Using your own AI client of choice, you can connect your nation to NationBuilder's MCP server. An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server is a program that allows AI applications to securely connect to an external data source, like your nation. By establishing this connection, you are giving your AI client a set of tools to search, read, and act on the data in your nation, within the limits of your own control panel access.
Once connected, you can ask your AI client to build a filter, tag a group of supporters, log a contact from your phone, or brief you on a supporter before a call, without switching to your control panel to do it.
Before you start
Three things need to be true before you can connect:
1. AI connections are enabled for your nation
By default, "Enable AI connections" is enabled under Settings › Nation defaults › Basics. If you turn this setting off, no one in your nation will be able to connect an AI client and any existing connections will stop working.
2. Your permission set allows AI connections
Your access through an AI client matches what you can already do in your control panel. So, if you don't have access to everyone in your database, any queries you run through your AI client will return only the people you have access to. Additionally, your permission set can be configured to:
Access data: You can connect the MCP and ask questions about what is in your database. For example: get counts, create filters, and pull engagement history.
Change data: In addition to asking about what is in your database, you can make changes within it. For example: apply tags, add people to lists, move people along paths, and log contacts.
3. Your AI client supports CIMD OAuth connections
CIMD is the most modern protocol for MCP authentication, and it's what lets you sign in with your existing control panel login instead of managing an API key. Check your tool's documentation for custom or remote MCP connectors.
A note on your AI client's own settings
Your AI provider, not NationBuilder, governs what happens to your conversations. Before you connect a nation, it's worth checking two settings in your AI client:
Model training. Check whether your plan and settings allow your conversations to be used for training. This is between you and your AI provider.
Read-only mode. Some tools let you restrict a connector to read-only. If you only want to ask questions and never change data, this is a useful second layer on top of your permission set.
Connect your AI client
Step 1: Add the connector in your AI client
You'll need your nation's MCP server address, which is your nation's URL with /mcp on the end: https://[your slug].nationbuilder.com/mcp
You will want to lookup instructions that are pertinent to your AI client of choice, as most providers are still changing their interfaces for these types of connections regularly.
Any client that supports remote MCP servers with CIMD OAuth can connect the same way: add a custom or remote MCP server, paste in your MCP server address, and choose OAuth authentication. The exact wording differs by tool.
Here are instructions for a couple of common tools provided by their developers:
Claude: Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP. If you're provisioning for a whole workspace, see Authorize MCP connectors for your entire organization.
ChatGPT: Developer mode and MCP apps in ChatGPT and Apps in ChatGPT.
📌 Note: ChatGPT does not automatically pick up new tools as we add them. If a capability described in our documentation doesn't seem to be available, remove and re-add the connector.
Step 2: Authorize the connection
After you add the connector, you'll be sent to sign in to your nation with your usual control panel login. You're then asked to confirm the connection.
A few things to know about this step:
You are authorizing your own account only. The connection carries your access, not your nation's. Other control panel users each connect and authorize separately.
You may be asked to re-authorize periodically. Authorizations expire, and when yours does your AI client will prompt you to sign in to NationBuilder again.
Step 3: Try a prompt
Confirm the connection is live by asking something simple: What NationBuilder account am I connected to?
Your AI client should come back with your nation and your user.
From there, see What you can ask your AI client for examples of types of prompts you can try.
What your AI client can do
The connection gives your AI client a defined set of tools. Here are some of the core capabilities it offers:
Build a People filter from a plain-language description, and give you the count plus a link to the results in your control panel.
Build a Finances filter for transaction-level questions, with a count, a link to the Finances tab, and the relevant totals.
Apply a tag to a group of people, or create a new tag if the one you name doesn't exist yet.
Add people to a list, new or existing.
Add or move people along a path, including to a specific step.
Log a contact on a supporter profile, with a note and a contact method.
Pull a supporter's engagement history including donations, email opens and clicks, events, texts, logged conversations, tags, and path movement.
Any change you make to your data (like applying a tag), will be attributed to both you and your AI client within the activity feed. For example, if you ask Claude to add the 'volunteer' tag to a person in your database, the activity feed on that person will display "[Your name] tagged [supporter name] with volunteer (via Claude)."
Troubleshooting
I'm getting an error that I don't have permission
Your AI connection carries your control panel access and nothing more. If your AI client reports that it can't do something, your permission set may not allow it. Confirm with an Admin in your nation that you have access to establishing a connection and "Change data" is enabled.
My AI client can't find my tag, list, or path
Use names exactly as they appear in your nation. Your AI client should be able to ask you questions to help identify what you're looking for, but its efficacy may depend on the model. The more specific you can be, the easier it will be for the AI to get you what you're looking for.
The count looks wrong
Whenever a count is provided by your AI client, you should be able to get a link to the exact filter in your nation that produced it. It's always a good idea to click into your nation to double check that the filter it wrote aligns with what you're trying to accomplish.
FAQ
When I connect to NationBuilder, am I using NationBuilder's AI?
No. NationBuilder doesn't run an AI model. You're using your own account with your own AI provider, and we give that AI client a way to reach your nation.
Does NationBuilder charge us for using AI Connections?
No. Your AI provider sets your token limits and pricing under your plan with them.
Will my supporter data be used to train an AI model?
Not by NationBuilder. Whether your AI provider can train on your conversations depends on your plan and settings with them, so check those before connecting a nation.
Who can see what I do through the connector?
Your connection can only reach data and take actions you already have access to. Everything it does appears in your nation's activity feed, attributed to you and the tool you used, so anyone who can see that profile can see what happened.
Can I connect to multiple nations from one AI client?
If your plan with your AI provider includes the ability for you to configure multiple custom MCP connections, you can add each nation as its own connector. If you choose to connect multiple nations, be sure to specify which account you intend to be working in for any given session and double check that your AI client references the correct one.
What happens when someone leaves our organization?
Removing or downgrading a person's control panel access removes their AI access at the same time. Logging someone out of your nation doesn't end their MCP connection, but any change to their permission set applies to their very next request. To cut off an existing connection right away, revoke it under Settings › Integrations › AI connections.
How do I request a new MCP feature?
Tell your AI client you'd like to "submit feedback to NationBuilder" and it will summarize what you were trying to do and the functionality that would support it, then send that summary through to us as a feature request. Only the summary is sent, not your conversation.
That works any time you have something to tell us, including when you ask for something and your AI client responds that the capability doesn't exist yet.