Episode 120: Artificial Intelligence and The Nonprofit: Everything Has It's Place
AI is everywhere. You can't hide from it. If leveraged the right way, AI can be used to increase efficiencies in the nonprofit. Learn how AI might be used in the nonprofit to help increase capacity and fill gaps that struggling budgets aren't able to fill.
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🔦 NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT 🙌🏿
THERAPEUTIC PLAY FOUNDATION Pt. 4
👉🏿https://www.therapeuticplayfoundation.org/
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🚀 RESOURCES TO HELP YOU RUN A SUCCESSFUL NONPROFIT
How to Price Event Tickets for Profit https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AMsBHQgkIzNsAa9cj3ZU030Yw4r7zJTP/view?usp=drive_link
90 Days to a Profitable Nonprofit https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ofgeHJ2CTVS0t8STMiNqfveaVpWfaK7o/view?usp=sharing
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Learn more about my success with helping nonprofits
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Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to On Air with Amber Wynn, where nonprofit leaders learn to fuse passion and commitment with proven business strategies to create long-term funding impact and sustainability. And now here's your host and resident, Philanthrepreneur Amber Wynn.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, hey fam, it's your girl in the house, Amber, Wynn, Philanthrepreneur, and you are on air with Amber. I'm so excited to be here today. Today's topic is artificial intelligence in the nonprofit sector, and I'm talking about this because I have people ask me all the time, Amber, what do you think about AI and the nonprofit? What's your opinion? And I'm going to start by saying this, your girl is Gen X. I am not big on technology. I am not big on the newfangled, whatever, shiny object, whatever. And I will say this, everything has its place.
(01:12):
You can't run away from it. Technology is here and if you understand how to use it, it can benefit you. So when we come back, I'm going to talk about artificial intelligence in the nonprofit sector because everything has its place. If you are thinking about hosting a golf tournament or any other kind of event, make sure at the end of the event you generate a profit and not come out with a loss. There's a formula for guaranteeing that your event will generate a profit. You'll find it in my Hotter price event. Tickets for Profit Toolkit, learn the insider secrets for how to ensure your event will always make a profit every time. Order your copy today. Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. Today we're talking about artificial intelligence and the nonprofit sector, and I started out by saying how I'm not necessarily in support of technology because it scares me.
(02:07):
I don't have that orientation and I'm old school, but I'm also a business owner and I also recognize how technology can help me. And because the nonprofit sector has a burnout rate of over 54%, I'm going to advocate for AI in the nonprofit sector because if you utilize it the right way, then artificial intelligence can help increase your efficiency. It can help with things like automation and it can help with increasing effectiveness. For example, your funders want to know your impact. If you use artificial intelligence to help you with getting out your message on how impactful you are, that's only going to benefit you, right? So of running from AI, I would say take a course, learn how integrating AI into your organization can help you to be more effective and to help you be more efficient. Another place that I would recommend, especially for people who struggle with writing, is with your grant writing.
(03:22):
I would say to a person, leverage AI to help you write a more effective grant than struggling in putting out work that number one, deplete your time. And number two has not yielded you a positive result. What AI does is it takes from the public information and then it pulls it as a resource. So if it's taking from the public information from winning grants, then you have the opportunity to then use that information to help improve the way that you write your grants. Why wouldn't you? Why would you continue to struggle to write subpar grants when you have a resource out there that can help you to increase revenue to your organization? So what I'm saying is I believe that there is a place for everything and because we struggle in a nonprofit sector to be able to fully fund our organization, if you can use technology, if you can use AI to increase your efficiency and your effectiveness, I'm going to say go for it.
(04:34):
I am. I think it's important for us to leverage every resource we can in the nonprofit sector because it's so limited and because there's so much work to be done. If this resource, if AI can come in and let's just say help you to build out a case for support, maybe you're not the most savvy when it comes to writing. And so let's just say you go on Chat GPT, and you say, okay, here are my numbers, here are my goals, here's what I'm trying to accomplish. And you give AI the instruction. Please design a comprehensive case for support. You put the information in there and in five minutes or less, you get a comprehensive case for support. Why wouldn't you? That case for support can now be given to multiple funders that then may increase your revenue for your organization. I think a person would be silly not to leverage that.
(05:39):
So I know that there are people out there who are saying, oh no, I'll never use AI. AI is the devil. I'm not going to lie. I wasn't necessarily on board with that. But let me tell you how Amber changed her mind. It was crunch time. She had a report to write and her brain was just fried. She was like, I'm tired. And so what I did is I opened up Chat GPT, and I put in all of my bullet points and I said, create a comprehensive proposal with these headings and dah, dah, dah, dah. And it was like, and I was like, this is good.
(06:23):
It wasn't perfect, but I tell you what chat GPT gave me, it would've taken me three iterations to get to. So I bypassed those three iterations, and then I took what chat GPT gave me, I massaged it and I made it my own because chat GPT, it's not perfect, right? But what I didn't have to do is struggle. For those three iterations, I went straight to what I would've gotten to. And when I say it saved me probably about four hours, baby, what could you do with four hours? So this is me as a consultant. Think about all of the things that AI can help you do as a non-profit. If you need to solicit more individual donors, you can say to chat GPT, here's the information. Create a newsletter. You can say to chat GPT, here's all my information. I've had 80 clients, I've graduated 10 of them.
(07:33):
Six, were from this spa. Create a report. This is the report. Now that you turn into your funder, if they don't have a prescribed template, you can use AI to increase your capacity. You can use AI to help you to become more efficient. If it's time for a solicitation and you don't know how to write a letter asking people to donate, you give chat GPT that information and you say, craft a comprehensive solicitation letter. Craft a direct mail, craft an ask of donors for $250. Craft an ask for a reoccurring letter. You don't have to sit there and struggle with what to write. You put in the information, you give the request, and it may not be perfect, but it may be good. And if it's good, you can use it and then massage it and put your own touch onto it. So I'm here for increasing capacity.
(08:37):
I'm here for making a nonprofit leader's job easier. I'm here for those things, those resources like AI that can help you just be a more effective leader. As I've said numerous of times, the burnout rate for the nonprofit sector is 54%, and that's because you are the accountant and you're the grant writer and you're the communications person and you're the marketing person. Listen, you can have AI help you with writing your social media posts. You give it the information, you give it the charge. So yes, I am in full support of artificial intelligence in the nonprofit sector. Choose a degree that it is going to support the most amazing people on the planet doing the work, right? So if you have been adverse in opposition to AI in your nonprofit, I want you to just think about the things that I said. I want you to think about how you can leverage AI to strengthen your nonprofit and not just strengthen your nonprofit, but help to increase your capacity.
(09:51):
Stop burning up your brain cells, trying to figure out how to write this and how to write that when you have this resource at your fingertip. That's just my 2 cents. Y'all going to do what y'all want to do. But I have been asked the question numerous occasions, and in particular, I think it's because I'm a grant writer. So people are like, well, what do you think about AI helping people to write grants? I'm here for it. Here's the other thing. There are some shady people out there calling themselves grant writers, and they're doing exactly what I'm telling you to do. They're going to put it in chat GPT, and then they're going to charge you $3,000 for it. So why don't you just bypass that? And why don't you just do it yourself, right? You say, here are the headings. We've got the executive summary.
(10:38):
You give them the information and let them create that for you and save yourself that $3,000. So I, I'm just saying anyways, I am going to get off my soapbox because I can go on and on forever, but you get it right? There is a place and time for technology and technological advances, and just because we are the nonprofit sector doesn't mean that we shouldn't avail ourselves of those opportunities. So go for it. When we come back, I'm going to answer a question and ask Amber about a for-profit company looking for grants when we come back.
(11:19):
Are you struggling to fund your programs? Can't get a grant to save your life. Most consultants will share the what of how to start a nonprofit or how to fundraise. They may even share the why, but they don't share the how because that's where they make their money. Now, I'm not hating. I'm a businesswoman too, but I've been where you are trying to make the world a better place, struggling to keep the doors open up to the wee hours of the night writing grants and doing whatever needed to be done. And because I've walked in your shoes, I'm not to make you spend your will, waste your time or your hard earned money. We ain't got time for that. The world needs you. I'm here to show you how to transform that pit. You keep dumping your hard earned money into a profitable nonprofit. I take my 30 years of nonprofit experience as a founder, executive director, program developer, grant writer and funder, giving out over $7 million annually in grants, and I save you literally thousands of dollars in hundreds of hours.
(12:25):
I walk you through setting up your nonprofit organization so that you can be generating enough revenue to cover your monthly expenses in just 90 days. How would that feel? Not paying bills from your personal bank account. I share my insider secret tips, tricks of a trade, and provide you with a step-by-step roadmap on how to turn your bootstrap organization into a profitable nonprofit. Within six months. You could be generating enough revenue to pay your salary or fully fund your program. The choice is yours, but you have to get the blueprint. And it took me three years to develop it, but it's here and it's going to change your life. Join my other successful clients who are just like you, full of passion and determination, but they had no idea all that it takes to run and fund a successful nonprofit. Now they're winning grants and drawing a salary, and they know what it is that they're supposed to be doing to run a successful nonprofit.
(13:26):
They're no longer making it up as they go. They have the roadmap and they're clear about next steps. And I want that for you too. So what do you get in this course? You'll walk away with knowledge, products, processes, and systems, not just a bunch of promises, but exactly what you need to turn your organization into a profitable nonprofit. I promise you don't need grants. What you need is a solid infrastructure, and this course is going to give you all of that and more. And what's more, it comes with the money back guarantee. So go ahead, click the link below to register for this course. Welcome back to On Air with Amber. I think it's important for every nonprofit to chart their own course, but I'm here to support you and I'm here to give you my opinions, and that's all that they are, are just opinions.
(14:22):
I know I went a little hard in the paint before the commercial, so I just wanted to go ahead and say that I'm here for you. I'm here to support you. You make your choices and your decisions. I'm just here to share my opinions with you. And with that, talking about sharing opinions, we're going to move into Ask Amber where a person reached out to me. His name is Darren, and he's from Corpus Christi, and he asks, I'm a for-profit company looking for grants to support my business. Do these exist or do you have to be a nonprofit to get a grant? And if you have to be a nonprofit, can I start one to get grants to help support my business and have it function like the nonprofit arm of the business? So prior to the pandemic, my answer would've been No. Grants are specifically for 501(c)(3)s for nonprofits, but the pandemic opened up a whole new world for businesses, in particular small businesses.
(15:25):
And now there are quite a few grants out there for businesses. You'll see it all the time. Hello, Alice, your municipality, SBAs. There are business grants out there, and all you have to do is Google business grants for small businesses, and then all of those resources should come up. You can also check out grants.gov for grants. There are grants out there that the government, they put out there specifically for businesses. Make sure that you look, that you listen to my previous episode talking about government grants though while they may be there for you. It comes with a lot of strings attached.
(16:13):
Things like you have to register for Sam and you've got to create this rigorous proposal. So it's not as simple as that. There are organizations out there or companies out there that specifically fund small businesses, and it's not as rigorous as the government, but based off of the way you worded your question, it doesn't look like your true passion is to start a nonprofit. What it sounds like is you're looking for a way to support your organization, right? Just by you saying, can I start a nonprofit to get grants to support my business? Here's what I will tell you. The purpose of a nonprofit is not to benefit one person or an entity. So the very nature of your question says that your application would be denied because nine times out of 10, that's what you would put on your application, that you're starting a nonprofit to support your business.
(17:15):
And the IRS is going to decline that. The purpose of a nonprofit is to serve the greater good. So do not use a nonprofit to go that route. There are grants out there specifically to support nonprofits. Check out SBA, check out score. Check out your Chamber of Commerce. They're going to have specific resources for small businesses like yours, and they'll be designed to support businesses. So don't start a nonprofit. Thank you for that question. If you have a question and you want to ask Amber, hit me up on any one of my socials, hit me up on my email, amber@amberwynn.net and let me know your question. I'll be happy to answer it on air. Now we go to my favorite part of the episode where I have the honor of featuring a nonprofit that's doing the work in the community. You guys are amazing individuals, and what typically happens is you're so busy with your head to the ground doing the work that you don't come up and make sure that people know who you are, where you are, and what you're doing. When we talk about things like increasing your individual donors, increasing your funding streams, people need to know you're out there knowing the work that you do. And so I created this segment so that I can help people find you individual donors, major donors, funders, and we're wrapping up our conversation. It's a four-part conversation with the founder of Therapeutic Play Foundation, Nikia Fields, who is an amazing nonprofit leader. And so let's go ahead and tie up our conversation with Nikia.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
It took me a long time to get any dollars, and I just want to be really transparent because I do have other leaders here who are listening and be like, oh, she's so lucky. She just had that skillset. They might be saying these things. I've heard a lot of things and I just think that it's been a struggle. The struggle was real, and the struggle was mostly around building. It is okay for me as a solo entrepreneur because I have a skillset. I could go run an event, I could facilitate something. I could run a therapy group. I could do individual therapy sessions. You totally could always make an income from something like that. But when it comes to expanding a nonprofit organization with all the rigidity around restricted funding, and remember, my background was for profit. So when I started to build this within the pandemic, it was from a complete place of ignorance, but I had a lot of confidence. I knew that I knew how to run a business. I wasn't quite sure that I knew how to run a nonprofit.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
They're
Speaker 3 (20:26):
Different. Different. And Amber, the reason why I told you I loved you in the very beginning is because I think between you, I think you were a coach for me with the Tammy Project,
(20:38):
And then you were a coach for me with the Black Equity Collective. And I think primarily the reason why I was able to even stay running a nonprofit at all build the coalition that the Black Mental Health Task Force is and get a state contract was because I had coaching and mentorship from you, from Isha, from London, from Casey, from Olga. So these are all names of people in these projects that are, there's specific projects that are there to capacity build nonprofits, and these people love us and want us to thrive. So I used the coaching, I listened, I went to the sessions. I learned, I even went off and was like other people from my team have to go because I can't be the only one learning, understanding all this, learning all of this. So it became a really targeted effort for me to learn and to engage with. I was in a whole new graduate program. That's what it felt like for a couple of years through Black Equity Collective and the
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Welcome back to On Air with Amber Wynn. It was a pleasure to have that conversation with Nikia of Therapeutic Play Foundation. If you want to hear the whole conversation, go over to my YouTube channel and you can hear the conversation in its entirety. And again, if you'd like for me to feature you on my podcast, hit me up on any of my socials and let me know. So today we talked a little bit about AI and how it can support your nonprofit. I want you to dive in. People use the resources that are being provided to you to help increase your capacity so that you're not a part of that 54% burnout statistic. I want you to look at ways for you to get things off your plate, to get things done easier without all of that stress. I know for me, I suck with numbers.
(22:56):
So if I have to sit down and build out a budget or I have to sit down and do a financial statement, it's stressful. I assume it's the same way for people who struggle with writing. I tend to like to write, but if that's the way I feel about numbers and that's the way you feel about writing, why not leverage a resource that's out there to support you? I'm out here to support you, and so that's why I'm sharing this information with you to encourage you to do those things. That's going to make your life easier. Okay? Alright, so if you enjoyed this week's topic, be sure to share it. Subscribe, like all that good stuff, y'all know those algorithms out there. Thank you so much for spending your time with me this week. Don't forget to check me out next week. And until then, be sure to take care of yourself like you care of your community.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and leave a review on iTunes. Head over to www.amberwynn.next/podcast for the links and resources mentioned in today's podcast. See you next time.
