AI Capability Building

For boards, executive directors, and senior leadership

Leadership buy-in is the single most important factor in successful AI adoption. Our executive briefings give board members and senior leaders a clear, jargon-free understanding of what AI can realistically accomplish for their organization, what risks to watch for, and how to make informed investment decisions.

These sessions are designed to be concise and high-impact, typically running 90 minutes to half a day. We cover the current AI landscape, relevant use cases in the nonprofit sector, governance considerations, and strategic planning frameworks. Leaders leave with a practical mental model for evaluating AI opportunities rather than a list of tools to buy.

We also address common leadership concerns such as cost, data privacy, staff displacement, and reputational risk, providing honest assessments rather than hype. The goal is to help your leadership team ask the right questions and set realistic expectations for the organization's AI journey.

For all staff members, regardless of technical background

This is our most popular program and the one we recommend as a starting point for most organizations. The AI Foundations Workshop builds a shared vocabulary and baseline understanding across your entire team. Everyone, from the receptionist to the program director, learns what AI is, how it works at a conceptual level, and where it fits into the work they already do.

The workshop covers key concepts like machine learning, natural language processing, and generative AI without requiring any technical background. We use real nonprofit examples throughout, showing how organizations similar to yours are using these tools for donor communications, grant research, data analysis, volunteer coordination, and more.

By the end, participants understand the opportunities and limitations of current AI technology, can identify potential applications in their own roles, and feel confident joining conversations about AI without feeling lost or overwhelmed. This shared foundation makes every subsequent training program and AI initiative more effective.

Hands-on sessions for staff ready to apply AI in daily work

This is where theory becomes practice. In our AI Tools Lab, participants sit down with the actual tools they will use in their roles and work through structured exercises designed to build real proficiency. We cover prompt engineering techniques, output evaluation, iterative refinement, and workflow integration across tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, and other platforms relevant to your stack.

Exercises are built around real tasks from your organization. Fundraisers practice drafting donor appeals and analyzing giving patterns. Program staff work on reporting and impact narratives. Communications teams generate content calendars and social media copy. The exercises are not hypothetical. They produce real deliverables that participants can use immediately after the session.

We also spend significant time on critical thinking skills, teaching staff how to evaluate AI outputs for accuracy, bias, and appropriateness. Knowing how to prompt well is important, but knowing when to trust, verify, or reject an AI response is equally essential for responsible use.

Training internal advocates to sustain momentum

The most successful AI adoptions are driven from within. Our AI Champions Program identifies and trains a small cohort of enthusiastic staff members to become your organization's internal AI experts, mentors, and advocates. These champions serve as the bridge between external training and lasting organizational change.

Champions receive advanced training that goes deeper than standard workshops. They learn how to evaluate new AI tools, design simple automations, facilitate peer learning sessions, troubleshoot common issues, and advocate for responsible AI practices across their teams. We also equip them with facilitation materials so they can run their own training sessions long after our engagement ends.

This program is typically delivered over four to six weeks, with a combination of intensive workshops and coaching sessions. By the end, your organization has a distributed network of AI-literate leaders who can support colleagues, surface new opportunities, and help maintain momentum. Read more about why this approach works in our article on building AI champions within your nonprofit.

Role-specific programs tailored to individual teams

Different departments have different needs, and a one-size-fits-all training approach rarely delivers the depth required for meaningful skill development. Our custom department training programs are designed for specific teams, whether that is your development office, communications department, programs team, finance unit, or HR function.

Each program is built around the tools, workflows, and challenges unique to that department. For a development team, we might focus on AI-assisted prospect research, personalized donor communications, and grant writing support. For a programs team, the emphasis might be on data collection, impact measurement, and beneficiary feedback analysis. For communications, we would cover content generation, social media strategy, and brand voice consistency.

These focused sessions allow us to go deep rather than broad, giving team members the specific skills and confidence they need to integrate AI into their daily routines. We work closely with department leaders to define learning objectives, select relevant exercises, and measure outcomes that matter to their function.