If you run fundraising on Givebutter and you’ve lost a few evenings squinting at transaction exports, this guide is for you. It covers the Givebutter AI integration with HotBot — a native connector that lets HotBot’s assistant work with your Givebutter data directly once you’re on a paid plan. No copy-pasting spreadsheets, no feeding a CSV into ChatGPT and hoping it understands.
On a paid HotBot plan, you connect Givebutter from inside HotBot, and the assistant can summarize transactions, draft invoices and donor messages, explain your numbers, and help you think through pricing. This guide walks through how each piece works.
One clarification first. HotBot is an independent AI chat service. It isn’t an official Givebutter product, and it isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Givebutter. The connector lets HotBot read and work with your Givebutter data when you authorize it.
Prerequisites
What you’ll need before you start:
- A Givebutter account with some transaction history (donations, tickets, whatever you’re tracking).
- A paid HotBot subscription — connectors are a paid-plan feature. Pricing is a free tier, $7.95/week or $39.95/quarter. See the HotBot pricing page for details.
- Basic familiarity with your Givebutter dashboard — you don’t need to be an expert, but knowing where your campaigns live helps.
- A rough goal in mind — a monthly summary, an invoice, a pricing decision. The assistant works better when you know what you’re after.
No API keys to juggle, no code.
Estimated time: 15–20 minutes for your first workflow Difficulty level: Beginner. If you can write a text message, you can do this.
Step 1: Subscribe to a Paid HotBot Plan
The connector doesn’t exist on the free tier. The free tier is worth using to try HotBot out — you can chat with 800+ models from every major provider — but connectors specifically require a paid plan.
Go to the pricing page and pick a plan: $7.95/week for short-term use, or $39.95/quarter if you’re committing for the season, which works out cheaper past a few weeks.
The live connection between the assistant and your Givebutter data is what saves you the copy-paste tax. That’s the feature you’re paying for.
Step 2: Connect Givebutter Inside HotBot
Once you’re subscribed, you connect Givebutter from inside HotBot on your paid plan. There aren’t any fake menu screenshots here because the interface speaks for itself — open HotBot, find the connectors area, and authorize Givebutter there.
When you connect, you’re granting HotBot permission to read your Givebutter data so the assistant can work with it in your chats. It’s like linking any app: you approve the connection, and then it’s available in your conversations.
Stuck on this step? The pricing page shows what’s included with your plan.
Step 3: Summarize Your Transactions
This is the workflow I reach for most. Instead of exporting a CSV and eyeballing rows, you ask.
Example prompt:
Summarize my Givebutter transactions from the last 30 days.
Give me total raised, number of donations, average gift size,
and flag anything unusual.
Model tier to use: HotBot Chat. This is a fast, everyday task — you don’t need deep reasoning to total up donations and spot outliers. HotBot Chat handles it quickly.
The “flag anything unusual” line does more work than it looks like it should. It’ll surface a refund you forgot about or a large gift worth a personal thank-you — the kind of thing that slips past you scrolling a spreadsheet.
If you want month-over-month comparisons or a breakdown by campaign, add that to the prompt. AI can categorize and analyze donation data to surface trends you’d otherwise hunt for by hand, according to Guru’s overview of AI use cases for Givebutter.
Step 4: Draft Invoices and Donor Messages
This is where the AI-for-Givebutter workflow starts saving real hours. The donor data is connected, so put it to work writing the things you’d rather not write yourself.
Example prompt for an invoice:
Draft an invoice for the $500 sponsorship from [Sponsor Name]
tied to our spring gala campaign. Include a thank-you note
and payment reference.
Example prompt for a thank-you:
Write 5 personalized thank-you messages for my top 5 donors
this month, referencing their gift amounts. Keep them warm,
under 100 words each, no corporate jargon.
Model tier to use: HotBot Chat for quick drafts. Move up to HotBot Chat Plus if you want step-by-step thinking — an invoice with tiered pricing, say, or a message sequence that needs to build logically.
One caution: check the numbers before you send. The assistant drafts fast, but you’re the one signing off on what goes to a donor or a sponsor.
Step 5: Explain Your Numbers and Plan Pricing
This workflow changed how I think about fees. Givebutter’s pricing has a few “wait, how does this work?” moments, and an assistant that can walk you through it with your real numbers plugged in earns its keep.
Some context to hand the assistant: Givebutter charges 0% platform fees when donor tips are enabled, and a flat 3% platform fee when tips are disabled, according to aitoolsbakery’s 2026 fee breakdown. Card processing runs 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, and ACH is 1.9% + $0.30. A $100 card donation nets $96.80 with tips on vs $93.80 with tips off.
Example prompt:
My last campaign raised $12,000 across 140 card donations with
tips disabled. Break down my platform fees, processing fees,
and net proceeds. Then tell me what I'd net if I enabled tips.
Model tier to use: HotBot Chat Pro for this one. Multi-step fee math across scenarios is where deep reasoning pays off, especially when you want the calculation shown clearly. Chat Pro also has a 1M-token context window, so you can feed it a big export and still get coherent analysis.
You can also stress-test whether Givebutter Plus is worth it. It’s contact-based, starting at $29/month for under 250 contacts, per Givebutter’s help docs. Ask the assistant to model your breakeven.
Step 6: When a Third-Party Model Is the Better Pick
One subscription gets you 800+ models, not just HotBot’s own. So when should you reach past HotBot Chat, Chat Plus, and Chat Pro?
- Long-form donor communications or grant-adjacent writing? Try a model known for strong prose from the models library. A different voice sometimes fits your brand better.
- Heavy structured data reasoning? Some third-party models are tuned for exactly that. Swap one in and compare outputs on the same prompt.
- Want a second opinion on fee math? Run the same pricing prompt through two different models. If they agree, you’re probably right. If they don’t, that’s your cue to double-check by hand.
My rule of thumb: start with HotBot’s own tiers because they’re fast and integrated, then experiment with third-party models when a specific task deserves a specialist. You’re already paying for the whole shelf, so use it.
Without the Connector: The Free-Tier Workaround
Not ready to subscribe? You can still get value on the free tier — you just move the data yourself.
Export or copy your Givebutter transaction data (a CSV, or even a screenshot of your dashboard), paste it into a HotBot chat, and prompt the same way you would with the connector. Something like: “Here’s my transaction export — summarize total raised, average gift, and flag refunds.”
It works. It’s just manual. The connector’s whole point is skipping that paste step and letting the assistant pull live data on demand. The free tier is for trying HotBot without connectors; the paid plan is where the hands-off workflows live.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
“The assistant doesn’t see my Givebutter data.” Make sure you’re on a paid plan and that the connection was authorized. Connectors don’t exist on the free tier — if you’re not subscribed, that’s the problem.
“The numbers look off.” Check the date range in your prompt and confirm whether your campaign had tips enabled or disabled — that changes the fee math entirely. When in doubt, ask the assistant to show its calculation step by step (Chat Pro is best for this).
“My invoice draft is missing details.” Be more specific. Amounts, names, campaign, payment terms — the assistant only knows what you give it plus what it can pull from the connection.
A quick privacy and limits note: when you connect Givebutter, you’re authorizing HotBot to work with that data. Only connect accounts you control, share what you’re comfortable sharing, and review AI-generated invoices and donor messages before they go out. The assistant is a drafting and analysis tool — you’re the human accountable for what gets sent.
What’s Next
Once you’ve run your first transaction summary, build a repeatable rhythm around it: a weekly summary every Monday, thank-you drafts after every campaign push, and a fee analysis before you launch anything new.
From there, dig through the models library and find which model writes donor messages in a voice that sounds like your org. That’s the difference between “AI wrote this” and “this sounds like us.”
Ready to stop copy-pasting spreadsheets? Subscribe to a paid HotBot plan — free tier, $7.95/week or $39.95/quarter — connect Givebutter from inside HotBot, and let the assistant handle the tedious part.
FAQ
Do I need a paid plan to connect Givebutter?
Yes. Connectors are a paid-plan feature — pricing is $7.95/week or $39.95/quarter. The free tier is for trying HotBot out without connectors, so if you want the assistant to work with your Givebutter data directly, you’ll need to subscribe.
Is HotBot an official Givebutter product?
No. HotBot is an independent AI chat service and isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by Givebutter. The connector lets HotBot work with your Givebutter data once you authorize the connection.
Is HotBot a good Givebutter ChatGPT alternative?
If you want more than one model, yes. HotBot gives you access to 800+ models from every major provider plus its own HotBot Chat, Chat Plus, and Chat Pro under one subscription — so you’re not locked into a single assistant for your Givebutter workflows.
Which HotBot model should I use for fee math?
HotBot Chat Pro. It’s built for deep reasoning and has a 1M-token context window, which matters when you’re modeling fee scenarios across a large transaction export and want the math shown step by step.
Can I use HotBot with Givebutter for free?
Partly. You can’t use the connector for free, but on the free tier you can paste your Givebutter data into a chat and prompt the assistant manually. The paid plan removes that copy-paste step by connecting your data directly.
Will HotBot send invoices or messages to my donors automatically?
No. HotBot drafts invoices and donor messages for you to review — it doesn’t send anything on its own. Always check the numbers and wording before anything goes out to a sponsor or donor.
