Podcast
Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics
Hosted by Community IT Innovators · EN
Community IT offers free webinars monthly to promote learning within our nonprofit technology community. Our podcast is appropriate for a varied level of technology expertise. Community IT is vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Something on your mind you don’t see covered here? Contact us to suggest a topic! http://www.communityit.com
35episodes
Episodes
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Nonprofit AI Governance Tips with Nura Aboki pt 1
2w ago00:32:46Tap to summarizeIn the first part of this two-part conversation, Carolyn Woodard and Nura Aboki, Senior Consultant at Community IT Innovators, dig into what it actually looks like to implement AI at a nonprofit - not in theory, but on the ground. With 80% of nonprofits using AI without any governance policies in place, unmanaged adoption is already happening. This episode helps nonprofit leaders understand where to start.Nura draws on real client experiences to walk through two case studies: a nonprofit that had to pause its AI rollout to answer a fundamental "why are we doing this?" and an environmental organization that wrestled with whether using AI conflicted with its mission. Both examples illustrate why values alignment and change management have to come before any tool selection.Carolyn and Nura cover:Why starting with a clear "why" before selecting any tool is the single most important step in AI adoption.What AI literacy means for nonprofit staff and where to find free and low-cost training options.A step-by-step framework for intentional AI implementation: communication, piloting, due diligence, and layered training.The risks nonprofits need to plan for, including shadow AI, vendor churn, data privacy, and the legal reality that humans are accountable for AI errors.Why appointing an internal AI champion matters even at - especially at - small organizations.Resources MentionedAI Acceptable Use Policy Template — Community IT InnovatorsAI Literacy and the Workforce — U.S. Department of LaborDigital Skills Center — TechSoupAI for Nonprofits Certificate — NTENThe Human StackAI Program Area — NetHopeMission-Aligned AI Adoption Model — Community IT InnovatorsNo AI Use Policy? What to Do — Candid _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI: Environmental Costs, New Philanthropy Dollars
2w ago00:27:05Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard covers the real-world costs of AI infrastructure, a coming wave of AI-generated philanthropic wealth, and how to think about AI fundraising tools this week.The headlines about AI tend to focus on what it can do. This episode looks at what it costs — in water, electricity, and rate increases that are already hitting low-income households — and at the enormous wealth being created on the other side of that ledger. Carolyn also responds to a listener question about AI tools in fundraising, drawing a comparison to the early days of social media for nonprofits and why the same change management instincts should apply.This episode covers:Data centers in Georgia and Arizona have drawn water without authorization, and projections suggest Texas data centers alone could draw down Lake Mead by 16 feet annually by 2030. MIT researchers found that AI-specific energy use could equal 22% of all US household electricity consumption by 2028, and that utility deals with major tech companies are already shifting infrastructure costs to ratepayers.Nan Ransohoff's widely discussed Substack piece argues that AI wealth creation could generate $37 to $100 billion annually in new philanthropic capital. Forbes counts 45 new AI billionaires in 2026 with combined wealth of $2.9 trillion. Tech-fluent nonprofits are likely to be better positioned to build relationships with this new wave of funders.AI fundraising tools are at a moment similar to early social media: some organizations will jump in, some will wait, and neither is automatically right. The change management skills your organization has built through past fundraising shifts can apply here. Just because the tools are new, don't think you don't have the leadership to manage the change.Board.dev connects nonprofits with tech-savvy board candidates and offers 28 AI governance questions your board can use right now.Resources Mentioned:Fortune, "America's Data Centers Are Thirsty. Rural Towns Are Paying the Price" — https://fortune.com/2026/05/13/data-center-georgia-arizona-water-wars/MIT Technology Review, "We Did the Math on AI's Energy Footprint" — https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1116327/ai-energy-usage-climate-footprint-big-tech/Nan Ransohoff, "The Third Wave of American Philanthropy" — https://nanransohoff.substack.com/p/the-third-wave-of-american-philanthropyForbes, "Meet the 45 AI Newcomers to Forbes 2026 Billionaires List" — https://www.forbes.com/sites/phoebeliu/2026/03/10/meet-the-45-ai-newcomers-to-forbes-2026-billionaires-list/Board.dev — https://board.devNew every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI Management Advice with Mimi Yeh
3w ago00:26:16Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard explores the gap between AI ambition and organizational readiness with Mimi Yeh, Engagement Director at PTKO, a strategy and change management consulting firm that works exclusively with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations. Mimi focuses on the people side of technology adoption — and when it comes to AI, she sees a consistent pattern: leadership is excited, staff are uncertain, and the gap between those two realities is where AI initiatives stall.The conversation reframes AI adoption not as a tools problem but as an alignment and change management challenge. Mimi and Carolyn discuss how nonprofits can build the internal structure — governance, policy, shared understanding — that makes AI adoption sustainable rather than chaotic, and what funders can do to support that work more effectively.Mimi and Carolyn discuss:Why the biggest obstacle to AI adoption in nonprofits is not the technology itself, but the gap between leadership ambition and staff readiness — and how governance can close it.How to use your organization's existing skepticism about AI (around climate impact, job displacement, or data risk) as a productive starting point for building policy rather than a reason to stall.Why acceptable use guidelines for AI should not look very different from governance frameworks nonprofits already use for other tools and technologies.How funders can shift from pressuring nonprofits to adopt AI quickly to supporting the capacity building and literacy that makes adoption meaningful and lasting.What it actually takes to build an AI tool for internal nonprofit use — and why the human input, voice, and values behind that tool matter as much as the data fed into it.Resources Mentioned:PTKO — ptko.io/who-we-are/AI Acceptable Use Policy Template — Community IT Innovators — communityit.com/template-acceptable-use-of-ai-tools-in-the-nonprofit-workplace/AI Resource Library — Community IT Innovators — communityit.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/ _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI: Claude for Small Business, ChatGPT Update
3w ago00:24:35Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard covers two recent AI product updates and a thought-provoking question about what it means to use AI tools more personally: a new Claude for Small Business plugin that connects AI to the tools your nonprofit already uses, a ChatGPT model update that changes the default experience for anyone on your staff using the free tier, and an article from nonprofit AI trainer Tim Lockie that may challenge how you think about sharing context with AI.Anthropic launched Claude for Small Business as a plugin inside Claude Cowork, their agentic work environment. The plugin connects Claude directly to tools like QuickBooks, PayPal, HubSpot, Canva, DocuSign, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365 through pre-built workflows for tasks like payroll, month-end close, and invoicing. Every action requires human approval before it executes. Nonprofits with a paid Claude plan already have access but need to make the connections in Cowork. The Claude for Nonprofits discount brings the Teams plan to $8 per user per month for qualifying 501(c)(3) organizations. A free AI Fluency for Small Business course is also included.OpenAI updated ChatGPT's default model to GPT-5.5 Instant in early May, rolling it out to all users including the free tier. The big change: the model now draws on past conversations, uploaded files, and connected accounts like Gmail to personalize responses. If your staff are using the free version of ChatGPT, their default experience just changed, and that matters for what your organization's data governance policy says about which tools and tiers are appropriate.Carolyn closes with Tim Lockie's recent piece "Humans Are The Loop," about building a private Claude project he uses as a personal thinking partner. He fed it his neuropsych evaluation, DISC profile, and StrengthsFinder results, and uses it to surface the patterns he is most likely to miss under pressure. This approach is in genuine tension with the data caution that guides most of our AI governance guidance, and Carolyn is still sitting with it. Worth a few minutes of your own reflection.Resources Mentioned:Claude for Small Business announcement — Anthropic — https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-small-businessClaude for Nonprofits pricing — Anthropic — https://support.claude.com/en/articles/12893767-getting-started-with-claude-for-nonprofitsGPT-5.5 Instant announcement — OpenAI — https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-5-instant/Humans Are The Loop — Tim Lockie / The Human Stack — https://thehumanstack.com/timlockie/humans_are_the_loopAI for Anyone course — The Human Stack — https://thehumanstack.com/academy/aiforanyoneElon Musk Loses Landmark Lawsuit Against Open AI — WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/musk-v-altman-jury-verdict/New every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Technology for Nonprofit Fundraiser Events with Justin Goodhew
4w ago00:25:29Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard explores the technology behind nonprofit fundraising events with Justin Goodhew, CEO and co-founder of Trellis. Galas and in-person events have come roaring back since COVID, and they have changed — guests expect and enjoy more experiential, mission-centered evenings. But the pressure on staff has not let up. As AI begins to reshape data entry and reconciliation, the nonprofits that thrive will be the ones who have already built the right technology foundations under their events.Justin brings years of experience helping nonprofits run galas that integrate cleanly into their existing systems — and he has seen firsthand what separates a smooth, energizing event from one that leaves staff burnt out. The conversation covers how to think about technology adoption the right way, how to make smarter asks on the big night, and how to use post-event data to deepen donor relationships before the window closes.Justin and Carolyn discuss:Why events have become more experiential since COVID, and how nonprofits can use that shift to bring donors closer to their mission.The three Ps of event technology adoption: procedure, people, and product — and why most organizations get the order wrong.How seamless integration between your event platform and your CRM or ERP protects staff from burnout and keeps donor data actionable.How the right data quickly allows you to identify your highest-value attendees and make the right asks at the right moment. And how data helps you plan the right type and right-sized event for your highest value donors. Why moving reconciliation and data planning to the front end of your event planning cycle - the three months in advance of your date - changes everything about the days that immediately follow your gala.Resources Mentioned:Trellis — https://www.trellis.org _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI: Canvas Hack, Candid Advice, AI for Nonprofits Book
May 1200:25:31Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard covers three topics this week: what the Canvas ransomware hack reveals about vendor risk for nonprofits, why roughly 80% of nonprofits still have no AI use policy and what you can do about it today, and why the new book AI for Nonprofits belongs on your leadership team's reading list even as AI tools continue to evolve rapidly.The Canvas story is at its core a governance story. When 30 million users depend on a single platform, a breach affects everyone who trusts that vendor. Nonprofits can't out-analyze the cybersecurity of major vendors, but you can make sure you have cybersecurity insurance that covers third-party breaches, a communications plan ready before a crisis hits, and solid data backups separated from your main systems.The bigger takeaway for AI governance: most nonprofits are already using AI tools without any organizational guardrails in place. You don't need a full formal policy to get started. A one-page declaration of principles, a commitment to paid enterprise tools over free versions, and a habit of documenting what's working can give your organization a meaningful foundation.And finally, AI for Nonprofits by Cheryl Contee and Darian Rodriguez Heyman is worth your leadership team's time, especially for its strategic framework and breadth of expert voices weighing in on AI uses across fundraising, communications, and program evaluation.Resources Mentioned:Instructure pays ransom to Canvas hackers — Inside Higher Ed — https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/administrative-tech/2026/05/11/instructure-pays-ransom-canvas-hackersWhat If My Organization Has No AI Use Policy — Candid — https://candid.org/blogs/no-ai-use-policy-what-to-do/How to Create a Nonprofit Incident Response Plan — Community IT Innovators — https://communityit.com/how-to-create-a-nonprofit-incident-response-plan/How to Use AI Tools Safely at Nonprofits — Community IT Innovators — https://communityit.com/webinar-how-to-use-ai-tools-safely-at-nonprofits/AI Acceptable Use Policy Template — Community IT Innovators — https://communityit.com/template-acceptable-use-of-ai-tools-in-the-nonprofit-workplace/AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause — Cheryl Contee and Darian Rodriguez Heyman — https://www.amazon.com/AI-Nonprofits-Putting-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1394298412 or at your library or local bookstore! New every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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AI for Nonprofits with Cheryl Contee
May 800:24:49Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard explores what it really means for a nonprofit to adopt AI responsibly and effectively with Cheryl Contee, co-founder of BrightWorks AI and Change Agent AI and co-author of the Amazon bestseller AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause. Cheryl is a pioneering technology entrepreneur recognized by Fast Company, Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and The Root 100, and has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, and the BBC.The conversation reframes AI not as a threat to nonprofit jobs but as a way to multiply capacity in organizations that are already stretched thin. Cheryl and Carolyn dig into practical strategies for getting started, what makes a good AI workflow, and why the most successful nonprofit teams approach AI as an ongoing learning journey rather than a one-time implementation.This episode covers:Why the question for nonprofits is no longer whether to use AI — it is already embedded in your email, CRM, and productivity tools — but how to use it responsibly and creatively in service of your mission.How to identify the right starting point: pick one workflow you dislike, test one or two tools against it, and share what you learn with your team.Why humans must stay in the loop, especially for high-stakes decisions, sensitive interactions, and anything requiring lived experience, nuance, or accountability.Leadership habits build an AI-ready culture, including normalizing experimentation, creating a prompt library, and documenting what works.Common pitfalls to avoid: chasing every new tool, skipping staff training, ignoring ethical considerations, and expecting immediate transformation.Resources Mentioned:AI for Nonprofits: Putting Artificial Intelligence to Work for Your Cause — Cheryl Contee and Darian Rodriguez Heyman — https://www.amazon.com/AI-Nonprofits-Putting-Artificial-Intelligence/dp/1394298412/BrightWorks AI — https://brightworksai.comChange Agent AI — https://thechange.aiSkej AI scheduling assistant — https://skej.comThere's an AI for That — https://theresanAIforthat.comNTEN — https://nten.orgTechSoup — https://techsoup.org _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI: Environment, Bubble, Survey
May 500:27:42Tap to summarizeCarolyn Woodard covers three topics shaping the nonprofit AI conversation right now: the real environmental costs of AI infrastructure, whether the AI market is actually a bubble, and a new survey that gives nonprofits a direct voice in shaping what comes next. This episode helps you move from anxious or skeptical observer to informed, active participant.This episode covers:AI data centers consume enormous energy and water, but the environmental picture is more nuanced than early viral statistics suggested. Cooling accounts for roughly 40% of data center energy use, and about 80% of water consumption comes from electricity generation, making this a grid problem as much as a local one.The AI market is consolidating faster than previous technology cycles. For nonprofits that have been waiting for the dust to settle, the more useful question now is: what is the cost of continuing to wait?82% of nonprofits are already using AI for internal operations, per Fast Forward's 2025 report, but nonprofits using free, off-the-shelf tools are less likely to have policies or risk controls in place.The Fast Forward 2026 AI for Humanity survey interest form is open now. If you are the person at your organization who knows the most about how AI is being used, your participation shapes how funders and policymakers understand what nonprofits actually need.Practical next steps suggestions: develop a policy, identify low-stakes pilots, check in on AI regularly at all-staff meetings, and ask your vendors about their clean energy and water commitments.Resources Mentioned:Fast Forward 2025 AI for Humanity ReportFast Forward 2026 Survey interest form (open now)Data Centers and Water Consumption — EESIData Center Water Use Explainer — MOST Policy InitiativeAbout That AI Bubble — The Atlantic (May 2026)Nonprofit AI podcast new every Tuesday. _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit Data Retention with Ian Gottesman
May 100:48:03Tap to summarizeYour nonprofit may be sitting on a data liability it doesn't know it has.Carolyn talks with Ian Gottesman, CEO of NGO ISAC, about data retention and why the question of what your organization keeps - and for how long - is more urgent than ever. Ian has been studying this topic for 30 years, and he makes the risks concrete: e-discovery requests, contractual disputes, subpoenas, and the exposure that comes from mixing personal and organizational data on staff devices. Most of the time, the threat isn't a headline-making congressional hearing - it's a vendor dispute or a board member's outside legal trouble that pulls your email and files into a lawsuit you didn't see coming.Ian walks through how to build a data retention policy, who in your organization needs to lead it, and why now. With AI tools beginning to ingest your file servers and inboxes, now is exactly the right moment to get serious about data hygiene.This episode covers:• The most common data retention risk for nonprofits isn't congressional testimony — it's a contractual dispute, a board member's outside legal matter, or a vendor conflict that pulls your organization into e-discovery.• Your backup retention schedule must align with your data retention policy. Backups that outlast your retention window are still discoverable — and that trunk of old backup tapes will find its way into a lawyer's hands.• Start your retention policy implementation with the most transitory data first: instant messaging and Slack, then email, then files. Automate deletion as much as possible, and make saving intentional and manual.• The hardest part of implementation isn't the policy, it's change management. People love their old emails. Enlist a senior leader (CEO, general counsel, COO) to champion the rollout, not just IT.• Clean data makes AI tools work better. If your file server is full of outdated drafts and duplicate documents, your AI tools are ingesting noise. A retention policy is the foundation of good data governance — and good AI outcomes.Resources Mentioned:• NGO ISAC• NTEN Course: Data Minimization and Retention — Ian Gottesman• Sample Not-for-Profit Document and Data Retention Policy — AICPA & CIMA• Document Retention Policies for Nonprofits — National Council of Nonprofits• Nonprofit Legal Defense Network (We the Action)Additional resource: Podcast: Prep Your File Permissions for AI Tools — Community IT Innovators _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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Nonprofit AI: Google Chrome Skills and the Center for AI Safety
Apr 2800:21:46Tap to summarizeThis week, Carolyn Woodard covers two resources: a practical new browser feature for Google Workspace shops and a nonprofit watchdog organization working to make the AI industry more accountable. Whether you're trying to get more out of your existing tools or looking for credible resources to bring to a board conversation about AI risk, this episode has something useful.This episode covers:Google quietly rolled out a feature called Skills inside Chrome — it lets you save a prompt once and run it on any web page with a click, without retyping. Pre-built Skills are also available for common tasks like summarizing long documents or comparing information across open tabs, no prompt-writing required.Skills is a reading and analysis assistant, not an agent — it won't take actions like making purchases or browsing on your behalf. It reads what's already in front of you in the browser and helps you process it faster.If your nonprofit is in the Google ecosystem and staff are hesitant to write prompts from scratch, Skills' pre-built library is a low-barrier starting point. Useful use cases include reviewing foundation grant pages and comparing information across multiple sites.The Center for AI Safety (CAIS) is a San Francisco-based research and advocacy nonprofit whose mission is to reduce societal-scale risks from AI. Their website (safe.ai) isn't a vendor — it's an independent watchdog with accessible explainers, free courses, and fellowship programs.CAIS offers a free AI Safety, Ethics and Society course that's relevant for nonprofits building AI literacy on a budget, plus a fellowship for people doing advocacy work around AI governance, bias, or data center impacts.When staff or board members are skeptical about AI — or when you need a credible outside voice for your AI strategy conversations — CAIS is a more trustworthy resource than asking the AI companies themselves what's safe.Resources Mentioned:https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-use-google-chrome-ai-powered-skills/https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/chrome/skills-in-chrome/https://safe.aihttps://safe.ai/ai-riskhttps://aisafetybook.com/virtual-coursehttps://www.reddit.com/r/NonprofitITManagement/ _______________________________Start a conversation :)Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.
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