From Handshakes To High-Tech: Natick Little League, Looking For Donors, Turns To AI

NATICK, MA — It's almost spring warm-up, and Little League teams here and everywhere are again practicing a generations-old, preseason baseball ritual. But in Natick, it’s gone AI.

Like other groups, the town’s youth baseball and softball organization is trying to grow charitable donations. This year, in Natick, with the help of artificial intelligence.

That’s a game changer for an institution that has always been about handshakes and howareyou's, about whom you know and who’s down the street.

"Who would have thought Natick Little League would be on the cutting edge of AI?" mused Matt Douglas, the local league's fundraising director, in an interview.

Fundraising, however, is a competitive sport these days. And businesses are busier than ever. All of that even affects Little League, which dates to 1939. The Natick chapter began in 1952.

Douglas and the local league's other supporters knew they couldn't reach all the potential sponsors they needed to this year.

So Natick Little League has launched a campaign, RallyforNatick.com, that harnesses AI to streamline the support of community baseball – and to make the process more efficient for the 200 volunteers who run the league.

Douglas believes Natick is the first Little League anywhere to take a swing at AI. Over 2 million boys and girls play worldwide, in many thousands of the nonprofit groups. The Natick League fields over 900 kids each season.

Most of the leagues, of course, have a website. But the Natick campaign is more than that, according to Douglas.

"We've tried to remove the friction," he said. The league has used a variety of AI platforms to not only build its fundraising site, but to manage the process of donating, participating and handling payments securely.

The goal is to make sponsorship easier, simpler and more transparent for businesses and other organizations that might want to help.

Douglas, who founded and runs a tech company in Framingham, said two of his four children are playing Little League this season.

He said he hopes the new campaign will allow Natick Little League to raise "tens of thousands" of additional dollars by 2030. The money, he said, will pay for uniforms and equipment, but also for lasting infrastructure improvements at Hunnewell Field.

"I hope there's a legacy we can leave," he said. "This can be a transformative moment."

Joe Landry, a board member of the league, said in a news release, "Natick Little League is a cornerstone of our town. RallyforNatick is about making support simple, visible and meaningful, so local businesses can easily show their support."