Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

Top Nonprofit IT Stories 2025 with Community IT Senior Staff

• Community IT Innovators • Season 6 • Episode 51

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Senior staff at Community IT share what happened in nonprofit IT in 2025: AI and non-AI. What tips and advice have you missed? 

Top Nonprofit IT Stories of 2025

As is our tradition, we asked some of our senior staff to talk about the most important nonprofit IT stories of 2025. This year, Carolyn gave them two categories – something in AI – or something that might not have gotten as much attention because it wasn’t something in AI.

AI continues to be a really big story. It has been described as the water we are all swimming in, whether we like it or not. It’s going to be impacting all of us, and transforming every sector that nonprofits care about, in the coming years. Education, environment, government, health, privacy and advocacy, immigration, the economy – its easier to ask what issue will not be transformed in 2026 by AI because the answer is none. 

And in addition to transforming the communities nonprofits care about, perhaps more immediately AI will be transforming the day-to-day work nonprofit staff do, in new and quickly evolving ways. Community IT will continue to be a trusted partner as you make AI decisions and learn AI tools for productivity and added value.

In addition to reflecting on AI or giving advice on AI tools, many of our staff members gave practical tips on changes to look for in 2026, from budgeting for increasing costs of laptops because of increasing costs of RAM storage (caused by AI needs!) to the increased security of Microsoft 365 login protections, to data protection considerations and updates to look out for, including Microsoft Archive. 

Data security and the value of data to nonprofits will continue to be of high importance in 2026, as will the evolution of cybersecurity. 

Finally, we know 2025 was very challenging to our nonprofit sector. With all of the changes our friends and colleagues are negotiating, we hope we can help nonprofit IT be the least difficult to manage.

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Carolyn Woodard:

Hello, and welcome to the Community IT Innovators Technology Topics podcast. I'm your host, Carolyn Woodard, and this is our traditional year-end episode. So every year I ask our senior staff to give me some reflections on the past year in nonprofit IT. This year I ask them to give me something about AI or something not about AI, or both. And you'll see my colleagues have shared with us some tips and tricks, some tools that you may not be aware of that are a game changer or promise to be very important in 2026. Some of my colleagues also reflected on the longer arc of 2025 in cybersecurity, in intentionality about matching your tech tools and IT infrastructure to your business needs as a nonprofit. Some reflections on AI tools and adoption. And also just want to make sure that you know that we stand with you in all of the challenges that the nonprofit sector has faced this year politically. And I hope that you can take some rest and relaxation and refresh in this holiday time of year with your loved ones. And that we'll all come back and it'll all still be there in January when we come back to work. So if you're listening to this over the holidays, all the very best from Community IT to you.

Alexandros Benju:

Hello, my name is Alexandros Benju, and today I want to share some thoughts on AI and its role in the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits have traditionally been slower to adopt emerging technologies, and that's understandable. Budgets are tight, priorities are mission-driven, every investment needs to show clear value. But what's exciting is that over the past year I've seen a noticeable shift. Nonprofits are paying attention to AI. Even if they're not diving in headfirst, they're testing the waters, and that curiosity is a big step forward. Why does this matter? Because when nonprofits engage with new technologies, it drives innovation, not just for that organization or their organization, but for the entire sector. And for us technology as technology partners, it pushes us to learn faster and deliver solutions that create real impact for them. Now, while many of my clients are still in the exploratory phase, my focus this year has been on preparing them for what's coming, especially the security challenges that AI introduces. AI isn't just opportunity, it's also a tool for bad actors. Threats like AI-driven fishing, deep fake attacks, automated social engineering are no longer theoretical. They're active. So we've prioritized building stronger security practices to protect organizations before they scale AI adoption. That means three things education and awareness. We've worked hard to inform leadership and staff about emerging AI threats. Tools like No Before have been invaluable for training teams to recognize and respond to risk. Straightening foundations for clients, ready to engage with AI. We've optimized their Microsoft and Google environments, configuring tenants, enabling secure integrations, and ensuring compliance so they're prepared for an AI-driven workflow when that time is right. And strategic readiness. Beyond security, we're hoping nonprofits think about how AI can add value, whether it's automating donor engagement, improving data analysis, or streamlining operations. The goal is to make AI adoption intentional, not reactive. The bottom line, AI is here. Nonprofits are paying attention. That's exciting because it means the sector is evolving. And we get to play a role in shaping that future safely, strategically, and with impact.

Saba Gebru:

My name is Saba Gebru. I am the VP of support services here at Community IT, and I've been here for a little over 18 years. Today I'm gonna reflect on AI and how AI is related to the nonprofit organization. AI can help nonprofit organizations with planning and automating tasks to improve efficiency. In the meantime, AI tools need to be, you know, um checked for security uh and privacy. What's the the policy, what's the um uh security and privacy policy that the AI tool that's being used. And I know that um there are free tools out there as well as um paid tools. One that comes in mind is uh the note taker um to help out with you know meeting notes and follow-up tasks, and that's great. Uh and there's a lot of things that have been discussed during meetings, and it's it is uh very important to understand where the data is stored and what the policies are, whether it's paid or the free version. So I think that is uh very crucial um to understand at um meetings there are a lot of sensitive information that be discussed. The other thing is also um, as I mentioned earlier, AI can help with uh automation and can help with um improve uh operation, and um it needs to be reviewed, uh proper planning, what's AI is needed for? Do we have AI policy? How are we gonna benefit from this AI policy that needs to be implemented? What is the AI addressing for the nonprofit organization? So that's you know, um that's one thing I would say that it's critic critical that nonprofit organizations uh uh when selecting any AI tool, whether it's an author, whether it's for automation or with uh for data analysis and anything else, uh it is important to you know to plan, to ask important crucial questions, um and how the data is being used or kept where where it needs to be basically with stored. The last thing I would say is um that um is uh AI is important, AI is everywhere, AI is talked about all the time, and it's also a very important number of organizations need to think about their cybersecurity and uh make sure that their data is protected and in a good place.

Steve Longenecker:

This is Steve Longenecker. I'm the director of IT Consulting. For AI, I want to talk about Microsoft Copilot. One of Microsoft's superpowers is that it um provides a suite of services that are really well integrated. Those individual services may not be best in class, but their integration makes up for it. And that's the value proposition of Copilot. It's supposed to be super well integrated into the larger Microsoft 365 stack. It can already see the data in your email, SharePoint, OneDrive, et cetera. So you should be able to ask it questions about that data and get good answers without having to do anything more. Um, my experience of that in 2025 is that it comes up short, and I really have been frustrated by it. Um, there might be different reasons for that. There's those permission guardrails that um Microsoft promises might be causing problems. Um, it turns out that um co-pilots are actually different. There's different copilots developed by the different uh product teams. So, like your Excel copilot might actually be different from your SharePoint co-pilot or your Teams co-pilot. An experience I had just the other day is sort of a case in point. I was asking Microsoft Teams co-pilot to find me a link to the SharePoint library associated with the Microsoft team that I'm a member of. And it it found me files in that library, but it didn't find me the link to the library. And I pressed it, and and Copilot's final answer was, I can't directly pull the live SharePoint link from your environment because I don't have access to your tenants' URLs. However, the link you need is documented in the Microsoft 365 target path column of the file. So it told me how to get the information, but it didn't tell me the link itself. I was just left wondering why. Um, if that integration is not as affirm as it as it's promises to be, then you know what's what is the value of Microsoft Copilot compared to other AI platforms? So it's it was a frustrating thing in 2025. Um I'm gonna explore other AI tools in 2026 more, um, and that'll be an interesting comparison. I'll also note that another Microsoft superpower, um besides their integration, is that they iterate enough until their products are good enough. And I do think that that will happen. I'm sure that Copilot will get better and better and better. But it was pretty unimpressive for me in 2025. The other thing that I wanted, the other topic that I thought I'd um mention in this recording is how much better Microsoft 365 authentication has gotten. And it's been a slow and steady improvement. So in some ways, these are things that you don't notice because it's just getting better, a little bit better all the time. But at Mike at Community IT, we use Microsoft 365 as basically our IDP, it's called, as our single sign-on source of authority for almost all of the apps that we log into. And it's just gotten so easy and it's also so secure that I wanted to give it a shout out. Um I have I log into all of my work apps, um, and those are all being keyed off of my Microsoft 365 identity. And I authenticate using Windows Hello for business on my laptop and on my uh Android Pixel phone. I use um, you know, pass pass keys tied off of my I've registered that device, and then there's pass keys that go off of my um facial ID or my fingerprint biometrics information. And this is really secure. Um that very common these days, adversary in the middle trick where you're tricked into authenticating a device that's out on the internet doesn't work if you're using Windows Hello for Business, since that the device that's out there on the internet isn't already registered, and Windows Hello for Business works on the registered devices. If I lose my phone or my laptop, um I mean the only way to get in is to have my phone or laptop because that's that's those are the registered devices. If I lose them, I'd just report it to our internal IT folks and they would deregister the device. And in the in that time between losing it and them uh uh deregistering it, you know, the the bad actors wouldn't have access to my biometric data. Um, or you could use uh pins if you don't want to use your biometric data. All of which is to say that it's just simple it and it's secure, and I and I love it. And I think any organization should enable Windows Hello for business if they haven't already. And if they're using Macs, they should configure the Mac OS equivalent called platform single sign-on. It's um it's great, it works well, and it's secure, and um, those are all important things in this day and age.

Carolyn Woodard:

Next you'll hear from Eric Solce, who is one of our IT business managers. The IT business manager position is a kind of account manager, but so much more. They have uh business experience and a technical background. Eric actually owned his own MSP, supporting small local businesses in Louisville before joining Community IT. So here's Eric.

Eric Solce:

One thing that nonprofits should know about AI is to review the terms of service and privacy policy for any product you are considering approving for use. It's essential to understand how the AI company is utilizing your data and with whom they are sharing it. Confirm they will not use your data to train their LLM and ensure they are not selling your information to advertisers or giving it to third parties unnecessarily. One thing that is not AI that people should be aware of, is the cost of RAM has been increasing, and you will likely see higher prices when purchasing new equipment. The price increase is being driven by the increased memory usage of AI in RAM and DRAM chips used in video cards for AI applications. Micron, one of the three leading producers of RAM, is ending its production of the consumer line of memory crucial. Over the past 90 days, the cost of memory has doubled or tripled in most cases. Expect to pay more for laptops in 2026.

Nuradeen Aboki:

Hello, I am Nuradeen Aboki, senior consultant at Community IT. And as we wrap up 2025, I want to spotlight a game changer for the year ahead. Microsoft 365 Archive for SharePoint and OneDrive. If you are ready to make your organization's data cleaner, more compliant, and cost effective, this is for you. Let's get ripped for a moment. We've all seen stories draw, old project sites gathering dust, OneDrives multiplying, and version bloat slowing us down. It's not just a headache for IT, it drives up costs, makes searching a chore, and even holds back AI tools like Copilot from delivering their best. But here's the good news. Microsoft 365 Archive lets you move inactive SharePoint sites into cold, compliant storage. You keep admin oversight, search and governance, but clear out clutter from daily collaboration. That means fresher, more relevant content for Copilot and smarter results for everyone. Why does this matter? Archiving separates what's active from what's historical. So your summaries and AI outputs aren't polluted by all drafts. Governance stay strong with retention labels, legal holds, and e-discovery. And admins can always find what they need. As we look to 2026, here are five steps to get your data copilot ready. First move is to define your data life cycle. Decide how active data transitions to inactive, when it's archived and when it's deleted. Secondly, detect inactivity. Set up policies to flag dormant sites and notify owners. Thirdly, archive at the site level. This keeps metadata permissions and admin settings intact. Just note, private teams channels aren't supported yet. The fourth move is to optimize OneDrive cleanup. Departed users' OneDrives can be auto-archived during unlicensed periods. So set those retention policies as soon as you can. Then lastly, here the fifth move is to review and reactivate as needed. Archiving is cost effective and bringing data back is easy when you need it. Let's talk savings. Archives cost less than active storage. Some nonprofits are seeing up to 75% savings. But always check Microsoft's latest pricing before making big moves. In summary, as we head into 2026, nonprofits that embrace lifecycle automation and governance with Microsoft 365 archive will enjoy cleaner workspaces, smarter co-pilot outputs, and lower costs. My advice: start small, pilot with a few sites, measure your savings and search quality, then scale up. Thanks for joining me on this year-end journey.

Carolyn Woodard:

Next, we'll hear from David Dawson, senior engineer at Community IT. David enjoys working with clients that are making a difference in the community and internationally. David has been with Community IT for 24 years and is a treasurer on our team. He's someone that we can all turn to for those advanced questions, and he takes escalations from the help desk. So here are David's thoughts on AI and nonprofit at his clients that he works with, and also reflection on some of the challenges nonprofits are facing this year.

David Dawson:

Hi Carolyn. Here's my two cents about what happened in 2025 and what to look forward to in 2026. Of course, the for 2025, the uh story, of course, the whole year long has been about AI. And I think um I did check when check in with uh clients every now and then about how they're using it because I'm really just uh curious. And I'm just um seeing a lot of people are tinkering at the edges. Um individual uh people or individual departments are using it for uh everything from rewriting things and summarizing things to um I heard about an HR department that's uh analyzing and um uh sifting through um piles and piles of resumes. So that was kind of interesting. Uh from what I hear, it's really what I call tinkering at the edge of tinkering because nobody has built it into their workflows um formally, and uh nobody is um and I don't think that a lot of people are paying for it yet. Um I think these are just um going to this is sort of the adoption curve that we're going to see. And I think maybe in 2026 we're gonna see a lot more people um using it more maybe more formally, maybe more people will be buying licenses, and um and then maybe people will be figuring out how to do two things. One is um how to implement it into their formal processes and um how to um uh really write policies around it as well. Um figure out um how they want to use it and um sort of discussions about that. Um specifically other things for nonprofits. I think in 2025, um I started off this year, you know, really um worried because it seemed like the Trump administration was having this war on nonprofits, closing USAID, and I just didn't know how far they're gonna go. And I think that um sort of the existential uh concerns uh were um you know very present at the beginning of the year, and I really hope that um that nonprofits can really find their footing in um 2026. So um that's uh that's it for me. That's my two cents um AI adoption curve that's only gonna grow and um um relief that um you know we made it through another um year without. Devastation in the nonprofit sector.

Matthew Eshleman:

Hello, my name is Matthew Eshleman, and I'm the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT. When I'm looking back at some of the tech trends and innovations in technology in 2025, you know, I think my first thought is actually not about technology at all. It's about intentionality and focusing on what you want to do as an individual and maybe what you need to do as an organization. I think in the past year we've really seen a lot of organizations take on some new initiatives that probably should have been done a long time ago, such as record retention. But at the end of the day, the solution or the issue that they're trying to address is not really a technology problem at all, but it's it's one of organization governance, uh, of process, and the technology is certainly there to support it. But those changes that are being made are really uh kind of rooted in getting organizations to talk about what they do and to really distill down at its most fundamental level what it is that they you know really need to keep uh a hold of and retain. So from a technology perspective, you know, the more things change, you know, the more uh things stay the same. And you know, while AI uh certainly is attracting the lion's share of the news, uh the marketing dollars, the research information, I think organizations need to pause and not focus on what technology should we use to make our work more effective, or you know, in my line of work is uh in cybersecurity, not what technology is gonna allow us to be more secure, but really focus on what are the essential processes that we take on as an organization. Um and then once we figure out what do we do or how are we doing things, then we can think about how to secure them, how to automate them, how to speed them up, how to make them more reliable, and what technology do we need to do or to put in place to help support that. Because the fact is that no matter what the you know innovative technology that's out there, starting with the technology first is not going to give us the outcomes that we need. Uh, I think it's really important for organizations to focus on uh you know business goals, objectives, who's involved, what are the stakeholders, what are we trying to accomplish. The technology can come to support that. And I really do think AI is going to be revolutionary uh in terms of what it allows organizations to do, but focusing on the problem to solve first, as opposed to what technology do we need to have in place, uh, is going to be the the organizations that figure that out are going to be the most successful. You know, I think a lot of the buzz around AI in the nonprofit world in terms of being able to report grant information or uh generate these reports much more quickly, maybe also highlights that that information is not as I don't know, robust, reliable, or critical as uh people think it is. If if we're being asking our nonprofit clients to generate a lot of busy work, to generate all these different requests and fulfill funding reports, maybe it's not that valuable. We need to focus on uh you know the actual outcomes of the organization and meet organizations where they're at uh and support and fund their mission uh to truly be successful and have transformational impact. I hope that this finds you well. Uh, and I wish you the best as we wrap up 2025 and look forward to the promise of a new year in 2026.