AI in Nonprofits

Where Do You Begin?

Anything discussing AI (Artificial Intelligence) can be quickly overwhelming. It's so BIG - where do you even start? Do I even want to deal with AI personally, let alone for my nonprofit? How safe is it, especially when we're talking about donors and our organizational data? What about those "hallucinations" you hear about? Is it already too late to start? 

​There are seemingly more questions than answers. You are not alone. 

The suggestions presented here are aimed at a basic start as surveys suggest nonprofits aren't using AI at all yet. Many tools nonprofits use or purchase have AI embedded in them. Those are topics for another day along with more advanced organization use of AI.

​Is it really worth it?
If I were writing this 6 months ago, I'd have likely said "It depends." Now I offer "Yes - with caution and training."

My nonprofit focus has always been the little guy—small nonprofits, from just getting started to finally able to afford salaried staff. This is my area of expertise. Mid-sized and larger nonprofits have been our front runners testing out AI in nonprofits and blazing trails for the nonprofit world. Even so, studies indicate while many think AI may be valuable, it's not really as heavily used in nonprofits as you may think. This recent study indicates AI is not in high use for fundraising. This survey reflects how little AI is being used in general in nonprofits at this time. 

How Do We Start?
This article by Wendy Clow offers some great ideas and a beautiful graphic for 10 steps. For the small nonprofits I assist, this is still more advanced than many are ready for. We're going to dial it back even further. For as little as AI is being utilized in nonprofits, these suggestions may be a practical path forward no matter the size of your organization. 

• Education: Learn about AI and the variety of things it can do. Start personally with your own life and uses. Hopefully more than one in your nonprofit are interested so you can share ideas to benefit your organization. Consider ways it may be useful in your nonprofit starting in small ways. There are loads of free education resources available to guide your AI literacy. I highly recommend The Artificial Intelligence Show podcast, emails, and free webinars offered by SmarterX. Google, OpenAI, and Microsoft also all offer free education in how to use their AI tools. 
• Create AI Policy: Now that you're familiar with AI and the potential for what can be done with it, your team should set some guardrails and guidelines about what's acceptable in your organization. While AI can do a lot, your nonprofit holds sensitive information about your donors, volunteers, and board members. While it's easy to wave a hand and think "it's all public knowledge anyhow" - it's not.
  • How much access will you give AI to your files? (I suggest it's very limited to a shareable file and not your full computer.)
  • Consider tools or software you may purchase, the information needed to do what you need, and their AI policies. Sharing personal information is a huge legal concern.
  • How much will your team be able to use the nonprofit AI for their personal use, and how much might they inject into the organization's system? What's acceptable and what are hard no's? 
  • Find templates: There's no reason to reinvent the wheel on this one. Do searches for a version you like that's adaptable for your organization. Community IT Innovation offers one with nonprofits in mind. 
• Identify 2-3 easy use cases: How might AI make your nonprofit time faster, better, or more efficient? Look for the easy wins to start. 
  • AI as note taker: This may make your Recording Secretary's job easier to build minutes. AI may even create a draft of your minutes using past minutes as examples. (note I said draft - human review before posting is always recommended) There are AI tools that are free or cheap, possibly built right into your smart phone, that can record conversations that can be shared with the team. (with permission, of course)
  • AI to create emails: Emails can be time intensive, especially if you feel like you're repeating yourself. You will still want some way to personalize messages before you hit "send." Your nonprofit may also need to put into words or policy what your "brand voice" is to create consistency between people in the organization, let alone to train an AI tool. 
  • AI as a thought partner: Generative AI can help you flesh out fundraising ideas, organization strategy, or event planning with generally more details in less time than you would do on your own. These chats have results more advanced than the basic "search" option but not as in depth as research assistant level. This is often very conversational by typing or voice.
  • Research assistant
    • NotebookLM: This Google tool lets you upload docs, pdfs (including entire books/manuscripts), videos, audio, slides, websites, and more to help you learn about topics with a variety of outputs - quizzes, "podcast" with two voices "interviewing" each other about the topic, and more. This is specialized in using only the materials you provide as its source material, reducing "hallucinations."
    • Deep Research: Another Google tool using Google Gemini (Google's AI system) in "Deep Research" mode. (you can select different search modes depending on your project needs) Deep thinking can use your prompts, or ask it to interview you to create a best prompt to go deep into any topic. This often returns pages of content and sources on the order of a major analytic paper. While significant content is created, it is then up to the human to confirm and validate the information and sources returned. This is often a barrier for users with big ideas but short on time to vet the information before running forward with it.

Have You Used AI in Your Nonprofit?
Love to hear how you're incorporating AI into your nonprofit or what's holding you back! Let's Chat or find me on LinkedIn or Substack!

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