How AI is Impacting Strategic Planning
AI is advancing at lightning speed, and will be a major force transforming all businesses, including the nonprofit sector. We will need to adapt, embrace the benefits, and carefully navigate the risks of using this evolving technology.
AI is already changing nonprofits and we expect that AI will soon become ubiquitous in the nonprofit sector. We encourage our clients to balance opportunities with risks and engage in responsible use of AI while staying aligned with your values and missions.
As we help our clients plan for their futures, we see opportunities for nonprofits to integrate AI to their advantage while balancing ethical considerations. We’re envisioning how nonprofits can learn from AI-supported program design and evaluation, helping them develop and implement best practices for their programs and services. Fund development departments are predicting major growth in using AI for donor research, predictive analytics, and tracking and evaluating impact, marketing, and communications. Others are also considering how automated workflows for administrative functions, such as finance and operations, will change how their organization functions. Our foundation clients are imagining the role of AI in supporting trust-based philanthropy practices in grant reporting and the design and execution of other grantmaking processes.
Like other change initiatives, nonprofits can adopt AI in a way that is in alignment with their values and in an iterative way. Adopt an AI usage policy for your organization, and revisit and update it as the field and your organization’s use of AI develops. Nonprofits can also learn from each other by collaborating and sharing their approaches to using AI. Here are a few AI-related resources we think you might find helpful:
Technology Association of Grantmakers and Project Evident’s Responsible AI Adoption in Philanthropy framework for grantmakers
Tech Soup’s Generative AI Guidelines
Google for Nonprofits’ Guide to Save Your Nonprofit Time and Focus on What Matters Most With a Little Help From AI