It takes a village.
Mainstreaming AI within nonprofits.
By Daniela Weber (Director, NetHope), Anne Merkle (Global Innovation Lead, WWF) and Meet Muchhala (Special Innovation Projects, WWF)
In today’s rapidly changing world, the emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) is no longer a distant vision but a present reality and it is changing the way we work. For non-profits, this indicates a growing opportunity to stay relevant and amplify impact. But let’s be real, integrating AI within non-profit contexts can feel overwhelming.
Starting with a reminder: It takes a village. There are multiple key roles when it comes to rolling out Gen AI within a non-profit. In this piece, we share a few reflections we had that might help you build your successful AI task force.
Nethope has been supporting work on AI for several years across all types of non-profit organisations. The Innovation for Impact Network has convened 15 INGOs to dive deep into their learnings and steps taken. Below is our collective learning on who should lead AI change initiatives in non-profit organisations.
It’s a team sport.
In some organisations when thinking of AI, the chain goes the following: AI = Technology = Information Technology (IT) department.
Our response to this: yes AND there is more. Weirdly what we have learned is also AI = innovation = innovation departments. Let's add one more AI = massive disruption = leadership.
From what we have seen across multiple INGOs, the most successful efforts combine IT, innovation units, operations, and leadership – and also, ensure cooperation with multiple others, such as your governance teams. (You don't have an innovation unit - whoops - late to the party. Maybe something to consider alongside your AI role out?!). Combining the above-aforementioned perspectives can create an environment for a holistic and successful approach.
First of all - rolling out Gen AI what does that mean to us?
AI is here to stay - whether we like it or not. It is important for every non-profit to discuss, agree, and implement its unique AI change initiative. Find a few resources that can support your organisation on this journey: Possible GenAI pathways for INGOs & Organisational Self Assessment on GenAI tool. Taking a proactive approach has many benefits:
From preventing misuse by putting necessary AI policies in place;
ensuring Gen AI is only used where there are most impact gains to be made;
and enabling staff education to unlock their ability to tap into efficiency potential.
Let’s take a look at the concrete roles different parts of your organisation might play in the AI task force:
IT Department: The Foundation Builders
IT teams provide the technical expertise needed to implement AI tools and systems, ensuring the infrastructure is in place and secure. Their role is critical in integrating AI with existing platforms and processes, ensuring data flows efficiently, and troubleshooting technical challenges. Without IT’s involvement, AI remains a theoretical possibility rather than a practical reality. They bring the technical "how" to the table, focusing on the scalability, security, and sustainability of AI systems. They will also, in collaboration with governance teams, ensure the appropriate policies and procedures are in place that ensure the safe use of AI tools.
Leadership: The Change Champions
Leadership is essential in framing AI as a part of the organization's strategic vision. They provide the mandate and support needed to drive AI adoption throughout the organization. AI, being a disruptive force, requires a culture shift, and leadership ensures that this change is both managed and embraced. By championing AI’s potential to transform the organization, they inspire buy-in at all levels, securing resources and aligning AI efforts with broader organizational goals. Leaders ensure that AI isn’t just a passing trend but a long-term strategic asset.
EXTRA: Users: The Experts of Processes and Needs
Whether it’s country programs or the “back office”, it is ultimately the staff across all parts of an organization who can determine what the beneficial use cases are, and how AI solutions work in their environment. Their willingness and participation in rolling out AI mainstreaming efforts, changing processes, and designing new impact projects with AI is essential and crucial to making the change work and achieving the envisaged benefits. Thus, we highly recommend that you give a small group of staff the chance to co-design with your AI task force. They can share the needs and realities of staff, challenge ideas, provide feedback, support quick testing, and champion the rollout efforts.
Innovation Units: The Creators of New Possibilities
Innovation teams, often under-utilized in AI discussions, are instrumental in pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI. They are the ones looking beyond the immediate needs and envisioning how AI can transform not just processes but entire ways of working. They can support experimentation with AI in pilot projects, prototyping new uses for AI that might otherwise be overlooked. Their creative thinking allows the organization to tap into AI’s full potential, enabling innovative solutions that go beyond automation and efficiency to create new opportunities for impact. Additionally, many innovation units hold a lot of expertise in how to build capacity and resources, etc quickly.
Build a solid village - setting up your AI taskforce
When setting up your AI task force, keep in mind that the village you put together speaks very different languages. There is a need to get people aligned. Terminology, values, and goals for the group - it will be important to invest in a solid base for collaboration. Additionally, an important aspect will be to ensure that honest conversations around Gen AI take place. With that, we mean:
What excites/worries you about the recent AI boom?
What opportunities/threats do you see for our organisation with Gen AI?
What might the AI boom mean for the non-profit sector/the world?
We wrote a little article based on 10 INGOs asking themselves these questions - check it out for inspiration here.
Discussing these questions might be an emotional conversation but having those will ensure a solid base of trust between the group. There will potentially also be contradicting views, inviting the group to hold different realities of sceptics and enthusiasts at the same time. Agree to disagree and to work with the tension might be necessary at times. You want to build a solid village with a healthy and productive culture that can then also discuss the difficult decisions to be made for the organisation related to AI usage.
Check out our overview of potential personas on the pathway to GenAI to get a feel for the kind of positions people might take.
Getting AI used at the end of the day is a topic of culture change
It’s people, process, and technology, in that sequence. A lot of the effort that needs undertaking can be designed using change management tools. Simply put - you are trying to get staff to change from a certain behaviour (work without leveraging efficiency gains of AI) to a new reality (work with AI). We have heard examples within INGOs where staff state that 80% of their work is assisted by AI. This of course heavily depends on the role while we would say all roles can in theory benefit from AI transformation. You might want to plan your AI roll-out with the simple mindset of change management. Often the innovation units and project teams spend a lot of their time working on culture change - thus, they bring a lot of experience with this topic. Check out the Delivering on your AI change initiative we created to help you act on this.
Rolling out AI usage within your organisation means you need to listen to, build for and learn alongside staff. At least a crucial 25% of staff. Within the tipping point theory, it is sufficient if 1/4th of your staff start to fully leverage AI as this will then ripple into a mechanism of change within the rest of the organisation. (With sufficient use - we do not mean use it for everything all the time - let’s keep in mind that the energy usage of AI is 10 times higher at the moment compared to a Google search. It needs to be used mindfully where it has the most potential for time cuts and impact)
*This blog was co-written with the help of ChatGPT, blending AI-powered creativity with our own to explore new ways of sharing information. Several of the images featured are AI-generated, crafted using text descriptions to bring unique visuals to life. This collaboration highlights the exciting potential of human-AI partnerships in creative projects.
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