building.
THE PALETTE
Every studio needs a palette. This one holds more than one color.
AI+BI
Building Power BI reports with AI that your board can trust. You leave with a working model, a validated report, and a studio of your own.
The first color. Opening January 2027.
AI+DM
Managing and maintaining your fundraising data with AI, so it stays clean and current. Duplicates, code cleanup, imports, and the upkeep that eats your week.
Next on the palette.
Is this the one you need? Say so when you join the list and you'll hear about it first.
THE FIRST COLOR ON THE PALETTE
AI+BI
Building Power BI reports with AI that your board can trust. Opening January 2027.
Five weeks. Two live hours a week, plus your own build time. Every session recorded.
Pricing is announced when the doors open. This first run is a founding cohort at a founding price, and it will be within reach of a one-person shop's professional development budget.
Everything below describes this color. AI+DM is next on the palette, in the same studio.
Live, hands-on, and built around your real work.
Studio Class
I teach, live on Zoom. Each build, done in front of you on the demo data. Then you go do it.
Open Studio
Live on Zoom. You bring what you got stuck on and we unblock it. Every session recorded.
Your data, safely
The whole cohort runs on a fabricated fundraising dataset, so nobody's donor records are ever on a shared screen, in a chat, or anywhere near an AI tool. You leave with the studio and the routine to run it on your own data.
HOW THE WORK ACTUALLY GOES
The AI drafts. You decide.
Nothing gets built until you've read the plan and approved it. Every number gets checked against one you already know before it reaches a report.
On a recent build using sample data, the AI's first draft produced a fiscal year measure that looked completely correct and was off by $19.5 million, because of how the date table was built. One validation check caught it.
The human in the loop is the point
That habit is what lets you stand in front of your board, or a skeptical colleague, and defend the number. You learn it here on data that cannot hurt anyone, then take it home.
YOUR INSTRUCTOR
Ed Hohlbein
Ed has spent 28 years in nonprofit fundraising data, from a small AIDS service organization in rural Georgia to training and consulting engagements with organizations of every size across the US. Through his one-person business, Generate, Inc. he helps nonprofits get the most out of their fundraising tools and data: Raiser's Edge NXT, EveryAction, Neon One, DonorPerfect, and a dozen other systems.
This cohort is that same work, taught. The Power BI models and reports Ed builds for clients, with AI doing the heavy lifting and a checking routine that catches what it gets wrong. You build it yourself, in your own studio.
"Experience You Can Trust, Results You Can See."
WHAT YOU LEAVE WITH
Infrastructure. End to end.
A working Power BI semantic model
Built for fundraising data: gifts, constituents, campaigns, funds, appeals, and a date table that handles your fiscal year.
A report you built with AI and validated yourself
Using a checking routine you'll use for the rest of your career. Every measure checks against a number you already know.
Documentation for both
So the next person who inherits your work isn't lost.
Your own AI studio
Configured for your role, your CRM, and your organization. Yours to keep running after the cohort ends.
The Donor Data Anonymizer
Ships the day you join. You'll run it on the cohort dataset first, so by the time you point it at your own export, it's a habit.
Every recording
Every live session is recorded, and the recordings are yours to keep.
WHO IT'S FOR
The person who runs the data.
Database administrators, CRM managers, and fundraising data pros who live in Raiser's Edge NXT, EveryAction, DonorPerfect, Neon One or their cousins, and who want AI doing the heavy lifting without handing it the keys. If you can run a query and an export in your CRM, you're technical enough. You need curiosity and about four hours a week.
One requirement to say plainly: Power BI Desktop only runs on Windows, and I teach from Windows. If you're on a Mac with a working Power BI setup already, you're welcome. I can't support getting you there.
TimeAbout 4 hours a week
You'll needA Windows machine, Power BI Desktop (free), and a Claude subscription (about $20 a month; your setup month may run a bit more)
You won't needFabric capacity. A data engineer. Enterprise anything. That's the point.
AI+BI CURRICULUM
Five weeks. One working studio.
Here's a first look at what you'll build. Setup videos arrive before the first session, so week one is about building, not installing.
Set Up Your StudioWeek 1
You are an artist, and an artist needs a properly equipped studio. Claude, Power BI Desktop, and the plugin that connects them, installed and smoke-tested. The Donor Data Anonymizer, and why donor data needs different handling. The first session gets every studio running.
Trust, But ProfileWeek 2
Know your data before you believe it. Where PII actually leaks into an AI tool. The four problem classes in every fundraising export: duplicates, code variants, date trouble, and double-counting traps. Profile the cohort dataset together and leave with a Data-Notes file.
Build It OnceWeek 3
The reusable fundraising semantic model. Gifts, constituents, campaigns, funds, appeals, and a date table that knows your fiscal year. Built with the AI plugin, approved by you, and validated against numbers you already know. This week is your model.
From Ask to ReportWeek 4
A vague ask from a board member becomes a written brief, a design, and a finished report. Plan, design, build, publish, with a human gate at every step. This week is your report, and the peak of the course.
Monday MorningWeek 5
Documentation for the model and the report, so the next person isn't lost. Running your studio for real: usage limits, model choice, keeping context current. Then a final unblock and you're on your way to building trust, saving time, and keeping you - the human - in the loop.
The studio opens January 2027.
Join the list for first notice and first access, plus a few peeks inside as it comes together.
Be First to KnowWHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT WORKING WITH ED
Reviews That Make Me Blush
From consulting and training clients over the years. The studio itself hasn't opened yet, so these are about the work behind it.
Questions you might have.
When does it open?
January 2027. People on the list hear first, get first access, and get a few peeks inside the studio along the way.
What will it cost?
Pricing is announced when the doors open. This first run is a founding cohort at a founding price, and it will be within reach of a one-person shop's professional development budget. People on the list hear the number first.
Do I need a technical background?
No. If you can run a query and an export in your CRM, you're ready. There's no code to write. The AI writes the DAX; you learn to check it.
I'm on a Mac. Can I join?
Power BI Desktop only runs on Windows, and I teach from Windows. If you already have a working Power BI setup on your Mac, you're welcome. I can't support getting you there, and I don't support VM workarounds.
Is my donor data safe?
Yes, by design. Your donor data never enters the cohort. Everything, including your own hands-on work, runs on a fabricated dataset, so nobody's donor records are ever on a shared screen or in an AI tool. You also get the Donor Data Anonymizer and learn the routine in the first build, so when you take the workflow home, names never reach the AI there either.
My organization only allows Microsoft Copilot. Can I still take this?
I teach with Claude, because it can build a Power BI model directly and because the safeguards I teach fit how it works. You can take the cohort with a personal Claude subscription even if your organization has standardized on something else, since the cohort runs on a dataset I provide, not your CRM. The habits you learn, anonymize first, plan before building, validate every number, carry over to whatever tool your organization approves.
If Microsoft tools are your only option at work, say so when you join the list. If enough people are in that boat, I'll look at building a track for it.
Do I need Fabric capacity or a Power BI license?
No. Everything runs on a local model in Power BI Desktop, which is free. No Fabric capacity, no data engineer, no enterprise anything. This is built for organizations that will never have those.
What if I miss a session?
Every session is recorded and the recordings are yours to keep. The next Open Studio is the best place to catch back up.
Which CRMs does this work with?
Raiser's Edge NXT, EveryAction, DonorPerfect, and their cousins. The cohort itself runs on a dataset I provide, so there's nothing to pull from your CRM to participate. Afterward, if your CRM can export gifts and constituents, the model you built works on it.
What else do I need to budget for?
A Claude subscription, about $20 a month. Your setup month may run a bit more while you're building. After that it settles down.
Be first through the studio door.
The studio opens January 2027. Join the list for first notice and first access, plus a few peeks inside as it comes together. Tell me what interests you most, and anything I should know about the tools you're allowed to use. It helps me decide what to build next.
No spam. Just first notice, first access, and a few peeks inside the studio.
