Use Zoom's AI to Capture Donor Meeting Notes

What This Does

Zoom's AI automatically generates a structured summary and action items from your donor cultivation calls, so instead of scrambling to capture notes during the call or reconstructing them from memory afterward, you get a complete record immediately after hanging up.

Before You Start

• You have Zoom with meeting summaries enabled (included with eligible paid Zoom Workplace plans at $16.99/user/month)
• You have donor's verbal consent to record/transcribe the call (required. inform them at the start)
• Meeting summaries are turned on in your Zoom settings (Settings, then the AI section)

Steps

1. Turn on meeting summaries before the call

Sign in at zoom.us and open Settings. Look for the meeting summary controls in the AI section and turn on automatic meeting summaries. Set them to auto-start for your hosted meetings, or you can start one manually at the beginning of each call. Zoom used to call this "AI Companion" and dropped that name in 2026, so older help articles and colleagues may still use the old term.

2. Start the donor call

At the beginning of the cultivation call, say: "I want to let you know I'm using Zoom's AI summary feature to capture notes from our conversation, it helps me follow up accurately. Is that okay with you?"

If the summary is not set to auto-start, hover over the AI icon in the meeting toolbar, select the Meeting summary checkbox, then click Start Zoom AI.

Most donors will agree. If they decline, turn the summary off for this call (hover over the AI icon in meeting controls and stop the meeting summary).

3. Have your normal cultivation conversation

Conduct the call as you normally would. The AI is transcribing in the background. You don't need to change anything about how you talk, just have the conversation.

4. Access the summary after the call

Within 5-10 minutes of ending the call, you'll receive an email with the meeting summary, or find it in your Zoom account under Recordings & Summaries. The summary includes:

• Key topics discussed
• Next steps and action items
• Any commitments or follow-ups mentioned

5. Paste key information into your donor CRM

Review the summary for accuracy. Correct any names or amounts the AI may have misheard. Copy the relevant notes (donor interests mentioned, gift capacity signals, next steps) into your CRM contact record (Bloomerang, DonorPerfect, Salesforce).

What you should see: A 1-page structured summary of the cultivation call arriving in your email within 10 minutes of ending the call. Troubleshooting: If the AI mishears donor names or nonprofit names, add them to Zoom's custom vocabulary (look for the custom vocabulary option alongside the AI settings) for better accuracy in future calls.

Real Example

Scenario: You had a 45-minute cultivation call with a prospect about their interest in endowing a scholarship. During the call they mentioned their children attended your served community, a gift range of $25,000-$50,000, and they want to be recognized but not publicly announced.

What you get: A summary that captures: "Prospect mentioned personal connection through family, key cultivation angle. Discussed gift range $25-50K. Expressed interest in endowment structure. Preference: named recognition without public announcement. Next step: send endowment naming opportunities by end of week."

What you do: Paste that directly into your CRM contact notes and schedule the follow-up task, no reconstruction from memory required.

Tips

• Always confirm consent before starting, not just for compliance, but because it builds trust with donors who appreciate your attention to detail and follow-through
• Review summaries the same day while the conversation is fresh. the AI captures what was said but not the emotional tenor of the conversation, which you'll want to add to your CRM notes
• For major gift cultivation calls, compare the AI summary to your own memory for anything it may have missed. use both together

Tool interfaces change, if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.