AI as Your Nonprofit Thought Partner

Transitioning to AI as a Thought Partner

Geoff Woods, author of “AI Driven Leader,” highlights this thinking. The opportunity now for many leaders is to move beyond using AI solely for completing tasks to exploring its potential to enhance thought leadership. Nonprofit leaders are the visionaries, and  AI can act as a valuable thought partner, challenging assumptions, providing diverse perspectives, and accelerating strategic planning — if we ask it. The key to unlocking this potential lies in the quality of our prompts — the instructions we give to AI. Just like the old adage “garbage in, garbage out,” the more context and clarity we provide in our prompts, the higher quality and more relevant the AI’s output will be.

Crafting Effective Prompts: A Four-Step Approach

To elevate the quality of AI’s responses and harness its strategic capabilities, consider this four-step prompting framework (using tools such as Chat GPT, Perplexity, etc.):

Context is King

Begin by providing comprehensive context about your organization or the specific challenge or opportunity you’re addressing. For example, instead of a generic request about fundraising, detail your organization’s mission, the recent loss of a significant funding source (e.g., a 50% cut in federal funding), your specific fundraising goal (e.g., raising $500,000 by the end of the year), and the urgency of the situation. The more detailed the context, the better AI can understand your unique circumstances.

Define the Role

Clearly instruct AI on the role you want it to assume. By assigning a specific persona, you can tailor the AI’s perspective and expertise. For instance, you might ask it to act as a “national fundraising expert with a track record of raising millions for large organizations.” This helps the AI frame its responses through the lens of relevant experience.

Engage in an Interview

Request AI to interview you to gain even deeper understanding. Ask it to pose the top five questions it would ask to fully grasp your situation. This interactive process allows AI to identify nuances and gather information you might not have initially considered, leading to more insightful recommendations.

Request Strategic Output

Finally, instruct AI to present specific strategies or solutions based on the information provided and the interview. For example, after the interview, you might ask for five distinct fundraising strategies your organization should consider in reaching its $500,000 goal within the given timeframe.

By following these steps, you transform AI from a passive assistant into an active thought partner, capable of providing tailored and strategic guidance. Think of the increased clarity and confidence using it this way.

Addressing Ethical Concerns and Embracing Innovation

Concerns about the ethical use of AI, such as potential plagiarism, are valid. However, AI can be used ethically and effectively by leveraging your organization’s internal expertise. Instead of asking AI to generate content from scratch, consider interviewing your subject matter experts, transcribing their insights, and then using AI to help structure and articulate that unique content into articles or reports. This approach ensures authenticity and leverages the knowledge within your own team.

Furthermore, resisting AI entirely increases the risk of being left behind. Just as email revolutionized communication, AI presents a transformative opportunity for nonprofits. Embracing it strategically can lead to significant gains in efficiency, innovation, and impact.

Using AI to Deepen Our Ability to Identifying Problems

Beyond generating strategies, AI can be a powerful tool in the crucial first step of problem-solving: identification. Often, what appears to be the problem is merely a symptom of a deeper underlying issue. By engaging in a structured dialogue with AI, similar to a facilitated group discussion, you can explore the “why” behind the initial challenge.

For example, if the challenge is “How do we raise $500,000 in the next nine months?”, you can prompt AI with questions like:

• “Why is this fundraising goal important for our organization?”
• “What have we done so far to address our funding needs?”
• “Ideally, what would be different at the end of the year if we achieve this goal?”.

This process encourages a deeper understanding of the context and potential root causes.

By continuing to probe with questions like “Is the inability to raise $500,000 the true problem, or is it a symptom of something else?”, you might uncover deeper issues such as a lack of fundraising infrastructure, insufficient staff capacity, or a disengaged board. This shift in perspective, from addressing a symptom to tackling the root cause, leads to more effective and sustainable solutions.

Questions like “Who is impacted by this issue?”, “What assumptions are we making?”, and “What would have to be true for us to achieve our goal?” can further enrich this problem identification phase, fostering a more comprehensive understanding and generating more innovative solutions.

By embracing AI as a strategic thought partner in problem identification, nonprofits can move beyond surface-level fixes and develop more impactful and sustainable solutions, ultimately strengthening their capacity to fulfill their missions.

Brady Ware Nonprofit Advisors wants to help you fulfill your mission with financial health and compliance services and a network of nonprofit consultants who specialize in strategic decision-making.