AI for Communicators: At a Glance

 Yes! AI is ideal for small teams because it automates drafting, research, and repetitive tasks. You don’t need a big budget—many tools are free or low-cost.

 No. AI is a tool, not a staff replacement. It speeds up drafting and analysis, but humans provide essential elements like judgment, emotion, and relationship-building.

 Start simple: choose an affordable nonprofit CRM. The important thing is one clean, centralized database. There are dozens available for organizations of all sizes.

 You can, but we don't recommend it (and good data is critical to all elements of success in communications and fundraising). Results will be weaker. Prioritize basic data cleanup first: remove duplicates, update fields, standardize formats.

 Avoid entering personally identifiable donor information into AI chat tools. We recommend having generalized constituent profiles instead. Use AI for:

• drafting content

• analysis based on anonymized data

• segmentation logic (without names)

We recommend you research what might work best for your team and your budget. Some of the most commonly used and affordable basics include:   

• ChatGPT - versatility for creative communications - great for creative, persuasive nonprofit communications. 
• Perplexity.ai - real-time accuracy; ideal for fact-driven content like grant proposals or reports needing citations and current data to build credibility with funders or stakeholders.
• Gemini - good for collaborative teams using Google tools, creating multimedia content for education or outreach; useful in resource-limited settings for efficient workflows.
•  Those available in your organization’s CRM/ database. 

Create tone guidelines and always review and edit AI output to match your organization’s voice. AI is a starting point, not the final product.

Offer short tutorials, provide prompt templates, and build internal AI-use policies to set expectations and boundaries.