Want a hand rolling out your AI efforts? Help is here

Since its release in April, more than 2000 organisations have downloaded the two-part guide Mission Delivery Enabled by Gen AI: A guide for teams/leaders in the not-for-profit sector, produced in a collaboration between Community Directors and McKinsey and Company.

The package comprises “end-to-end” guides for both leaders and team members who are implementing their first AI transformation projects.

The 139-page team members’ guide, for example, spells out all the essential concepts and steps involved in an AI pilot and includes templates, strategies and workflows that groups can customise.

The guide includes useful AI-related definitions and explanations, as well as information about the kinds of uses that AI is best for, and some of the risks.

It suggests four major opportunities to use generative AI to save time in NFPs:

• comprehension of long reports
• creation of content such as emails, contracts, reports, marketing, images and charts
• coding to help update old IT systems, or to synthesise data
• community engagement, such as using chatbots to answer frequently asked questions or to collect feedback.

The guide also suggests methods of improving prompting, reducing risks, tying pilots to an organisation’s mission and strategy, implementing AI governance and data privacy, and designing an appropriate workplan.

Importantly, the guide also suggests ways in which organisations can choose “quick wins”, and select right-sized “domains” in which to employ AI – for example, applying for grants or writing impact reports.

The guides were developed and fine-tuned through a series of pilot projects involving McKinsey consultants and medium-sized Australian NFPs.

In one project, an organisation working in the social justice field employed the project to improve their case management workflows using both Claude and Copilot, from pre-screening to closing cases.

The project aimed to reduce the organisation’s administrative burden, while ensuring clients remained safe and supported.

Community Directors executive director Adele Stowe-Lindner said the guide would benefit leaders who wanted to make headway in a complex and changing environment.

“We know that many organisations are already using artificial intelligence, often without the kinds of guardrails, guidance and policies that would ensure they stick to their missions, manage their risks, and actually improve their services. This guide helps them do just that.”

Stowe-Lindner said Community Directors continued to work with McKinsey to further improve artificial intelligence governance in the NFP sector.

McKinsey experts will present a free webinar on how to "leverage AI" for Leadership Week, hosted by Community Directors in July.

Tech essentials for your NFP

Community Directors houses a huge web library of free, practical resources, and here's where to find help related to technology and artificial intelligence. You’ll find guidebooks, templates, policies and more articles covering issues such as data, cybersecurity, technology planning, ethics and using artificial intelligence.