The Great Battlefield Fundraising and AI with Yardena Wolf of Findraiser
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Oct 20, 2025 Yardena Wolf, founder and CEO of FindRaiser and former chief of staff to Congressman Eric Swalwell, dives into the intersection of AI and political fundraising. She shares insights from her early career, discusses the ethics of dual roles in politics, and explains how FindRaiser's innovative tool connects donor databases with AI for efficient searches. Yardena reveals findings that could save campaigns millions and outlines the platform's broader uses, all while juggling the challenges of a polarized political landscape.
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How A Meet-And-Greet Became A Partnership
- Yardena first met Eric Swalwell when she staffed a meet-and-greet and found their work styles immediately clicked.
- That rapport led to a long professional relationship and later co-founding FindRaiser with him.
AI As A CRM Layer Not A Replacement
- Yardena realized fundraisers waste huge time extracting targeted lists from NGP-like systems.
- She saw AI could sit on top of existing CRMs to make list-building fast without forcing users to change tools.
Writers' Strike Sparked The Product Idea
- During the LA writers' strike Eric wanted to message affected donors, but their database lacked tags to find them.
- That failure to pull targeted donors sparked the idea to build FindRaiser as an AI search layer on NGP.