AI Fluency for nonprofits

What you'll learn

Estimated time: 50 minutes

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

• Apply Description skills to craft clear, context-rich prompts that guide AI to create or improve written materials aligned with your nonprofit's mission and audience needs
• Apply Discernment skills to evaluate AI-generated written materials for accuracy, appropriateness, and alignment with your organizational values and communication standards

Writing with AI

(7 minutes)

This video demonstrates the Description-Discernment loop applied to writing, with a focus on maintaining authenticity and human connection. You'll follow James, who runs a small environmental justice organization, as he uses AI to write an emergency grant proposal under a 48-hour deadline. The video shows how to provide rich context through uploaded documents, guide AI's approach with specific instructions, and iterate through discernment to create a proposal he can stand behind.

Key takeaways

• Upload past successful work to help AI understand your organization's voice and approach—this saves time and improves authenticity
• Inject the details AI can't know: your track record, partnerships, staff expertise, and actual community relationships
• Be specific in your revisions: Instead of "make this more compelling," say "add these specific details about our community relationships"
• Let your expertise guide every revision: AI helps you write faster, but you're shaping the substance
• Build a cognitive environment: The back-and-forth between human and AI helps align the tool to your specific needs over time
• Own the final result: When you submit work created with AI assistance, you should be able to stand behind every word because you applied discernment throughout

Exercise 1: Grant proposal

This exercise helps you practice using Description and Discernment to create high-stakes fundraising content that authentically represents your organization.

Part I: Self-reflection

Select a program or initiative you need funding for. Craft a writing prompt that includes:

• The grant opportunity and what the funder cares about
• Your program's key details (who, what, where, outcomes)
• Your organization's voice and values
• Specific requirements (word count, required elements, tone)
• What makes your approach unique or effective

Part II: Collaboration

Share your prompt with AI and review the draft. Apply Discernment:

• Verify all data points and outcomes claimed are accurate
• Check if the language reflects your organization's actual voice or sounds generic
• Identify any deficit-based framing or problematic language about beneficiaries
• Assess whether it addresses the funder's priorities or just describes your program
• Note what's missing that only you know about your work

Part III: Reflection

• What context did you initially forget to include that would have improved the draft?
• What would you revise in your prompt to better capture your organization's unique approach?
• Which parts of the AI draft are usable versus which need complete rewriting?

Stretch goal: Iterate on your prompt with specific feedback about tone or framing issues you identified, then compare the two versions to see how description improvements affected output quality.

Exercise 2: Social media posts

This exercise applies Description and Discernment to content that requires capturing your organization's authentic voice for public audiences.

Part I: Self-reflection

Choose your content goal:

• Highlight a program impact or success story
• Promote an upcoming event or campaign
• Share educational content related to your mission
• Thank donors or volunteers

Craft a writing prompt that includes:

• Platform and format (Instagram carousel, LinkedIn post, Facebook story, etc.)
• Your audience and what motivates them
• Key message and call-to-action
• Your organization's social media voice (professional, playful, activist, etc.)
• Any visual elements needed (infographic data, quote graphic, photo description)
• Constraints (character limits, hashtag strategy, accessibility requirements)

Part II: Collaboration

Share your prompt with AI and review the content. Apply Discernment:

• Check if the tone matches how your organization actually communicates
• Verify any statistics or claims are accurate and current
• Assess if language respects the dignity of people you serve
• Evaluate visual suggestions for accessibility (alt text, color contrast if applicable)
• Consider whether this content would resonate with your actual followers or feels generic

Part III: Reflection

• Did your prompt capture what makes your organization's social media voice distinctive?
• What elements of the draft would you keep versus rewrite completely?
• If you requested a visualization, does it tell the right story for your audience?

Stretch goal: Ask AI to create 3 variations for different platforms (Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter/X) and evaluate how well it adapted the core message to each platform's audience and norms.

Lesson reflection

• How did uploading past work or providing detailed context change the quality of AI's writing output?
• What strategies will you use to maintain your organization's authentic voice when writing with AI?

What's next

In the next lesson, we'll explore AI Privacy in an attempt to better understand what happens to the data you share with AI.

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 and any feedback you may have. Share your feedback here.

Acknowledgments and license

Copyright 2025 Anthropic and Giving Tuesday. Based on the AI Fluency Framework developed by Prof. Rick Dakan (Ringling College of Art and Design) and Prof. Joseph Feller (University College Cork). Released under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.