Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

Nonprofit AI: Big Investments, Resources to Close Your Literacy Gap

• Community IT Innovators • Season 7 • Episode 30

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0:00 | 26:10

Carolyn Woodard covers two major AI announcements breaking today — a landmark philanthropic gift building the country's first "AI-native" hospital, and a massive infrastructure deal between Amazon and Anthropic — and zooms out to ask what all this big-money investment means for nonprofits on the ground. The answer: now more than ever, building your own AI literacy is the most strategic investment your organization can make.

This episode also features a resources roundup with five options for nonprofit staff and foundation professionals who are ready to learn — whether you have 60 minutes or six months.

This episode covers:

  • Michael and Susan Dell's $750 million gift to UT Austin funding the country's first "AI-native" hospital is a signal for nonprofits about where philanthropic capital is heading.
  • What Amazon's expanded investment in Anthropic means for AI infrastructure — and why the unsustainable pace of data center growth may actually push major tech companies toward renewable energy and less resource-intensive locations, a shift that matters for the communities currently bearing the costs of that build-out.
  • Why the most important AI investment your nonprofit can make right now isn't a tool — it's literacy, and why doing it together as an organization matters more than one person figuring it out alone.
  • Five concrete learning opportunities for nonprofit staff at every level.
  • Your city or region may already have free AI literacy programs designed for local nonprofits — it's worth a quick search.
  • "Do I need to pick one AI tool and stick with it?" — why the more important question is whether your organization has a policy about what you're sharing and with whom.

Resources Mentioned:

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Carolyn Woodard

Hello and welcome to this Community IT Innovators Nonprofit AI podcast. This is our regular midweek check-in on AI topics. My name is Carolyn Woodard. I am your host and I am not an AI expert. I'm just curious in AI and eager to understand the ramifications for our sector and provide you with some resources if you're interested to learn more about these tools, how to govern them, policies you may need at your nonprofit, and kind of what's going on in the larger sector in philanthropy and AI and in the world that has an impact on nonprofits and our work. So today I noticed a theme in the news and resources that I pulled out, which is that there's a lot of money moving into AI infrastructure, AI education for the social sector. So there's a lot of money being directed toward nonprofits who want to use AI, often in innovative ways or to improve the way they do their mission. So I know that we're all aware of that, but um if you've been seeing that and feeling that and hearing that, it's definitely going on. So whether you're an AI skeptic, which it's totally okay to be, or an early adopter, um, those big companies and that money is really shaping the sector as it moves forward. And nonprofits are all operating in this sector. So it's good to know about it. I do think that nonprofits being cautious is well deserved. This is a big new tool that requires a lot of change management. It's changing the way we work. It has the potential to be a big disruptor, a big uh transformative power over our missions and what we do and how we do it. So it's right, you're right to be skeptical. It's also, you know, there's a huge bubble right now going on. So if you don't think that company is going to exist, exist six months from now, nonprofits are rightfully cautious to be careful about what they're spending their money on, where they're investing. Um, but definitely I heard at the Good Tech Summit a woman who was presenting about nonprofits that work in the environment and their feelings and kind of conflicting feelings about AI use, is that becoming AI literate in order to make those decisions about how much you invest in AI, whether you're willing to invest in it at all, whether your nonprofit is going to be using AI and how and when you're going to be using AI tools, given the environmental impacts, the community impacts that it's having. Being more informed when you're making those decisions and making them in a deliberative way as a person who is AI literate, uh, I think is always a better plan going forward. So just being very intentional about it. So, with that in mind, one of the stories I wanted to talk about today was an announcement that the Dell Foundation has just donated$750 million to the University of Texas at Austin to build what's being called the country's first AI native hospital. So it's going to be the kind of center point of a hospital expansion that is expected to open in 2030. And it's going to, they're trying to build a fully integrated model that connects prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and research through AI and advanced computing. So it's like built into the DNA of this new hospital that's attached to University of Texas. I just thought it was interesting from a nonprofit standpoint. This is, you know, an area that a lot of nonprofits work in, healthcare. It's a huge private gift to a United States university, uh, which is another area where a lot of nonprofits are working. For nonprofits that work in healthcare, research, social services, um, it's a signal that the philanthropy capital is going to be flowing into AI-integrated programs. And so it's worth thinking about how do you fit within that new environment? It doesn't mean that you have to go chasing AI grants just for the sake of doing something AI, um, but just to be aware that this is a really exciting convergence of these different aspects. And, you know, we've been saying for years that technology and IT and IT management should be integrated into all parts of your grant seeking and grant making uh so that our modern nonprofits can function in a modern world. And I feel like this moment with AI is kind of bringing that home, I guess in a way that regular old IT didn't, but that um understanding that and trying to find ways that AI can't just float on top of what you're doing, but maybe can be better integrated, and that you can argue for your staff having the funding and the time and the space to pursue AI literacy. I think that's definitely an argument worth making to your funders. So, my second story I wanted to bring you, and I will link all of these in our show notes, uh, so don't worry about the URLs, which I will share, and you can look them up yourself. Amazon and Anthropic are forming a closer, a closer connection. Uh, Anthropic, uh Amazon is investing 25 billion in Anthropic, um, which is the producer of Claude, which we've spoken on this pod before about. Claude is really making a play for the nonprofit AI tool space as a, you know, an ethically sourced biodegradable, uh, sustainable AI tool. It's also just a really good AI tool. I've been using it, um, comparing it to Gemini and Copilot, and it is really good out of the box. Like it doesn't take as many iterations for it to be able to do something that you want it to do. I was working on an Excel project this morning with Claude, and I had worked on the same project um separately with Copilot. And I will tell you, Copilot is very, very confident that it can help you with Excel, but it took a lot of time and it still wasn't working. And Claude just was on a different level. It asked me questions about what I was seeing, and then it would go away and think about it for just a minute or two and come back and say, okay, did that fix it? And give me a new iteration. And I was able to, you know, work. It was like we were co-creating the Excel. Um, so it was really almost enjoyable experience. So if you haven't tried Claude yet, um, you know, it's another one that's out there. As we always say, use your work email to log into it and get the paid version, which there's a really deep uh discount for nonprofits. So make sure that you're getting that. But to go back to the story about Claude and Anthropic, um, they are working closely with Amazon Web Services to build the infrastructure, the data centers that they need. So it's interesting. It's I it's not clear yet what this is going to mean in terms of will those data centers that are run through uh Amazon to support Claude be you know using renewable energy or solar or what have you? Or is it just more of the really bad energy using and water guzzling data centers? Um it's not clear, but the fact that anthropic Amazon feels that anthropic's Claude is a good bet at this point is very interesting. Uh, maybe good for us in the nonprofit sector if we begin using it more. Um, but also just kind of re-emphasizing what we've talked about before, all of these tools are concentrated in these six, eight large, large tech companies, uh, and the goodwill of the founders, uh, the goodwill of the board members going after that profit. And um whether I have been hearing recently that yes, the data center energy usage and water usage is really bad now, but it's so unsustainable that the companies themselves are predicting we will be off of fossil fuels for running those data centers. They're just saying that they're going to have to be like it's gonna be a bad 10 years, but um they're already looking at how they can lower those energy costs and lower the water usage as they are feverishly building the uh data centers in the old model. They're they're coming up with new models that they can use with better energy that's more sustainable and cheaper for them. So uh all that to say that um, you know, keeping an eye on these stories is important as we go forward, that big tech money is consolidating around just a few of these AI players and products. And as I said, you know, being cautious and waiting to see how the market is gonna settle down after this big boom is worth it. You know, we don't want to invest in something that's super customized and then, like I said, doesn't exist in six months. Um, but it is really important to continue to invest in your own AI literacy in addition to your AI tools. And um, it just matters a lot right now as we're in this kind of juncture of rapid growth, but also some consolidation. Which brings me to some resources for you about building AI literacy. So there's lots of different levels. There's starting to be some certificates, there's a lot of smaller nonprofit-oriented companies that are jumping into the certification or training space. Um, I wanted to mention a couple that are pretty reputable, just if you're looking for some uh, you know, entry-level training. Uh, we've had Tim Lockheed on the webinar before. He runs a company called the Human Stack. And his philosophy toward IT at nonprofits is that not all nonprofits have the budget to invest in outside consultants or big change management projects or a new CRM or a new uh database, all these um things that larger nonprofits and foundations are able to invest in. A lot of nonprofits just that's not in there in the cards for them. But they do usually have to make their IT work for them. So uh Tim's uh approach is to train someone at your nonprofit to be that tech champion, the tech leader to interact with maybe your executive director, your board, your executive team, so that the team can make strategic decisions about tech investments. And just so this training can kind of up your capacity to manage the tech that you already have. Um, so he has not surprisingly jumped into uh AI training and he has an AI for anyone uh on-demand course. Uh, he does have some other cohort-driven courses. They're very affordable. Their price point is to be affordable. Tim himself, if you talk with him, follow him on LinkedIn. He is uh really has been educating, he's jumped into AI. He's a tech guy, so he's very interested in it and experimenting with it and seeing how it works and how he can pass on that knowledge to others. So that is a good starting point if you're feeling intimidated. If your staff is agitating for some kind of formal AI training, um, he his AI training is not on specific tools, as far as I understand, but it's more on your philosophy, uh, understanding how they work, what you can do with them, and kind of training you up, making that policy, and giving you tools to then go forward at your nonprofit with the tools, the AI tools that you're using there. Um, so that's one option. Uh there is something uh being run by the Fund for the City of New York called the AI for nonprofits sprint. It is right now available to New York City nonprofits and also in Connecticut, but it looks like they're may they may be expanding to a more national program. Um so keep an eye open for that. But starting out in New York, and there it's I thought this was interesting because they um they want 50% or more of your staff to get into this training, the AI for nonprofit sprint. So as I spoke about earlier, um, the idea that we all go off and learn our AI individually alone with the AI really keeps us isolated from each other and from a sector that is a learning sector. It's something the nonprofit sector does well. And it keeps us isolated from each other and from developing a collective voice about how we want these tools to work, the security that we want to be in place, the privacy that we want to be in place, and the things that as a sector we're gonna need to insist on. So doing training together is a really interesting idea. And I just love this idea that they don't want you to send one person for the training, and then suddenly that person is the one who's either gonna do all the AI themselves or train everybody else in their spare time. Um, so I like that approach. And if you're a funder out there or a nonprofit looking for for training, I would urge that group training experience to be a priority because we all get smarter when we learn together. All right, there's another resource I wanted to tell you about that recently was announced, and that is the uh through N10.

SPEAKER_00

The AI for foundations professional certificate, and this is in conjunction with TAG, the Technology Association for Grant Makers.

Carolyn Woodard

So this is geared toward foundation staff. It is a um self-paced certificate program. There's 13 one-hour courses. You can take up to a year to complete it. As I said, it's designed specifically for foundation and grantmaking staff. It covers ethical AI use, operation efficiencies, bias mitigation, strategic planning, all from a foundation uh standpoint. So the things you see need to know about using AI at your foundation for the work that you do, not necessarily in how you would do AI grants to your grantees. Um that's a totally different program. Uh it's open to all. I will share that uh link with you on Inten. Um, and it just looks like a really interesting um self-paced certificate course. So I believe I heard this morning that some people have already uh completed it. So if you're on LinkedIn, you want to have a look for that Intent AI for Foundations uh certificate, have a look for that. And then I did mention before, but the Microsoft Changemaker Fellowship, uh, that is for organizations who are ready to use AI for something that they want to build for their nonprofit to achieve their mission differently, more efficiently, more productively. Um you have an idea for, you know, an AI-enabled strategic plan that uses AI to do something, you know, cool with your community that you work with, or the sector that you work in, or the thing that you do. Um, so that uh change maker fellowship is open and they give you mentoring and I believe there's funding for an AI project at your nonprofit around mission. Um, and then my last thing, you know, I mentioned that New York City program, the AI for nonprofits Sprint. A couple of podcasts ago, I mentioned a similar program in Richmond, Virginia, where the city of Richmond is providing learning space and helping convene committees that are uh interested in AI use, and there's a nonprofit committee, there's a workforce committee. Um, so you may find something locally that's forming at a state or a city or county level that that's promoting AI, and there may be, you know, a nonprofit uh element or uh design to it. So have a look for that. If you have a local foundation uh supporting nonprofits for you locally, they may be doing some kind of AI literacy work uh or have programs or can point you in the right direction. So if this is something that's interesting to you, um go ahead and and uh ask around. Just keep asking your peers and um and working on that. That was what I had for you today. Uh I wanted to answer one question to do a little QA that we've gotten in a couple of our different webinars, and um some clients have been asking about it. It's come up often. You've probably heard it. So, this question of do I need to pick one AI tool and stick with it? Or is it okay to use several? And if I pick one AI tool, do I need to pick the one that goes with the stack I'm using? If I'm using Google Workspace, should I be using Gemini? If I'm using Microsoft, should I be using Copilot? And uh, you know, there's no one size fits all answer to this, but the short answer is you don't need to pick one. Most people in organizations uh end up using more than one tool depending on the task. Right now, they are different than each other. And as I said, the the market is consolidating. So if you are trying one tool and you're just running into roadblocks, it's it's not doing what you're expecting it to do, it's kind of feels like it's wasting your time. Like go ahead and try a different one. Of course, the caveat is again, log in with your work email. And when you can use the uh paid version, even if it's just an individual license, you don't have the license for everyone at your organization. A lot of them are very um affordable, I would say. And again, investigate if they have that nonprofit discount because a lot of them do. You know, it's a lot of us actually are in hybrid workplaces. You know, you're using Google Drive for some things for communicating with your volunteers because it's very, very shareable outside of your organization, but uh within your office, your Microsoft office, and you're communicating with your team members on Teams. Uh, you may be using Slack for some kinds of communication, but email for other kinds of communication. So we all kind of have this uh code switching of which uh tool we use for which situation. So there's a very important question as you're thinking about which AI tool you're going to use. Um, does your organization have a policy already around which tools are appropriate? Are you trying to focus on some of the big, more reputable ones? Are you okay if you find something that's kind of a niche project, but it's built for nonprofits and it does a thing that you want it to do? Uh, do you have uh regulations and policies? You probably already had uh policies around your data, your database and data security. So have you updated those policies or created an AI policy around what kind of data you're allowed to share and whether you're sharing it with these freemium tools like ChatGPT, or if you're only allowed to use it within your own uh cloud-based environment that has protections, or you're only allowed to use a paid version where you have those terms and agreements that protect you and protect your organization. Um, so all of those things are important, of course. You want to be sure that you're using um reputable and qualified tools, and that you know goes for everything that you're using. But you know, if there's a small niche tool that you want to investigate, I was interacting with someone this morning who's using a AI assistant for scheduling called SKEGE, surprisingly enough, and it was a really good interaction. I needed to change some information, and I emailed this virtual assistant and boom, got the invitation changed and the uh link was updated. So, and you know, the person on the other end that I'm making this meeting with didn't have to worry about it all because her AI assistant just did it for her. So, and that is a very small niche product, but you know, it might be this productivity thing that you're like, oh yes, I am totally willing to pay for that, and I don't mind if it uh goes away in a year, I'm gonna use it for a year and make get a lot of use out of it. I I think it's more important than thinking about brand loyalty or stack loyalty to think about those bigger questions of who are you sharing your data with? Who are you asking questions, which AI tool are you asking questions? And are those questions that you're inputting or files that you're inputting being shared back with their company, with their model? Um, or is it, you know, how private is it? Is a better question and what is your policy? So if your organization doesn't have an AI acceptable use policy yet, that is a really important to-do item. Don't put them, put that off while you're worrying about which tool to choose. Definitely those two conversations can go hand in hand. So how does one, as new tools come on the market, how do staff at your organization choose? Do they have to submit it to your IT team? Do they have to submit it to their manager that they want to purchase this new scheduling tool that I just talked about, for example? What is your policy for that? And getting that straight and knowing that you're going to need to be flexible and able to change that policy when new situations arise is a really important conversation to start having if you're not having it already. So go ahead and you know just convene a small committee or an all-staff meeting, whatever makes sense at your organization, but definitely you need to be talking about having that acceptable use policy for AI tools. We have a template on our site. You can Google it. You can ask a tool to help you make one. All of those are acceptable alternatives. But just make sure that even if you just have a one page philosophy of how you use AI tools, that's better than nothing. And you can add on to it as you go forward, especially if you start meeting regularly to check in about AI. How are we using AI this month? What does that say about our policy? Are we running into something that we have questions about? Are we sharing? How are we getting our training? How are we upskilling all of the staff so that we all are coming along on this journey and there's no staff that kind of get left behind, you know, still still making uh copies on the the canon copy machine when actually we're just sharing PDFs online now. You know, you don't want to have that with someone kind of left behind in a technology space. So the sector is getting really serious. It can feel like a tidal wave that's like washing over you and just carrying you along but we do have agency. I've stressed that a lot on this podcast. I hope you feel your agency these are questions and decisions that you can make and that you should make and you have all of the uh information you need to be able to start making them and um you need to find those entry points if you're nervous about AI, a beginner at AI, join the club a lot of us are um there's somebody at your organization who's interested in it, you know, go ask them, talk to your leadership team, talk to your colleagues and you know come back here on Tuesdays and join our community. You can get in touch with me through our website through our podcast over on Reddit at r slash nonprofit IT management. We're happy to talk with you and take your questions and join us again on Fridays for our regular podcast and I'll be back on Tuesday next week with some more nonprofit AI. Thank you and take care of