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Donor Finder

A desktop application for charities to find potential donors using AI-powered research. Generate comprehensive Donor Research reports to identify funding opportunities for your campaigns.

Overview

Donor Finder automates the donor research process by combining local AI (Ollama) with web search (Tavily) to discover and analyze potential funders for charitable campaigns.

Features

Charity Management

• Store and manage charity information including name, charitable purpose, sector, and website
• Track charity status (active/inactive)

Campaign Management

• Create campaigns linked to charities
• Define project descriptions, target amounts, and timelines
• Specify target donor sectors and regions

Donor Research

• Automated AI-powered research to identify potential donors
• Web search integration for finding funding sources, similar organizations, and giving trends
• Configurable search depth (basic/advanced)
• Research saved directly to campaigns

PDF Export

• Generate professional PDF reports from research findings
• Export to your preferred location (Downloads, Desktop, etc.)

Settings & Configuration

• Ollama: Connect to local AI models (llama3, mistral, etc.)
• Tavily: Configure API key for web search capabilities
• Customize search behavior and API usage

Getting Started

Prerequisites

1. Ollama (optional, for AI-powered research)

   • Download from ollama.com
   • Install and start the Ollama service
   • Default URL: http://localhost:11434

2. Tavily API Key (optional, for web search)

   • Get an API key from tavily.com
   • Free tier available with monthly credits

Installation

1. Download the latest release from the GitHub releases page
2. Open the .dmg file
3. Drag Donor Finder to your Applications folder
4. Launch the application

First-Time Setup

1. Configure Ollama (Settings → Ollama Configuration)

   • Enter your Ollama URL (default: http://localhost:11434)
   • Select an available model
   • Test the connection

2. Add Tavily API Key (Settings → Tavily API Key)

   • Enter your API key
   • Keys are securely stored in macOS Keychain

3. Start Adding Charities and Campaigns

   • Add your charity details
   • Create campaigns with funding goals
   • Run donor research on any campaign

Privacy & Security

Local Data Storage

• All charity and campaign data is stored locally in ~/Library/Application Support/donor-finder/
• No data is sent to external servers (except when using Tavily web search)

API Key Protection

• API keys are encrypted using Electron's safeStorage API
• Encryption keys are stored in your macOS Keychain
• Keys never leave your device in plain text

PDF Generation

• PDF generation happens entirely on your device
• No external browser processes are launched
• No data is transmitted during PDF export

Technology Stack

• Electron (v40) - Desktop application framework
• React (v18) - User interface library
• TypeScript (v5) - Type-safe development
• Vite (v7) - Build tool
• better-sqlite3 - Local SQLite database
• cheerio & jsdom - Web scraping
• marked - Markdown parsing for PDF generation

License

Copyright © 2026

This application uses open source libraries under permissive licenses (MIT, Apache-2.0, BSD, ISC). A complete list of dependencies and their licenses is included in the distribution as THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt.

Support

For issues, feature requests, or contributions, please open an issue on the GitHub repository.