AI for Nonprofit Teams: Roles, Responsibilities & Practical Use Cases
Development / Fundraising
Lead and manage the fundraising team
Supervise development staff, set expectations, coach performance, and ensure alignment across all fundraising efforts. Leading a development team involves hiring the right people, providing clear direction and support, managing performance, and creating a culture where team members can succeed. You'll set goals, provide feedback, identify training needs, resolve conflicts, and ensure your team has the resources and guidance they need to meet fundraising objectives.
Detailed Breakdown
1
Provide Clear Team Leadership & Direction
A core aspect of leading the fundraising team is defining a shared sense of purpose and ensuring each staff member understands the team's priorities and direction. The Director of Development keeps the team unified around goals, establishes a consistent communication rhythm, and ensures daily work aligns with the broader development strategy. This responsibility is about leading people, not crafting the strategy itself.
- •Communicate organizational fundraising goals in a way that is clear, actionable, and accessible.
- •Set team-wide priorities and ensure alignment across functional roles.
- •Run regular team meetings focused on progress, clarity, and alignment.
- •Translate high-level fundraising plans into team expectations and focus areas.
- •Keep the team informed of changes, emerging priorities, or organizational shifts.
- •Ensure staff understand how their contributions fit into the team's collective success.
How AI Can Help
Communicating Goals & Priorities
What AI can realistically do
- •Translate complex fundraising plans into clear, digestible talking points for team meetings.
- •Generate visual summaries of goals, timelines, and priorities that can be shared with staff.
- •Draft internal communications (emails, memos, meeting agendas) that explain priorities and expectations.
- •Create one-pagers or quick-reference guides that staff can use to stay aligned on goals.
- •Summarize organizational strategy documents into actionable takeaways for the team.
Value for staff
- •Reduces time spent crafting internal communications and meeting materials.
- •Ensures messaging is consistent and clear across all team touchpoints.
Meeting Preparation & Follow-Up
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate team meeting agendas based on current priorities and outstanding action items.
- •Summarize meeting notes and extract action items with owners and deadlines.
- •Draft follow-up emails after team meetings to reinforce key decisions and next steps.
- •Track recurring meeting themes to identify topics that need more attention or resolution.
Value for staff
- •Makes meetings more productive and ensures follow-through on commitments.
- •Saves time on administrative tasks related to team communication.
2
Manage, Coach, and Develop Staff
The Director of Development ensures every fundraising team member is supported, trained, mentored, and set up for success. This includes building a strong talent pipeline, supporting staff through challenges, and providing individualized guidance to help them grow in their roles. Staff management is not just administrative—it is ongoing leadership.
- •Oversee hiring, interviewing, and onboarding for development roles.
- •Provide regular 1:1 meetings for feedback, coaching, and support.
- •Conduct annual and mid-year performance reviews focused on growth and clarity.
- •Identify skill gaps and arrange appropriate training or mentorship.
- •Offer situational coaching for donor meetings, stewardship issues, or workload challenges.
- •Create professional development plans tailored to each staff member.
- •Support retention by fostering a positive, supportive working environment.
How AI Can Help
Hiring & Onboarding Support
What AI can realistically do
- •Draft job descriptions tailored to your team's specific needs and organizational culture.
- •Generate interview questions focused on fundraising competencies and cultural fit.
- •Create onboarding checklists and 30-60-90 day plans for new development staff.
- •Summarize candidate qualifications and flag areas for follow-up during interviews.
- •Draft offer letters and onboarding communications.
Value for staff
- •Streamlines the hiring process and ensures consistent evaluation of candidates.
- •Helps new hires get up to speed faster with structured onboarding materials.
Coaching & Performance Reviews
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate coaching questions and conversation frameworks for 1:1 meetings.
- •Draft performance review templates with competency-based evaluation criteria.
- •Summarize staff activity data (donor contacts, proposals submitted, gifts closed) to inform feedback.
- •Suggest professional development resources based on identified skill gaps.
- •Create individualized development plans with specific goals and timelines.
Value for staff
- •Ensures feedback is grounded in data and delivered constructively.
- •Makes professional development more intentional and personalized.
Situational Coaching
What AI can realistically do
- •Role-play donor meeting scenarios to help staff practice their approach.
- •Suggest talking points or strategies for challenging donor conversations.
- •Provide templates for stewardship communications that staff can customize.
- •Analyze past donor interactions to identify what worked and what didn't.
Value for staff
- •Gives staff practical support for real-world fundraising challenges.
- •Builds confidence through preparation and practice.
3
Establish Clear Workflows, Expectations, and Accountability
This responsibility centers on creating structure: who does what, when, and how. The Director of Development assigns responsibilities, ensures staff have the tools and clarity they need, and follows up to ensure deliverables are met. The emphasis is on managing people's work, not managing the work itself (such as personally drafting grants or writing appeals).
- •Define roles, responsibilities, and boundaries for each team member.
- •Assign tasks and deadlines and ensure staff understand expectations.
- •Monitor staff progress and follow up regularly on commitments.
- •Provide structure for project coordination within the team.
- •Anticipate workload bottlenecks and redistribute tasks as needed.
- •Create predictable team processes and documentation for workflow consistency.
- •Keep staff accountable through check-ins, reminders, and clear follow-through.
How AI Can Help
Workflow Documentation & Role Clarity
What AI can realistically do
- •Draft role descriptions and responsibility matrices for team members.
- •Create process documentation and standard operating procedures for recurring tasks.
- •Generate workflow diagrams showing how tasks move through the team.
- •Develop checklists for complex processes like grant submissions or event planning.
- •Document institutional knowledge and best practices in accessible formats.
Value for staff
- •Reduces confusion about who does what and how things should be done.
- •Creates reference materials that support consistency and training.
Task Management & Progress Tracking
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate task lists from meeting notes or project plans with assigned owners.
- •Create progress reports showing what's on track, at risk, or overdue.
- •Draft follow-up reminders for outstanding deliverables.
- •Analyze workload distribution across team members to identify imbalances.
- •Suggest task prioritization based on deadlines, dependencies, and strategic importance.
Value for staff
- •Makes it easier to stay on top of team commitments without micromanaging.
- •Helps anticipate and prevent bottlenecks before they become problems.
4
Foster a Healthy, High-Performing Team Culture
Culture is a core part of team leadership. The Director of Development cultivates an environment where staff feel motivated, recognized, and emotionally supported. This includes managing interpersonal dynamics, reinforcing team norms, celebrating successes, and ensuring the development office is a positive and collaborative space.
- •Promote a culture of openness, collaboration, and shared success.
- •Celebrate wins—both individual and team—to reinforce positive behavior.
- •Maintain an environment where staff feel comfortable asking for help or raising concerns.
- •Address interpersonal conflict early and in a supportive way.
- •Reinforce team values such as integrity, responsiveness, stewardship, and professionalism.
- •Model resilience and positivity to set the tone for the team.
- •Encourage staff to share ideas and take ownership of their work.
How AI Can Help
Recognition & Celebration
What AI can realistically do
- •Track team wins and milestones that should be celebrated.
- •Draft recognition messages, shout-outs, or award nominations for staff accomplishments.
- •Generate ideas for team celebrations or morale-boosting activities.
- •Create summaries of team achievements for newsletters or organizational updates.
- •Suggest personalized recognition approaches based on individual preferences.
Value for staff
- •Ensures accomplishments don't go unnoticed in busy periods.
- •Makes recognition more consistent and meaningful.
Navigating Interpersonal Dynamics
What AI can realistically do
- •Suggest frameworks for having difficult conversations with staff.
- •Draft talking points for addressing interpersonal conflicts constructively.
- •Provide guidance on mediating disagreements between team members.
- •Generate team-building activity ideas that strengthen collaboration.
- •Offer scripts for reinforcing team norms and expectations.
Value for staff
- •Gives leaders language and approaches for sensitive conversations.
- •Helps address issues proactively before they escalate.
5
Provide Day-to-Day Operational Oversight of Team Activities
This involves the ongoing management of the team's daily efforts—monitoring progress, reviewing staff output, providing guidance, and ensuring tasks move forward smoothly. This does not mean running the fundraising operations personally; it means ensuring the people doing the work stay organized, resourced, and on track.
- •Monitor team activity levels and ensure steady progress toward goals.
- •Review staff work for completeness, tone, and alignment with expectations.
- •Offer practical guidance when staff encounter obstacles or uncertainty.
- •Help team members prioritize tasks and organize their workflow.
- •Anticipate operational challenges and intervene early.
- •Ensure meetings, deadlines, and internal processes run smoothly.
- •Serve as a point of escalation for staff needing leadership direction.
How AI Can Help
Activity Monitoring & Reporting
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate daily or weekly activity summaries showing donor contacts, proposals, and progress.
- •Create dashboards that visualize team activity levels and pacing toward goals.
- •Flag when activity levels drop or when key metrics trend in concerning directions.
- •Compare current activity to historical benchmarks and highlight variances.
- •Summarize CRM activity logs into actionable insights for leadership review.
Value for staff
- •Provides visibility into team activity without requiring manual tracking.
- •Enables early intervention when issues arise.
Work Review & Quality Assurance
What AI can realistically do
- •Review draft communications for tone, clarity, and alignment with messaging guidelines.
- •Check proposals and appeals for completeness against standard requirements.
- •Suggest edits to improve donor-facing materials before they're sent.
- •Identify inconsistencies in how staff approach similar tasks.
- •Provide feedback templates for common types of staff work product.
Value for staff
- •Ensures quality without requiring the leader to personally review everything.
- •Helps staff improve their work independently over time.
6
Build Team Capacity Through Structure and Tools
Leading the team includes ensuring they have the systems, processes, and tools necessary to perform well. This is not about managing the CRM itself, but about ensuring the team is trained, supported, and consistently using the tools required for their roles.
- •Ensure staff understand and properly use required systems and tools.
- •Provide or arrange training on internal processes and technologies.
- •Create and maintain procedural guides that support team operations.
- •Identify inefficiencies in workflow and adjust processes accordingly.
- •Standardize internal practices to ensure consistency across team members.
- •Evaluate team structure and recommend staffing adjustments when needed.
- •Ensure new team members are set up with the tools and resources required for success.
How AI Can Help
Training & Documentation
What AI can realistically do
- •Create step-by-step guides for using the CRM, email tools, or other systems.
- •Generate training materials for common fundraising processes and workflows.
- •Draft quick-reference cards for frequently used procedures.
- •Convert existing documentation into more accessible formats (FAQs, videos scripts, etc.).
- •Create knowledge base articles that staff can search when they have questions.
Value for staff
- •Reduces the time leaders spend answering repetitive how-to questions.
- •Empowers staff to find answers independently.
Process Improvement
What AI can realistically do
- •Analyze workflow data to identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies.
- •Suggest process improvements based on best practices and benchmarks.
- •Draft new procedures when workflows need to change.
- •Compare how different team members approach the same tasks to identify standardization opportunities.
- •Generate recommendations for tools or automations that could save time.
Value for staff
- •Helps continuously improve team efficiency without major consulting engagements.
- •Identifies opportunities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
7
Conduct Performance Monitoring and Support Improvement
While goal-setting may be part of fundraising strategy, monitoring staff performance falls squarely under team management. The Director of Development must ensure staff are meeting expectations, address issues promptly, and provide coaching or correction when performance slips.
- •Track each team member's progress against individual goals.
- •Provide regular feedback based on observed performance.
- •Identify early signs of underperformance and intervene supportively.
- •Create individualized improvement plans when needed.
- •Document feedback and coaching to ensure clarity and accountability.
- •Hold staff responsible for following processes, meeting deadlines, and producing quality work.
- •Recognize strong performance and encourage continued excellence.
How AI Can Help
Performance Tracking & Analysis
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate individual performance dashboards showing progress against goals.
- •Compare staff performance to benchmarks and historical trends.
- •Identify patterns in performance data that might indicate emerging issues.
- •Create reports showing activity metrics, outcomes, and efficiency measures.
- •Flag when staff are falling behind on key metrics before it becomes critical.
Value for staff
- •Makes performance monitoring data-driven rather than subjective.
- •Enables proactive intervention before small issues become big problems.
Feedback & Improvement Planning
What AI can realistically do
- •Draft performance feedback using specific examples from activity data.
- •Generate improvement plan templates with clear goals, timelines, and support structures.
- •Suggest coaching strategies based on the type of performance issue.
- •Document feedback conversations and track follow-up commitments.
- •Create recognition messages that highlight specific accomplishments and their impact.
Value for staff
- •Ensures feedback is specific, constructive, and well-documented.
- •Makes difficult conversations easier to prepare for and follow through on.
8
Manage Communication Flow Within the Team
A strong leader ensures effective communication channels exist within the team—so that information doesn't get lost, tasks aren't duplicated, and everyone stays aligned. The Director of Development facilitates clarity and consistency in internal communication.
- •Establish communication norms, channels, and expectations.
- •Ensure timely dissemination of important updates or decisions.
- •Clarify who communicates what—to whom and when—to avoid confusion.
- •Encourage transparent sharing of progress, challenges, and concerns.
- •Prevent communication bottlenecks by redistributing information effectively.
How AI Can Help
Communication Systems & Standards
What AI can realistically do
- •Draft communication guidelines that clarify when to use email, Slack, meetings, etc.
- •Create templates for common internal communications (updates, requests, handoffs).
- •Generate RACI matrices showing communication responsibilities for different scenarios.
- •Summarize long email threads or Slack conversations into key points and action items.
- •Identify communication gaps by analyzing where information tends to get stuck.
Value for staff
- •Reduces confusion and ensures information flows efficiently.
- •Creates consistency in how the team communicates.
Information Distribution
What AI can realistically do
- •Draft team updates summarizing key decisions, changes, or announcements.
- •Create digests of relevant organizational news that the team should know about.
- •Generate talking points for cascading information from leadership meetings.
- •Reformat complex information into digestible formats for different audiences.
- •Track what's been communicated to whom to prevent gaps or redundancy.
Value for staff
- •Saves time on routine communication tasks.
- •Ensures important information reaches everyone who needs it.
9
Support Team Morale, Well-Being, and Sustainability
Fundraising can be demanding, and part of leadership is protecting your team from burnout and maintaining sustainable workloads. This is a distinct management responsibility that directly impacts productivity and retention.
- •Monitor staff stress levels and intervene before burnout occurs.
- •Encourage healthy boundaries around workload and availability.
- •Adjust expectations during peak fundraising periods to maintain balance.
- •Provide emotional support and validation during challenging fundraising cycles.
- •Build a sense of community and mutual support within the team.
How AI Can Help
Workload Monitoring & Balance
What AI can realistically do
- •Analyze workload distribution to identify staff who may be overloaded.
- •Track patterns in work hours, after-hours activity, or deadline crunches.
- •Model workload scenarios to help plan for busy periods without burning out staff.
- •Suggest task redistributions when workloads become unbalanced.
- •Generate reports on team capacity and utilization over time.
Value for staff
- •Helps leaders spot burnout risks before they become retention problems.
- •Enables more intentional workload planning during peak periods.
Team Connection & Support
What AI can realistically do
- •Generate ideas for team check-ins, social activities, or wellness initiatives.
- •Draft messages that acknowledge challenging periods and express appreciation.
- •Create pulse survey questions to gauge team morale and well-being.
- •Summarize survey results and suggest follow-up actions.
- •Provide resources on stress management, work-life balance, and resilience.
Value for staff
- •Makes well-being a consistent priority rather than an afterthought.
- •Gives leaders practical tools for supporting team members.