Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming organizations across every industry. Nonprofits are no exception! For mission-driven organizations working with limited resources, AI helps them work smarter, reach more people, and make a bigger impact than ever before.
However, while AI presents exciting possibilities, its adoption comes with challenges. As the leader overseeing daily operations, Chief Operating Officers will need to be strategic in integrating AI tools into their team’s workflow to improve outcomes. If they prepare well, they can make investments that directly contribute to an organization’s strategic objectives and drive the most value.
Below, you’ll discover a practical blueprint for leveraging AI-driven IT solutions to boost productivity in your workplace. We’ll also discuss the benefits of partnering with a managed IT service provider that specializes in implementing technology for nonprofits, ensuring seamless integration, enhanced security, and long-term scalability.
How AI Can Integrate into Nonprofit Operations
Artificial intelligence is a broad term to describe a wide range of tools and technologies that nonprofits can integrate into their IT infrastructure to support various workplace activities, such as:
- Content Creation: Many organizations are already doing this, with 58% of nonprofits using generative AI in day-to-day operations to save time on basic copywriting tasks. While they will still need to use a human writer to review and refine the content, AI can act as a virtual assistant and co-writer to help save time when developing marketing materials, crafting grant proposals, and creating donor reports.
- Task Automation: The use case for artificial intelligence goes beyond copywriting. AI-powered automation can empower a nonprofit’s employees to conserve resources for more important work, allowing them to offload various tasks to technology, executing donor engagement campaigns, budgeting, and financial reporting, or using chatbots to handle routine inquiries from stakeholders.
- Data Analysis: Advanced AI tools can quickly analyze nonprofit data analytics to generate meaningful insights to inform your decisions. In almost an instant, you can assess donor data to predict giving patterns and optimize fundraising strategies or evaluate impact to forecast trends and outcomes so you can allocate resources more effectively.
- Mission-Critical Work: Many organizations are even directly applying AI’s data analysis and forecasting abilities to develop their actual programs and solve the world’s most pressing issues. The nonprofit Earth05, which is using AI to find solutions to the global water crisis, is a perfect example of this in action. In fact, since 2018, organizations applying AI to address global sustainable development goals has increased by 300%.
The Steps to Successfully Adopting AI for Nonprofit Operations
Over the next three years, 92% of companies plan to increase their AI investments. However, despite widespread adoption, only 1% of business leaders consider their organizations to be fully mature in AI implementation.
Harnessing AI’s potential will require more than installing software and calling it a day; it demands a well-thought-out AI implementation strategy. Here, we’ll guide you through the essential steps involved in effectively integrates these solutions to drive growth, enhance efficiency, and strengthen competitive advantage.
- Assess Your Organization’s AI Readiness
Before making changes to your IT environment, you first need to understand it. Systematically evaluate your team’s current technology usage and examine your current IT infrastructure. Do you have the right software, hardware, and other resources needed to support new tools? Are there any existing inefficiencies or bottlenecks in your processes that could benefit from automation?
Then, compare your current reality with your long-term organizational goals, identifying areas where AI may be most beneficial for making an impact. Make sure to engage with your various departments to gather insights from their firsthand experience: they are well-equipped to share insights on pain points and opportunities.
- Select the Right AI tools
As most nonprofits operate on limited budgets, it will be critical to prioritize your AI use cases based on their potential ROI, feasibility, and alignment with strategic goals.
Look for solutions that:
- Integrate with your existing systems and workflows to minimize disruptions and maximize efficiency.
- Offer user-friendly and accessible interfaces that empower your team to adopt and use them.
- Have a strong and positive reputation based on a proven track record for success and positive customer reviews. (Ideally, they will provide reliable support to help you address any issues!)
- Are financially viable based on the total cost of ownership, including initial investment, implementation costs, and ongoing maintenance.
- Leverage advanced cybersecurity measures that protect your data and help you comply with any relevant industry standards and regulations.
- Deploy AI responsibly
When officially launching tools into the workplace, your organization will benefit from focusing on intentional change management practices.
Educate employees
Inform your team about the upcoming new IT environment to avoid resistance from holding you back from the advantages of AI tools for nonprofits. Everyone should should know the reasons for the change, the timeline, and how it will affect their daily work. Thorough staff training will also make it easier to increase adoption and help your team fully leverage the new features and functionalities.
Review performance
Monitoring the solution’s performance post-deployment will be important for measuring its impact and optimizing your usage for maximum effectiveness. Remember, establish opportunities for employees to provide feedback about the new systems so your organization can identify any issues early on and make necessary adjustments.
Ensure strong AI governance and security
Cloud-based AI tools are convenient but also make you vulnerable to evolving threats. Your organization will benefit from establishing clear policies and protocols to manage these risks, ensuring that your team uses tools safely and in alignment with your security standards.
- Outsource to a managed IT services provider
Depending on your internal IT resources and skills, you may want to hire an external IT provider who knows how to deploy these technologies and can provide AI implementation consulting services.
These experts possess a deep understanding of IT modernization strategies for using AI safely and can provide support with implementing governance frameworks for responsible and optimized use.
A managed IT service provider can also provide regular IT support and education to help your team use any new technology effectively. When a prominent cancer foundation partnered with designDATA , they saw a noticeable difference in their team’s ability to use their tools optimally and securely. Our extensive training gave the organization’s employees the skills and knowledge to maximize its IT investments.
Partner with designDATA for Your Nonprofit Digital Transformation
Imagine being able to automate routine tasks to focus on more mission-critical activities. Innovations in artificial intelligence have made that possible and continue to unlock new ways to make a greater impact with fewer resources.
COOs who implement AI solutions for nonprofits can streamline their organization’s operations, reduce manual workloads, gain deeper insights into their performance, and make more informed decisions about resource allocation, all to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
When you partner with designDATA for our managed IT services, our experts will provide professional guidance for modernizing your IT infrastructure, whether that’s integrating AI solutions or implementing advanced cybersecurity tools. We will work with you to transform your nonprofit’s operations and maximize efficiency with a tailored implementation strategy that will position your organization for long-term success.
Optimize your nonprofit’s IT with expert managed services – contact designDATA today!
