When AI Precedes Strategy: A Moment for Nonprofit Leaders

By Wendy McGrady, President and Chief Operating Officer

Artificial intelligence is already being employed by nonprofits. Often, this use is not the execution of formal strategy, but rather because well-intentioned staff are experimenting and improvising with AI in an effort to work more efficiently and keep pace.

At The Curtis Group, this is a pattern we see across nonprofit sectors. And it points to an important leadership reality: The biggest risk right now is not moving too slowly with AI—it is moving unintentionally.

AI Is in the Workflow

In our conversations with development teams, we routinely hear that AI is being used in practical ways:

• Drafting early versions of donor communications
• Summarizing meetings and reports
• Supporting preliminary prospect research
• Testing new productivity tools

None of this is inherently concerning. In many cases, it reflects initiative and a genuine desire to work smarter. Often, policies lag behind practice, data use can become inconsistent, institutional voice may begin to drift and donor trust can be unintentionally compromised. Where concern begins to emerge is not in the experimentation itself, but in the absence of shared guardrails.

Trust Still Leads the Work

Fundraising remains, at its core, relationship-focused work. Donors do not give because a report was written faster or an email was drafted more efficiently. They give because they feel known, valued and connected to the mission and the people advancing it. This is where AI creates both opportunity and responsibility.

Used thoughtfully, AI can help fundraising teams:

• Prepare more intentionally for donor conversations
• Spend less time drafting and more time listening
• Recognize patterns in donor engagement that humans might miss
• Follow through more consistently and personally

In other words, the real promise of AI in fundraising is not efficiency; it is capacity for deeper relationships.

But that outcome is not automatic. Without clear expectations and leadership guidance, the same tools can just as easily create distance, inconsistency or erosion of trust. This is why responsible AI adoption, first and foremost, is a leadership conversation.

From Reactive to Intentional

A helpful starting question for leadership is simple: If a donor asked how we use AI, would we feel confident answering? This single question often shifts the conversation from tools to trust.

Organizations navigating this moment well tend to share a few common traits:

• Leadership has named AI as an area of strategic attention
• Early guardrails (policies, acceptable use guidelines) are in place—even if they are evolving
• Staff feel safe raising questions and sharing experimentation
• Technology decisions are filtered through the lens of mission and trust

Notably, these organizations are not always moving the fastest. Instead, they are moving the most intentionally.

Practical Starting Points

For leaders wondering where to begin, progress does not require perfection. A few early steps can create meaningful momentum:

• Publicly name AI as a leadership priority. You don’t need a full strategy or a detailed roadmap to begin your AI adoption journey; you just need to make it an organizational priority. Start the conversation with your team about where AI fits into your work. Silence creates shadow use; naming AI as part of the way we work creates safety.
• Create basic acceptable-use guidelines. This does not need to be a lengthy policy. Begin with a simple one or two-page guide that answers the essentials: Which tools are approved? What data should never be entered? Where should staff go with questions?
• Name an AI champion. This is not necessarily the person who knows the most about AI, but someone at your org who is curious, thoughtful and willing to keep the conversation visible.

A Leadership Moment

AI is not a technology for future use in nonprofits. It is a present leadership responsibility.

The organizations best positioned for the future are unlikely to be those that simply adopt the newest tools, but those who build the internal clarity and cultural readiness required to use these tools wisely.

With thoughtful leadership and a steady focus on trust, AI can become what fundraising teams need it to be: support for human connection—never a substitute for it.

Let’s Continue the Conversation

If your organization is exploring the strategic adoption and evolution of AI, our team is ready to work alongside you to navigate this moment thoughtfully.

Explore our Strategic AI Adoption Resources, and reach out to us to start a thoughtful conversation about how your organization can harness the real promise of AI—where leadership, trust and curiosity meet.