Whether you are an AI novice wondering how to catch up quickly, or an AI early adopter always looking for a new tool you can use at your nonprofit, we hope you will join us every Tuesday for another quick update on what is going on in the world of Nonprofits and AI.

Takeaways and resources from Ep 2:

Microsoft

TechSoup https://www.techsoup.org/: A membership driven nonprofit IT resource, particularly for discounted licenses, with a large knowledgebase on many IT tools nonprofits use. AI resources for Microsoft tools, including training: https://techsoup.course.tc/catalog/exploring-ai-with-microsoft-tools

Google

Generative AI training and help: extensive resources on using Gemini, including nonprofit-specific use cases and examples.

The Human Stack

Built around up-skilling your existing nonprofit staff to better manage IT, offers affordable workshops and classes, including a 60 minute course for getting better at AI. https://thehumanstack.com/

Perplexity and Charity Navigator

Perplexity is an AI tool that announced a partnership with Charity Navigator to use the Charity Navigator database to improve outputs when asking about nonprofits. https://www.perplexity.ai/hub/blog/research-nonprofits-with-charity-navigator-on-perplexity

As with all AI tools, follow your nonprofit's guidelines and policies when logging into non-enterprise accounts - enterprise licenses are more secure and offer more privacy, so use them when you can!

Claude and Candid

Claude is Anthropic's AI tool, and has partnered with Candid to improve outputs when researching nonprofits, grants, foundations, etc. To learn more: https://candid.org/blogs/claude-for-nonprofits-candid-mcp-connector-access-nonprofit-data-ai-assistant/

Q&A

Want to ask a question about nonprofit AI and get an answer on a future episode? Got a use case you want to share? A cautionary AI tale you want to warn other nonprofits about? Let's grow this community! Get in touch with Carolyn here, on our website, or on reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/NonprofitITManagement/

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Learn how to manage valuable data every day at your nonprofit.

Director of Data and Systems at the Greater Washington Community Foundation in Washington DC, Jenn Walen, discusses her role in managing data policies and training and supporting nonprofit staff in keeping data clean and organized.

Jenn stresses that you need a single source of truth, standards for data entry, and policies. Spending the time to decrease the time spent pulling reports and seeing the whole picture is extremely valuable in this moment. Jenn shares advice and experiences in getting your nonprofit’s data where you want it to be.

Everybody wants to look good. Good data helps everyone at your organization look good – to your board, your executives, your donors, your constituents. And good data saves everyone time.

Additionally, nonprofits looking for one thing they can do to protect themselves in this political environment should look to their data governance and standards. This project doesn’t have to involve highly paid consultants or new expensive tools. It just takes prioritization, time, and good change management.

Recommendations:

Be consistent. Create standards and uphold them. No exceptions.

If you need data governance documentation, templates and assistance are available online. You don’t have to start from scratch, ask your colleagues.

Kindness along the way is important. This is not easy. Data clean up is a pain. Everyone lending a hand can help create solidarity and a culture of accuracy. Support your colleagues!

People learn in multiple ways and with multiple styles. Provide training and support to meet them where they are.

Get support from leadership to emphasize data clean up priorities.

It is so satisfying when the data is in good shape. The rewards for doing the hard work are great.

Is there an AI tool that can do this for you?

AI tools are helpful. Start with education and training on the tools you plan to use. The tools you can use will depend on your database. Get the training from your vendor on the AI that is being incorporated into your tool. Work with a data consultant to understand implementing AI to understand the implications, the security, and matching the tool to your needs and use policies.

Every output from AI needs to have a human review. Don’t expect to give AI your data and have it sort and clean it for you with minimum input from humans.

Be careful. Respect confidentiality and follow your organization’s data governance policies. Think about how you would want an organization to handle your own data.

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Community IT is starting a new series today: Nonprofit AI. Midweek we will share 10-15 minutes of updates about AI and nonprofits - including current news stories, tips, definitions, use cases, frameworks, and resources.

Whether you are an AI novice wondering how to catch up quickly, or an AI early adopter always looking for a new tool you can use at your nonprofit, we hope you will join us every Tuesday for another quick update on what is going on in the world of Nonprofits and AI.

Takeaways and resources from Ep 1:

1. How AI Works: The Fast-Paced Library

Think of a Large Language Model (LLM) like a super-fast librarian who has read almost everything ever written. When you ask a question, the AI doesn't "look up" a file; it predicts the next word in a sequence. It processes your request into small "packets" of data (tokens) that are sent to massive datacenters. There, billions of mathematical calculations happen in milliseconds to return a response that sounds human.

2. Embedded AI vs. Prompting AI

You are already using AI, even if you haven't opened a chatbot.

• Embedded AI: This is "hidden" technology inside tools you use daily, like Google Search algorithms, GPS route optimization, or even your email’s spam filter.
• Prompting AI: This is "Generative AI" like ChatGPT or Gemini, where you actively start a conversation (a "prompt") to create something new, like a draft email or a report summary.

3. Use Enterprise Logins

You should use the Enterprise versions of tools like Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini (logging in with your work account) rather than the free, public versions. This should keep your data "walled off." This ensures your donor information or internal notes aren't used to train the public model or seen by anyone outside your organization.

4. Policies are Your Starting Point

While many nonprofits are still catching up on formal IT governance or employee handbooks, AI represents a unique moment to start documenting your "rules of the road." You don't need a 50-page document, but you do need clear guidelines for your team on what data can be shared with AI, who is responsible for fact-checking AI outputs, and how your organization discloses AI use.

5. It is Okay Not to Know Everything

Your role as a leader is to focus on strategy and ethics, not the underlying code. It is perfectly professional to say, "I'm still evaluating how this tool fits our mission," or "I need more information on the privacy implications before we proceed."

Resources:

What is Generative AI? – IBM

AI for Nonprofits: What You Need to Know – In the Microsoft/TechSoup Digital Skills Center

AI Is Already in Your Nonprofit – Community IT Innovators

AI Suitability Kit for Nonprofits - NetHope

Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Nonprofits – The Nonprofit Alliance

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Community IT CEO Johan Hammerstrom walks through how to think about your nonprofit IT budget at any time, but particularly if you anticipate facing steeper challenges and may have to scale back. What are the three “buckets” of your IT needs, and how can you best manage your costs while keeping efficiency and functionality? What is a nonprofit IT budgeting strategy that will work for you in 2026?

More extensive resource on nonprofit IT budgeting:

Discovering the Value of Your Nonprofit IT Budget webinar with Johan Hammerstrom.

Takeaways:

In decades of assisting hundreds of nonprofit clients with putting an IT budget together – often coaching how to create and talk about the budget with stakeholders, executives, and board members – Community IT CEO Johan Hammerstrom has come to think of your nonprofit IT budget in three “buckets.” Every nonprofit has a different budget process, so take that into account when connecting your IT needs and priorities to your own process.

Remember that your IT budget is not a technology task. It is a technology + business needs task. You need to incorporate the big picture. And don’t forget that IT is just another strategic asset that you manage like your lease, your programs, your payroll.

Don’t make assumptions about what is “too expensive.” If you want to recommend something in your IT budget, make the case for it

Necessity/Non-Negotiable

Licenses and subscriptions are non-negotiable. Luckily, licenses are usually predictable, fixed costs per seat.

Infrastructure needs to be current.

Cybersecurity is non-negotiable. Make sure your protections are following best practices. Use your financial auditing process and insurance checklists to update and upgrade your cybersecurity.

Can Postpone (and Plan For)

Laptop replacements.

Redesigning your website.

Older server replacement/moving to the cloud for all functions.

Everything that can be postponed should come down to a business decision.

Discretionary (Can Postpone Indefinitely)

Updating systems like a CRM or other software. Where there is no critical immediate impact of not updating, the organization can make a long term plan to do the updates relative to other, more critical and immediate needs, knowing that times and needs may change, costs may come down, AI may change the software/system landscape entirely.

When facing difficulty with funding, you will need to prioritize immediate needs and long-term needs.

Having a relationship with your funder where you can talk about your planning and decision making can help. Having a nonprofit IT Roadmap is a big help.

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

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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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Are you the tech helper in your family? In your office?

Community IT intern Jack Woodard on lessons learned over years of helping less-tech-savvy people learn the technology they need to do what they need and want to do.

Takeaways on How to Be a Tech Helper

Be patient

• People who are having trouble with tech get very frustrated, and they also get very down on themselves for not being able to understand it. They aren’t setting out to be annoying or hard to deal with, but they can get very defensive or just have a lot of trouble following what you are asking them to do, especially if they have difficulty seeing or hearing.
• People having trouble with tech have a lot of anxiety around doing the wrong thing – especially with all the scams out there. But they also want to be participating – they don’t want to miss out. So taking all that into account when you interact with any staff member or family member is good practice to help meet them where they are.

Be a teacher, not a doer

• If the less-tech-savvy person in your life is struggling to use tech, doing it for them will reinforce that they are not capable. Instead, do a lot of listening. Identify the real problem (it may not be what they think is the issue.) Then walk the person through how to do it by asking them to do it while you stand by ready to help.
• Describe what they need to click on. Don’t use a lot of jargon.
• Have the person take notes, especially if they don’t use this particular app or do this particular thing every day. The next time they need to do it, they can refer back to their written instructions.
• If they are upset by updates that change things, consider teaching them to use keyboard shortcuts where available, because these change less frequently.
• Help them get organized and put the apps and tools they use most frequently where they can find them quickly at a glance. Organizing is deeply personal – so don’t impose your way of doing things on them. As a tech helper, follow their lead!
• Walk through each step with them. Most people will continue to do something “the way they learned how” indefinitely. Use that to your advantage if you want them to do it a new way. Make sure they have learned the steps and they will probably be able to repeat them time after time.
• Don’t forget accessibility features. Many people who struggle with tech may be hard of hearing or have difficulty seeing. Modern tech has lots of features to help, like strong contrast, screen readers, and hearing aids that can be connected to other devices directly.
• Microsoft Accessibility Knowledgebase
• Google Workspace Accessibility for Users (can also find the Accessibility Guide for Administrators)
• Mac Guide to Accessibility

Community IT seeks to provide trusted advice and guidelines for nonprofit tech helpers around the holidays and throughout the year. If you have questions on staying safe with technology, especially in the age of AI, it is better to ask someone than struggle alone.

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What scams are circulating and how can you protect yourself and your organization?

Nonprofit Cybersecurity expert and Community IT CTO Matt Eshleman runs through common scams and new tactics that we are seeing at nonprofits and simple steps you and your staff can take at this time of year to be better protected.

Takeaways on Nonprofit Cybersecurity for the Holidays

Common scams

• “Your package couldn’t be delivered” … this email tries to get you to click on a link or respond in some way, using social engineering/helpfulness/urgency to trick you into helping a colleague or sorting out a problem with a package.
• “The Executive Director needs to purchase holiday gift cards for staff” … a variation on the “gift card” scam oriented towards the end of the year, holiday parties, gifts for donors or volunteers.
• Pop-up “your computer has been compromised, call this number” scam … often the pop-up can’t be closed (you should shut down and log back in, and alert someone on your actual IT help desk team.)

New Scams

• Spam bombs… followed by a helpful call from “the IT help desk” ... this scam will inundate your inbox with hundreds to thousands of spam email an hour. This scam tries to get the victim anxious at the spam attack and relieved when “the help desk” notices an increase in spam and reaches out to help.
• AI deep fake voice and video scams… growing in presence as the tools to create deepfakes become more available and affordable.

Protections Against Holiday Scams

• Stay suspicious, particularly at the end of the day before a holiday break and the week before that break.
• Be particularly suspicious of in-bound calls and new contact information at any time of year, but particularly around the holidays. Do not give your log in credentials or other information to someone who called or texted you, claiming to be from IT or your bank.
• Review your incident response plan, particularly your phone tree, before the holidays. Make sure you know who to call to report a suspicion or problem, and make sure that your point of contact has a substitute for when they are out of the office for the holidays. Who is “on call”?
• Have strong cybersecurity already in place. Strong passwords, MFA requirements, physical MFA keys for staff who are particularly targeted like your Executive Director and CFO, staff training on the importance of cybersecurity to protect your organization – maybe even a quick training on holiday scams to watch out for … taking proactive steps will give you peace of mind during your holidays.
• Do not be tricked into using a work-around. Always use your established procedures.
• Do report something, using your incident response plan. If you did click on something suspicious at 5pm on a Friday, use your response plan to report it immediately to the person on call for your cybersecurity.

Community IT seeks to provide trusted advice and guidelines for nonprofit cybersecurity safety around the holidays. If you have questions on cybersecurity assessments, staff training, incident response plans, or other cybersecurity topics, reach out and schedule a conversation or assessment with Matt.

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Johan Hammerstrom hosts the podcast this week, interviewing Carolyn Woodard on her nonprofit IT management capacity growing pet project.

100% of nonprofits struggle with IT management capacity – whether it’s optimizing limited budgets, selecting the right tools, or building sustainable tech staffing models. Or just knowing where to turn for trustworthy, professional advice. We need structured connection to share best practices and elevate what works in IT management at nonprofits. We hope this community of practice will gather best practices and that it will snowball, attracting more participants with more experiences and ideas to share.

By publicizing proven approaches, we can develop the scalable best practices the broader nonprofit sector needs. By sharing widely within the philanthropy sector, we can reach more nonprofits and stakeholders with the opportunity to manage IT effectively.

• Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG) is a membership organization of foundations, funders, and vendors, that shares knowledge and experiences with technology in philanthropy.
• Carolyn Woodard has been working in collaboration with Jean Westrick and Gozi Egbuonu at TAG to create a community of practice around better defining the challenges around IT support for nonprofits and grantees, and to gather and better disseminate best practices.
• When nonprofits have functioning and strategic IT they are 4 times more likely to be effective at achieving their missions. How, as a community, can the stakeholders come together in partnership to grow IT management capacity, IT funding, and IT strategic planning as a leadership component of any effective nonprofit?
• Together, TAG and Community IT curated a series of three events around this topic: a panel discussion with experts from providers, foundations, and TAG laying the groundwork of the issue; a mini-convening meet-up of interested stakeholders at the TAG Conference in 2025; and the release of a white paper in early 2026 outlining the nonprofit IT management landscape, existing resources, and areas for building out best practices.
• To join this community of practice and stay updated on events and publications, get in touch with Carolyn, through our contact us page or on Linkedin.

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