The 4 Nonprofit AI Cultures and How To Succeed in Each

I've spent the past several months talking to advocacy staff at 21 organizations about how their teams and organizations are (or are not) using AI.

Through these conversations, I’ve identified four AI cultures that most organizations fall into. Regardless of which culture your organization fits in, there are great opportunities for you to raise your profile internally and ensure advocacy has a seat at the table when AI policy decisions are being made.

Let’s start though with debunking a common myth: Everything you type into AI will be shared with millions of organizations and billions of people, while being used to further train AI models.

This is true if you’re using a free version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Google Gemini. However, even in its free version, Anthropic’s Claude claims that it only trains on your data if you opt into allowing it to do so.

However, if you pay for a $20 per month Pro account, which I strongly recommend, ChatGPT and Claude say your work will be protected. (Gemini’s policy is a bit less straightforward.) Using even this lowest paid tier will also bring several project management benefits.

With that settled, let’s see where your organization falls among the four AI cultures, what opportunities exist for you within each and the actions you should take right away.

Culture #1: The Procrastinators

"Oh yeah, we should talk about that sometime."

This organization knows AI is out there and its leadership team wouldn’t be surprised to learn their staff are using it. The topic has been raised a few times in meetings, but no one has taken ownership of creating an AI use policy or understanding how it can benefit the organization’s work.

Opportunities: You have a great chance to raise your visibility with the leadership team and be seen as an innovator in the organization. As importantly, your proactive work will ensure the needs of the advocacy team are accommodated for in future AI policy development.

Actions:

• Sign up for a $20/month version of Claude or ChatGPT and begin experimenting with it. Try using it for content creation, tactical brainstorming, and email or social media performance analysis.

• Write a one-page memo about your successful use of AI and share it with your leadership team. In that memo, be sure to include the AI platform’s privacy policy to address any concerns people might have.

• Offer to represent the advocacy team in future conversations about the organization’s AI use policy.

  
  

Culture #2: The Gatekeepers

"You are not authorized to use AI for that."

This culture can exist in larger organizations where standing up a new work group seems to be the answer to most problems. The IT team is focused on an enterprise solution while Legal Counsel is terrified about the exposure of proprietary information. Staff may be prohibited from using outside AI tools, required to route even the smallest of requests through IT or legal, or be blocked from using AI entirely.

Opportunities: Yes, there really are opportunities here, however seizing them will require a little effort outside of work. It’s important that you demonstrate to the leadership team how AI can increase productivity for the advocacy team.

Actions:

• Set-up a personal account with Claude. It’s okay to use their free account since their privacy policy says any content you provide is protected.

• Create dummy content that is similar to what you’d typically use in your work. This might be writing an email to volunteers asking them to take action, crafting talking points for a hearing, analyzing email performance data or summarizing legislation. Use an issue other than your own while keeping the voice and style similar to your real work.

• Learn and be able to demonstrate to others the increased efficiency AI provides and the quality of its output.

You have two primary goals:

1. Validate the beneficial roles that AI can play in increasing the advocacy team’s productivity while not putting proprietary information at risk. Very little advocacy content is truly proprietary since it’s typically shared with volunteers or lawmakers. And I’m not aware of a robust market for stolen, anonymized email performance data.2. Get advocacy a seat at the table where AI policy decisions are being made. Oftentimes, enterprise-wide decisions like these are focused on the needs of the fundraising team with advocacy as an afterthought.
   

2. Speak to your peers at similar organizations to learn how they are managing the use of AI. (Or just email me and I’ll tell you more about my findings.)

Culture #3: The Wild West

“AI is great. Go for it!"

To their credit, this organization’s leadership team is very open-minded about embracing new technology and trusts its staff to use it responsibly. Or, they just don’t have time to focus on it so they’re letting everyone run wild.

There are inherent dangers in this approach as it increases the likelihood that well-meaning staff will provide the AI with inappropriate content like proprietary information or volunteer/member data.

Opportunities: This situation is calling out for someone to step up and take on a leadership role in AI use. You don’t have to be an AI expert to do this. It requires someone who enjoys leading a project and collaborating with others across the organization. The benefit of you doing it – beyond the great visibility you’ll get with your leadership team – is that the needs of the advocacy team can help drive decision-making.

Actions:

• Start using AI for your advocacy work and encourage your advocacy colleagues to do the same. If you can, try running the same task in multiple AI platforms to see how they perform differently.

• Read the privacy policies of the four most prominent platforms – ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, Copilot - so you have a passing familiarity with them.

• Use AI responsibly. Never upload volunteer data. Never share proprietary information. Always double-check facts the AI provides for accuracy. As a future leader, your AI use could be closely watched by others, so lead by example.

• Proactively share what you're learning with leadership. Don't wait to be asked. Show them how you're using AI effectively and the results you're achieving. And let them know you would love to help lead the organization’s effort to create an AI policy.

Culture #4: The Innovators

“This could be great for the organization. Let’s figure this out together.”

This organization is genuinely enthusiastic about AI. Leadership is paying attention, conversations are happening and there's a real appetite to determine how AI should be integrated into workflows across the organization.

Opportunities: You’re in an environment where being involved early will pay big dividends. It’s crucial that advocacy be engaged from the beginning. Similar to the Gatekeepers culture, there is a danger that enterprise-wide decisions be focused on the needs of the fundraising team with advocacy as an afterthought.

Actions:

• Dive strongly into experimenting with AI for your advocacy work. Whether you can expense it or not, sign up for the $20/month version of your favored AI platform and begin integrating it into your workflows (content creation, data analysis, strategy development).

• Use AI responsibly and document what you're doing and why it's working. Your organization is going to want success stories, and you want to be one of the people providing them.

• Proactively bring your results to leadership. Demonstrate how AI can work effectively for advocacy and the benefits it provides. Use metrics-driven data like driving more actions, increasing email performance, or saving time on content creation and policy analysis.

• Push to ensure advocacy has a seat at the AI decision-making table. Get on the work group. If your boss is already on it, regularly feed her information about your AI work so she can present concrete examples on advocacy use and benefits.

AI is an opportunity, not a threat. When used effectively and responsibly, it can bolster your team’s productivity and improve the quality of your work. By understanding your organization’s AI culture, you can help ensure advocacy interests are represented in AI policies and that you’re able to leverage these powerful tools to achieve your goals.