The title of this episode says “policy,” because that’s what most people call it. But I don’t think most nonprofits should start with a policy. AI changes too fast. A list of approved tools and banned uses can be out of date almost as soon as you finish writing it. What you need is a framework, something that gives your staff principles they can apply when they run into a situation nobody anticipated.
In this episode we build that framework together. We start with an audit of what your team is already doing with AI, and I’ll tell you how to run it so it doesn’t feel like a sting operation. Then we write a two or three sentence principles statement and pick three to five commitments: how AI touches your relationships, your data, your public content, the truth of your stories, and the decisions you make about people. You’ll notice none of them name ChatGPT or Claude or any other tool. Tools change. Principles last longer.
I also spend some time on a phrase almost every AI policy includes: “AI-generated work must be reviewed by a human.” Glancing at a fundraising letter for twenty seconds and hitting send technically counts. That’s not the standard. The standard is ownership. Who is willing to put their name on it?
I walk through what a complete framework looks like for an eight-person nonprofit. It fits on one page. I also share a sample public statement you can adapt for donors and partners, plus why you need one person, not a committee, who owns all of it.
Your homework is version one of your framework. Four pieces. Then show it to someone on your team and ask, “Where would this fail in real life?”
Part of the AI for Nonprofits series. Download the free companion workbook at https://nonprofitfundraising.com/ai
If you're ready to put this into practice with your team, I built a course for exactly that: Build Your AI Fundraising Assistant. It walks you through building one shared AI assistant that knows your voice, your approved numbers, and your real stories, with a person in the loop on every draft. It's made for small development teams, so the time you save can go back to your donors.
