I remember frantically calling my coworker two years ago when I first heard AI was coming to grant writing. I’m pretty sure I dramatically announced: “That’s it! We’ll be out of jobs in 6 months.” Fast forward two years later, and a host of AI tools promising to save us time and write proposals for us have come and gone. Some are now trying to be reborn with new insights around what it really takes to reproduce the human elements of grant writing and fundraising. And while I am relieved to see that the AI revolution hasn’t quite succeeded in replacing us yet, I strongly believe it will completely change how we do our work. It’s not a matter of if, but how.
The Bigger AI Question for Nonprofits Is Equity
There are a host of important and inevitable AI-related issues that will affect grantwriters, fundraisers, and the nonprofits we serve. Sure, there are your standard concerns around cringey “AI slop” (i.e., low-quality, AI-generated content) and sometimes false, made-up content that fills AI narrative. But what concerns me most are profound issues around the use of AI and equity.
We need to shift the conversations, which have thus far mainly focused on how well AI can do our work, to the downstream impacts of AI use on the nonprofits carrying out some of our community’s most important, human-centered work.
AI is the newest digital equity issue.
What the Internet Era Taught Us About Access and Power
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet.org promised a free and accessible internet that would revolutionize human connection globally? Fast forward, and we now have a billionaire who continues to amass much of the world’s resources, all while controlling how we share family photos, advertise, get information about politics, and connect with our “friends”.
The idealist in me believed that AI would naturally help the little guy and “level the playing field”. I envisioned the struggling nonprofit that couldn’t afford a grant writer, the person with great ideas who wasn’t a great writer, and the overburdened executive director finally getting that winning proposal in and funded. In the past, having a well-written and polished application could really set you apart from the rest. With the help of early AI, I had hoped we could change all of that.
If we revisit our early idealism about the internet and apply the lessons we have learned since, we can see the same short-sided patterns repeating, this time at a far larger and more consequential scale. Access to AI alone does not democratize opportunity or guarantee the full benefits of its use. True AI equity takes into account who designs it, who benefits from using it and how, and who has the up-to-date skills and capacity to use it.
How AI Could Widen the Nonprofit Opportunity Gap
In some cases, AI is already helping nonprofits. We are seeing more and more applications being submitted because of AI products, proof that many organizations are able to apply with just a little more support. But are these applications now equal? No. Connections still matter. Relationships and networks still matter. Social capital is still at play. And notably, how an organization uses AI matters. Without the proper skills and training, AI is far from an automatic tool of democratization. It can be clunky, discouraging, and leave people swearing it off. What’s more, generic AI-generated content can actually harm your applications’ chances of standing out.
A recent report from Microsoft found that AI is already being used most heavily by higher-income countries, while research from Brookings shows that AI use is highest among individuals with more education. This trend, if left unaddressed, will likely deepen inequality, concentrate resources among those already advantaged, and push out those who lack the knowledge, skills, or awareness needed to adopt these tools effectively.
Moreover, I fully anticipate that we will see a wave of new tech companies creating tools for nonprofits to solve our problems, but perhaps missing the important nuances behind why mission-based organizations have the processes and procedures that we do.
Why Nonprofit Technology Must Reflect Nonprofit Values
It’s not only a matter of simplifying tasks; it is also about ensuring that our operations are aligned with our values.
I sincerely hope that new technologies will be built with movement leaders on their teams and area experts on human rights who understand the work and mission-based orientations of nonprofits.
Representation & Ethics Matter in AI Development
An example I observed recently relates to representation in AI. When I talk about representation, I am not just talking about who creates AI, but who is represented by AI, and in this case, AI agents. I came across a development AI agent that was clearly designed to appear as a woman of color. As a woman of color, when I saw this, what struck me wasn’t “Oh, cool, look, a woman-of-color bot.” Instead, I felt uneasy that the visual identity of a group already underrepresented in nonprofit leadership and development was being used (even if inadvertently) to gain credibility with donors. Who is actually in these roles matters. Substituting an “advanced bot” (my non-expert definition) for an authentic representation can feel deceptive. I truly don’t believe that the people using this tool, or even those who created it, intended harm. Nonetheless, the implications of using identities in this way call for careful ethical consideration.
A Call to Action for Nonprofit Leaders
All this to say, I have not lost hope. The conversations we are having now will shape what becomes inevitable, and who gains professionally and financially from harnessing these tools. We need to go deeper, think further down the line. Despite its pitfalls, nonprofits can and should use AI to reduce mental overload, take on mundane tasks, and free people to do high-level thinking and utilize the specialized expertise required for their work. Too many nonprofit leaders are drowning in bureaucratic processes that eat up their time and drain the joy from their work.
My call to action is this: nonprofit leaders and practitioners must have a seat at the table in shaping the technology that is being built to “help us.” But participation requires capacity. It requires tools, time, training, and, in many cases, funding to invest in AI infrastructure. Without that foundation, nonprofits will miss out on the true potential and prosperity this technology could deliver.
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Page Consulting Group helps nonprofits secure foundation funding through a proven three-phase process grounded in research, strategy, and execution.