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Welcome to AI Fluency for nonprofits

📖 Lesson content

What you'll learn

Estimated time: 20 minutes

By the end of this lesson you'll be able to:

  • Define what AI Fluency means
  • Articulate your values and constraints for more effective AI collaboration
  • Identify your objectives for integrating AI tools and capability in your work

Welcome to AI Fluency for nonprofits

(3 minutes)

This video introduces our AI Fluency for nonprofits course. It acknowledges the gap between AI enthusiasm and meaningful implementation in the sector, and introduces AI Fluency as the ability to work with AI systems in ways that are effective, efficient, ethical, and safe. The video presents the 4D Framework (Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence) as the foundation of the course and emphasizes that mission-centered thinking should guide all nonprofit AI use.

Key takeaways

  • AI Fluency is the ability to use AI in ways that are efficient, effective, ethical, and safe. It's a combination of practical skills, knowledge, insights, and values that help you adapt to evolving AI technologies while staying true to your nonprofit's mission
  • The 4D Framework consists of four interconnected competencies: Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence
  • The Delegation-Diligence loop supports thoughtful, responsible choices about when and how to use AI
  • The Description-Discernment loop helps you get more out of your AI interactions through back-and-forth collaboration
  • For nonprofits, every AI efficiency gain should ultimately translate to greater impact for the communities you serve

Exercise

Defining your organizational values, mission, and objectives for using AI

This exercise will help you shape your purpose behind collaborating with AI for your work. This foundation will help you evaluate AI opportunities through your mission lens.

Part I: Self-Reflection (on your own)

Answer the following questions:

  1. What is the mission and vision of your organization?
  2. Describe your workplace situation and your specific role - constraints, strengths, opportunities, etc.
  3. What are the core values and philosophy that shape your work?
  4. 'If AI could help me _______, I would be able to spend more time _______.' Focus on how AI efficiency could free you up for higher-impact, human-centered activities.

Part II: Collaboration (with AI)

Start a conversation with Claude (or any other AI assistant you choose):

Opening the conversation:

  • Explain that you're a nonprofit professional who wants to build a reusable summary of their organization and work
  • Let the AI know this document will help establish shared understanding for future collaborations
  • Indicate you'd like the AI to help you think through all relevant aspects of your work
  • You can ask the AI to interview you about your work, OR
  • You can just start sharing information and ask the AI what else would be helpful to know
  • Take your time. The goal is a back-and-forth conversation that surfaces important context.

Key areas to cover (the AI should help you explore these):

  • Your organization's mission, vision, and values
  • The typical scope of work that you do in your role
  • Typical challenges faced by your organization
  • Institutional context and constraints
  • Opportunities for improvement
  • Common pain points in your work
  • Goals for integrating AI into your work
  • Any unique aspects of your role or organization

Make it conversational:

  • Don't feel you need to share everything at once
  • Encourage the AI to ask follow-up questions
  • Share specific examples when they help illustrate your context (be aware of privacy and sensitive data)
  • It's okay to think out loud and refine your thoughts as you go

Creating a reusable document:

  • Ask the AI to synthesize the conversation into a structured context document you can share in future AI conversations
  • Review it together and add anything missing and/or make corrections
  • Request a format that's easy to copy and reuse

Lesson reflection

  • How did your answers to the self-reflection questions shape your conversation with AI? Did any new priorities or concerns emerge?
  • Looking at your context document, what aspects of your nonprofit work do you think will benefit most from AI collaboration?

What's next

In the next lesson, we'll dive deeper into the 4D Framework to establish a foundation for the remainder of this course.

Feedback

As you progress through the course, we'd love to hear from you about how you are using concepts from the course in your work, plus any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.

🎬 Video transcript

Source video: qrhPJNbRT-Q

📜 Click to expand transcript (cleaned + AI-translated)

Welcome

Introductions

Welcome to AI Fluency for Nonprofits. Hi, I'm Kelsey Kramer, and I'm the Director of Partnerships at Giving Tuesday.

Hi, I'm Zoe, and I'm on the Education team at Anthropic.

The Challenge for Nonprofits

The AI Adoption Gap

If you're working in the nonprofit sector, you know what it's like to be stretched thin, to do more with less, wear multiple hats, and constantly think about how to maximize your impact with limited resources. You've probably heard that AI can help. But we've learned from talking to thousands of nonprofit professionals that there's a significant gap in what this technology promises and how it's actually showing up in your work.

While many nonprofits express enthusiasm about AI adoption, only a handful have achieved meaningful implementation. So, if you're feeling unsure about where to start or how to move forward, you're definitely not alone.

About This Course

What is AI Fluency?

This course is designed specifically for you: nonprofit professionals who want to bridge that gap. It's built on research from our community, plus expertise from Anthropic's research team.

In the lessons that follow, we're not going to show magic prompts or disconnected demos. Instead, we're going to focus on something we call AI fluency, which is the ability to work with AI systems in ways that are effective, efficient, ethical, and safe. AI fluency includes the practical skills, knowledge, insights, and values that help you adapt to evolving AI technologies while staying true to your nonprofit's mission. So, no matter what challenge you face, you can evaluate whether, how, and to what degree AI can be used to support.

The 4D Framework

Core Competencies

At the heart of this course is the 4D framework, created by professors Joseph Feller and Rick Dacon. It consists of four competencies: delegation, description, discernment, and diligence that work together as the foundation of AI fluency. Think of them as interconnected skills that support your interactions with AI.

Iterative Loops

Throughout this course, you'll see how these competencies work together in iterative loops. The delegation diligence loop supports you to make thoughtful, responsible choices about when and how to use AI in your nonprofit work and how to own those choices. Meanwhile, the description discernment loop helps you get more out of your interactions with AI through back-and-forth collaboration.

Applying AI Fluency

Practical Applications

In this course, we'll explain these competencies and show you how to apply them to the important work nonprofit leaders do, such as grant writing, donor communications, data analysis, program reporting, and more. Each lesson includes practical exercises inspired by conversations with our community so that you can see these competencies in action.

Mission-First Approach

What sets nonprofit AI use apart is that your mission always comes first. Every efficiency gain, every automated task, every hour saved should ultimately translate to greater impact for the communities you serve. This course will help you evaluate AI opportunities through that lens: not just "can AI do this?", but "should AI do this?" and "how can it advance our mission?"

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, you'll be able to approach AI with confidence and intentionality. You'll know how to leverage AI to increase your impact and efficiency while staying true to your nonprofit's mission and values.

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