Training & Onboarding
Training and onboarding platforms help nonprofits capture institutional knowledge, create step-by-step guides, and get new staff and volunteers up to speed faster. These tools use AI to automatically generate documentation from recorded workflows, produce video-based training content, and build searchable knowledge bases. For nonprofits dealing with high volunteer turnover or distributed teams, AI-powered training tools reduce the time burden on experienced staff while ensuring consistent, high-quality onboarding experiences.
How AI is Transforming Nonprofit Training and Onboarding
Staff and volunteer turnover is one of the most persistent challenges nonprofits face. Every departure takes institutional knowledge with it, and every new hire or volunteer requires time and attention from experienced staff who are already stretched thin. Traditional onboarding relies on shadowing, verbal explanations, and static documents that quickly become outdated. AI-powered training and onboarding tools change this equation by making knowledge capture fast, automatic, and scalable.
Modern training tools can record a workflow once and instantly generate step-by-step documentation, screenshots, and video walkthroughs that new team members can follow at their own pace. Instead of a senior staff member spending hours explaining how to process a donation in your CRM, update the website, or run a program report, they record themselves doing it once and the tool creates reusable training material automatically. This frees experienced staff to focus on higher-value coaching while new team members have consistent, accurate guidance available on demand.
For nonprofits managing large volunteer programs, AI training tools are especially valuable. Volunteers often come in irregularly, may need refreshers before each shift, and can't receive the same depth of in-person orientation as paid staff. Self-service training materials let volunteers get up to speed without burdening coordinators, while AI-generated documentation ensures every volunteer follows the same procedures regardless of who trained them. The result is more consistent program delivery and reduced coordinator burnout.
What AI Training Tools Can Do
📋 Automatic Process Documentation
AI documentation tools like Tango watch as you perform a task and automatically capture every click, step, and screenshot, producing a polished how-to guide in seconds. What once took an hour to write now takes five minutes to record. Documentation stays accurate because it is generated directly from the actual workflow rather than written from memory.
These guides can be updated in minutes whenever processes change, ensuring training materials never fall out of sync with how your organization actually operates.
🎬 Video-Based Training Content
Async video tools like Loom let staff record their screen and camera together, creating rich training videos with AI-generated transcripts, searchable chapters, and auto-summaries. New team members can watch at their own pace, rewind confusing sections, and search for specific topics without sitting through an entire recording.
AI transcription also makes these videos accessible to volunteers and staff who are deaf or hard of hearing, and enables translation into other languages for multilingual teams.
🗂️ Institutional Knowledge Capture
When a long-tenured staff member leaves, they often take years of undocumented process knowledge with them. AI training tools make it easy to capture that knowledge before departure by recording walkthrough videos and auto-generating documentation libraries that can be searched and referenced by successors.
Building a living knowledge base over time reduces dependence on any single person and gives new hires a foundation of organizational wisdom from day one.
⚡ Self-Service Onboarding
Rather than scheduling back-to-back orientation sessions, nonprofits can build self-paced onboarding paths using a library of training videos and step-by-step guides. New staff and volunteers work through materials on their own schedule, freeing managers from repetitive explanations while ensuring consistent onboarding quality across the organization.
This is especially useful for volunteer programs where individuals join at different times throughout the year and cannot attend cohort-based training sessions.
Building a Training Library That Actually Gets Used
The biggest risk with training tools is creating content that no one can find or bothers to use. Start by identifying the ten most common questions new staff and volunteers ask in their first month. Document those processes first using your chosen tools, then organize materials into a simple, clearly labeled library. Make the library easy to access from wherever people work, whether that's a shared Google Drive folder, your intranet, or a link in Slack.
Assign ownership for keeping documentation current. Training materials only stay useful if someone updates them when processes change. Consider designating a team lead for each department or program area who is responsible for reviewing and refreshing materials on a regular cadence. AI tools make this fast enough that it doesn't become a burden. Updating a Tango guide or re-recording a Loom video typically takes less than ten minutes.
Finally, build documentation into your workflow culture rather than treating it as an afterthought. When a staff member solves a problem they've never encountered before, ask them to record a quick Loom explaining what they did. When a volunteer asks a question that reveals a gap in your materials, create a guide before the next cohort arrives. This ongoing documentation habit compounds over time, building a knowledge base that makes your organization increasingly resilient to turnover. For more guidance on building training programs, see our articles on creating an AI training program and training staff with no AI background.
Available Tools
Loom
Training & Onboarding
Async video messaging platform by Atlassian with AI-powered transcription, auto summaries, chapters, and Jira integration. Record your screen and camera to train volunteers, brief boards, and replace meetings with watchable videos. 75% nonprofit discount.
Free tier (25 videos, 5 min); $15-20/user/month
Tango
Training & Onboarding
Auto-creates step-by-step documentation guides as you work. Chrome extension captures every click and generates polished how-to guides with screenshots in seconds. Ideal for volunteer onboarding, CRM training, and capturing institutional knowledge. Free tier (15 workflows, 10 users). 15% nonprofit discount.
Free tier (15 workflows); $22/user/month Pro
Need Help Choosing?
Not sure which tool is right for your nonprofit? Our team can help you evaluate options, develop an implementation strategy, and build the capabilities you need to succeed.