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I'm a Data Scientist: Surprised by How Charities Use AI to Predict Australian Behavior

Crikey

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Date Published
22 Dec 2025
Priority Score
2
Australian
Yes
Created
22 Dec 2025, 01:17 am

Authors (1)

Description

13 million Australians donate to charities each year. Most of them have no idea they are being scored, labelled and targeted by the originations to which they give.

Summary

This article reveals how charities in Australia utilize AI-driven commercial profiling tools to analyze and predict donor behaviors. Approximately 13 million Australians donate to charities annually, many unaware of the data-driven methods used to score and classify them based on their donation patterns and potential value. While this practice raises privacy and ethical concerns, the focus is mostly on how charities optimize fundraising rather than addressing AI's catastrophic risks. Although it highlights the prevalence of AI use in new sectors, the broader implications for AI safety or governance are not deeply explored.

Body

Charities occupy a uniquely trusted position, but many are quietly using commercial profiling tools that use data to classify and predict the behaviour of their supporters: who they are, how likely they are to donate, and how much they’re worth to a charity.  Approximately 13 million Australians donate to charities each year, and the number that engage with charities through mailing lists or other points of contact is even larger. Of the 31 charities that I looked into, 19 were using commercial profiling tools.