Like many campus ministers, Rita depends on donors who pray for her and fund her work.

But she struggled to keep supporters updated with stories from campus ministry. 

Over time, she could feel the distance widening between her and her donors. She didn’t like the feeling that donors were more like names from accounting than true ministry partners. 

Maybe you, in your nonprofit, ministry, or missional organization, have been there too, facing the pressure to hit revenue goals and beginning to see donors as line items. 

So how do you keep up with consistent communication that turns donors into partners? How do you draw them into the mission instead of letting them quietly drift away?

One way is to invite 1,000+ hackers to spend 48 hours using AI for good—like building an app that helps overworked teams share better stories with donors.

Which is how I met Rita last month at the Gloo AI Hackathon, where I served as a storytelling subject-matter expert. Her team won the Ministry Resourcing track and took home $20,000.

Inside the Gloo AI Hackathon

This year’s Gloo AI Hackathon invited builders to create AI-powered solutions that advance the mission of the global Church. 

In October 2026, more than 115 teams gathered in Boulder, Colorado, for a 48-hour sprint, and Masterworks judged teams in a Ministry Resourcing track.

The Three Ministry Resourcing Challenges

At Masterworks, we believe every ministry’s mission matters eternally. 

But we also see how hard it is for ministries to grow, make the most of their resources, and keep donors close, especially with small teams and tight budgets.

So for the Ministry Resourcing track, we identified three challenges where AI could help lighten the load:

Sacred Spaces, Safe Homes. 

Many churches own parking lots that sit empty six days a week while their communities face an affordable-housing crisis. But zoning, financing, and neighborhood pushback stop most projects before they start. 

Teams were asked to create an AI tool that tells a pastor, in plain language, what kind of affordable housing could be built on their church’s property and how to win over their board and city council. 

Every Story Has a Donor.

Nonprofits have plenty of impact. What staff members lack is the time to capture it. In a single week, a caseworker might witness several story moments that go undocumented, much less turned into stories.

The challenge was to turn a 30-second voice memo into an email a fundraiser would actually send, and find that same story again three months later.

Dear Right Donor, Right Now. 

Most nonprofits send every new donor the same welcome series, whether they gave $25 or $500. 

Teams were asked to build an AI tool that reads donor behavior and recommends the right mail format, timing, and thank you, with a brief that a print vendor could run.

The Winner: OnBoard

Rita's team from Frontier Commons built OnBoard, a communication app that helps staff members capture field updates, safeguard sensitive information about the people they serve, and deepen relationships with their donors and prayer partners.

OnBoard does three things:

• Capture. A note, voice memo, photo, or video goes into the app the moment it happens. AI transcribes and tags each one by theme, so it's easy to find when it's time to write.

• Privacy. Before anything goes out, AI flags details that could identify someone and put them at risk. It can blur faces and suggest safer wording. The staff member decides what stays.

• Journeys. Donors follow individual stories over time, with prayer requests, updates, and answered prayer.

Here's what struck me most: OnBoard doesn't write the ministry update. 

It helps ministry and nonprofit communicators find the right stories and flags anything that could put someone at risk. So updates go out faster, with far less effort.

The team tested OnBoard with real ministry frontline ministry staff. Their verdict: Donors felt more involved.

Catch and Share Your Best Stories Before They Slip Away

Your organization doesn't lack stories.

They happen every week: in your programs, on your campuses, in conversations.

But if you never get around to capturing and telling them, you miss out on an opportunity to bring your donors closer to your mission.

That’s the problem Rita’s team set out to solve. 

And it’s the work Masterworks does in partnership with ministries and nonprofits every day: helping them turn their impact into stories that give donors proximity to the people whose lives are being transformed.

If that’s the type of partnership you long for, the Masterworks team would love to help you tell the stories your donors are waiting to hear. Start the conversation here.

About the Author

Katie Whitehorn is a Senior Copy Director and Creative Lead at Historic, part of Masterworks. Her new book, From Stuck to Story, helps ministries and nonprofits capture and craft stories that move people to care, so they’ll care enough to act.