Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

Community IT Innovators

Community IT offers free webinars monthly to promote learning within our nonprofit technology community. Our podcast is appropriate for a varied level of technology expertise. Community IT is vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Something on your mind you don’t see covered here? Contact us to suggest a topic! http://www.communityit.com

  1. 3d ago

    Doing IT Assessments at Nonprofits Pt 2

    In part 2 of this two-part episode, Carolyn continues her conversation with CEO Johan Hammerstrom and Senior IT Consultant Nuradeen Aboki: what you actually get at the end of an IT assessment, and what to do with it. This episode covers: Assessment deliverables — the comprehensive report, prioritized recommendations, strategic plan, and IT roadmap, and how they connect findings to what leadership actually cares aboutTwo key principles behind a successful assessmentWhat a healthy nonprofit IT environment looks like, category by categoryKey takeaways and next steps if your assessment points toward a change in IT supportAudience Q&A on timing an assessment around staff transitions, whether smaller nonprofits need an assessment too, and what type of assessment may be most helpful.Resources Mentioned: Cybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits Playbook: https://communityit.com/download-cybersecurity-readiness-for-nonprofits-playbook/How Do I Know If an IT Managed Services Provider Is Right for My Nonprofit Organization?: https://communityit.com/how-do-i-know-if-an-msp-is-right-for-my-organization/Building a Foundation for IT Innovation: https://communityit.com/building-the-foundation-for-it-innovation-download-this-guide/The Nonprofit Guide to Vetting a Managed IT Services Provider: https://communityit.com/the-nonprofit-guide-to-vetting-a-managed-it-service-provider/ _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Doing IT Assessments at Nonprofits Pt 2

  2. 6d ago

    Nonprofit AI: LLM 101 and Best Practices Roundup

    Carolyn Woodard covers two things this week: a quick and basic explainer of how large language models actually work under the hood, and a roundup of the best practices for using AI at nonprofits that Community IT has built up over nine months of this podcast and 3 years of our monthly webinars. First, the basics. An LLM is not a database and it is not doing a Google search. It is predicting the next most likely word, or token, based on patterns learned from the huge amount of text it was trained on. Image and video tools work differently, using a diffusion model that refines random noise into a picture, which is why video generation costs roughly 2,000 times more energy at the data center than a text prompt. "Hallucination" or being confidently wrong is a feature, not an AI bug. OpenAI research from last year shows it is a predictable result of how models are trained to guess a fluent-sounding answer rather than say I do not know. Then Carolyn walks through the best practices Community IT recommends for any nonprofit using AI, from naming an AI owner to keeping a human editor in the loop on anything that goes out under your name. The full version, with links to Community IT's past episodes and resources, lives in our AI for Nonprofits guide on the website. This episode covers: What an LLM is actually doing when you type in a prompt, and why that mechanism is also why LLMs are bad at math.What the fact that image and video generation use so much more energy than text means for your organization's AI choices.Why hallucination happens, and how to prompt AI to tell you when it is uncertain instead of guessing.A dozen or so of Community IT's best practices for nonprofit AI adoption: talk about it openly and often, name an AI owner, build hands-on literacy, verify what you can verify, keep a human editor in the loop, and many moreWhy evaluating AI tools against your organization's values, not just their features, matters.Resources Mentioned: Running Your Own LLM, Nonprofit AI PodcastAI for Nonprofits Guide, Community ITValues-Aligned AI Decision-Making, Community ITAI Acceptable Use Policy Template, Community ITWhy Language Models Hallucinate, OpenAI, 2025Nonprofit IT Management Reddit CommunityNew every Tuesday. _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Nonprofit AI: LLM 101 and Best Practices Roundup

  3. Sep 4

    Doing an IT Assessment at Nonprofits Pt 1

    Is it time for an IT assessment at your nonprofit? Maybe you need an assessment for a grant requirement, a change in leadership, or a switch to a new IT provider.  In part 1 of this two-part episode, Carolyn talks with CEO Johan Hammerstrom and Senior IT Consultant Nuradeen Aboki about what a comprehensive, nonprofit-focused IT assessment actually involves, and how to tell a genuine, agnostic assessment from one that's really just a sales pitch. This episode covers: What Community IT means by a "comprehensive" IT assessment, and how that differs from the free evaluations many MSPs offer as part of a sales processHow to vet an assessment provider: what to ask about methodology, sample reports, and referencesCommon objectives and scenarios that prompt nonprofits to get an assessment done, including leadership transitions and preparing for growthThe four categories every assessment should cover: infrastructure and core systems, data and digital platforms, security and compliance, and governance and strategyAn inside look at the discover, evaluate, align, and plan approach Community IT uses to turn findings into a strategic roadmapPart 2 continues next week with assessment deliverables, what a healthy nonprofit IT environment looks like, and next steps if it's time to change your IT support. _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Doing an IT Assessment at Nonprofits Pt 1

  4. Sep 1

    Nonprofit AI: Funding Questions and Back to School

    Carolyn Woodard covers three threads in nonprofit AI news this week: new funding questions, a  look at how AI is showing up for kids heading back to school, and a new advocacy group taking on AI regulation. Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy, just announced it's raising its global health commitment from 175 million to 1 billion, betting that AI wealth will flow into philanthropy as OpenAI and Anthropic move toward going public. Their first grant is funding bed nets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Last week Carolyn mentioned the Bridgespan and NTEN report and one state  on her mind: 69% of nonprofits surveyed reported zero AI funding of any kind, even as nearly all of them are experimenting with the tools. In other news, Meta will pay 17 to 18 billion across the states to curb youth social media addiction, bringing new limits like daily time caps and night mode. In addition to teen social media use, data from Common Sense Media's Youth AI Safety Census shows 86% of kids 9 to 17 have used AI, 72% of teens have used an AI companion, and nearly half of surveyed kids have never talked with a parent about AI safety. With over 100 state bills in play and most AI rules still left up to individual teachers, she discusses what this patchwork will mean for nonprofits working in education, youth development, and mental health. Finally, Carolyn covers a new advocacy group, Irreplaceable, born out of the climate organizing world, that launched this week to apply decades of environmental organizing lessons to AI regulation specifically. In recent polling 75% of Americans oppose local data centers, and 70% think AI is moving too fast. Resources: Increasing Our 2026 Allocation to GiveWell's Recommendations to $1 Billion – Coefficient Giving – https://coefficientgiving.org/research/increasing-our-2026-allocation-to-givewells-recommendations-to-1-billion/ Coefficient Giving Boosts Pledge to $1 Billion, Banking on an AI Windfall – Chronicle of Philanthropy (paywalled/metered) – https://www.philanthropy.com/news/coefficient-giving-boosts-pledge-to-1-billion-banking-on-an-ai-windfall/ Choosing Your AI Path: A Framework for Nonprofit Leaders to Make Strategic Choices – Bridgespan/NTEN – https://www.bridgespan.org/insights/choosing-your-ai-path-a-framework-for-nonprofit-leaders-to-make-strategic-choices Where Does Your Foundation Stand on AI? The AI Journey Map for Philanthropy – Project Evident – https://projectevident.org/news/where-does-your-foundation-stand-on-ai-introducing-the-ai-journey-map-for-philanthropy/ Meta, States Agree to $17 Billion Settlement in Child Safety Trial – NPR – https://www.npr.org/2026/08/26/nx-s1-5944781/meta-settlement-child-safety-lawsuit Adults Have Struggled to Set Rules for AI in School. These Teens Figured It Out – NPR (Cory Turner) – https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/npr/2026/07/30/nx-s1-5853571/adults-have-struggled-to-set-rules-for-ai-in-school-these-teens-figured-it-out/ The Common Sense Media Census: AI Use by Tweens and Teens (2026) – Common Sense Media – https://www.commonsensemedia.org/research/a-comprehensive-report-on-teens-tweens-and-ai In the US, Caution Rules on AI Ahead of K-12 School Year – Tech Policy Press – https://www.techpolicy.press/in-the-us-caution-rules-on-ai-ahead-of-k12-school-year/ How AI Is Changing Education – Here & Now (WBUR/NPR, Matt Barnum, Chalkbeat) – https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2026/06/15/ai-education Could Artificial Intelligence Improve Special Education? – Consider This from NPR – https://www.npr.org/2026/05/20/nx-s1-5828907/could-artificial-intelligence-improve-special-education From AI Policies to AI Literacy in Education – Forbes (Heather Wishart-Smith) – https://www.forbes.com/sites/heatherwishartsmith/2026/05/20/from-ai-policies-to-ai-literacy-in-education/ AI Is Eliminating Entry-Level Jobs. Education Needs to Fill the Gap – Fast Company – https://www.fastcompany.com/91552415/ai-is-eliminating-entry-level-jobs-education-needs-to-fill-the-gap AI Is Routine for College Students, Despite Campus Limits – Gallup (Lumina Foundation-Gallup 2026 State of Higher Education Study) – https://news.gallup.com/poll/704090/routine-college-students-despite-campus-limits.aspx OpenAI's Postmortem Recasts the Hugging Face Breach as an Incident Response Failure – IANS Research – https://www.iansresearch.com/resources/all-blogs/post/security-blog/2026/08/28/openai's-postmortem-recasts-the-hugging-face-breach-as-an-incident-response-failure Make AI Companies Criminally Liable for Preventable Harm – Tech Policy Press – https://www.techpolicy.press/make-ai-companies-criminally-liable-for-preventable-harm/ The AI Backlash Gets Professional – The Atlantic (Matteo Wong) – https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/2026/08/irreplaceable-climate-activists-ai-backlash/688404/ Irreplaceable – new nonprofit fighting for AI regulation - irreplaceable.org _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Nonprofit AI: Funding Questions and Back to School

  5. Aug 28

    AI in Practice for Nonprofits with Carolyn Woodard and Erik Solce pt 2

    In Part 2 of the AI in Practice for Nonprofits webinar, Carolyn Woodard and Erik Solce, IT Business Manager at Community IT, dig into the part of the project that matters most once an AI workflow is up and running: how do you know it is actually working, and how do you keep yourself in the loop instead of just trusting the output? Carolyn walks through her verify but trust framework using a real example from her own marketing data lake. An AI-generated report flagged that YouTube Shorts were quietly pulling down watch time on the long-form webinar videos her organization actually wants people to find, a counterintuitive finding. She confirmed independently before acting on it, then tracked month over month to see engagement recover.  She and Erik also share what a few months of working with AI day to day has taught them: it does not remember context the way a human assistant would, a trusted coach makes the learning curve much shorter, and a simple Friday check-in on what is still outstanding keeps a project from sprawling. The second half turns to audience questions, from how to pick the right process to automate to how to keep sensitive documents out of an AI tool's reach. Haven't listened to Part 1 yet? Find it in your podcast feed. This episode covers: The verify but trust framework: spot-checking numbers against your dashboards, following a metric after you make a change, and cross-checking independent sources against each other.The YouTube Shorts case study: how an AI-flagged, counterintuitive finding about engagement led to a policy change and measurable results.Working with AI as a collaborator rather than a tool: session memory limits, the value of a human coach, and a weekly outstanding items check-in.How to choose what to automate: talk to the people doing the work, map the real process rather than the documented one, and look for high volume, rule-based, repetitive tasks, using a SIPOC diagram as one way to do it.Security Q&A: reviewing SharePoint and Drive permissions before granting AI tools access, applying sensitivity labels to off-limits folders, and why using free AI tools is not recommended and is not secure.Resources Mentioned: Verify Then Trust: How to Check AI Outputs, Community ITGrowing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits webinar, Community ITAI Use Case Library, Patrick J. McGovern FoundationSIPOC Diagram, ASQNonprofit IT Management Reddit Community _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    AI in Practice for Nonprofits with Carolyn Woodard and Erik Solce pt 2

  6. Aug 25

    Nonprofit AI: Impala MCP and Bridgespan NTEN Report

    Carolyn Woodard covers two pieces of nonprofit AI news worth your time this week: a new AI connector from Impala, and a report from Bridgespan and NTEN that gives nonprofits a practical way to decide where AI actually fits their work. Impala just launched an MCP connector that links its philanthropic database to the AI assistant you already use, including Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot, so you are not locked into a single vendor. The database covers more than 2 million nonprofits, 250,000 foundations, 25 million grant transactions, board and leadership profiles, and full 990 data, and setup takes about two minutes if you already have a plan. Candid and Charity Navigator have made similar moves. Carolyn digs into Choosing Your AI Path, the framework Bridgespan and NTEN built from a survey of nonprofits worldwide. It sorts nonprofit AI work into three dimensions, Augment, Advance, and Advocate. Carolyn walks through each with examples, from a nonprofit using AI on satellite imagery to spot newly cleared airstrips before illegal logging begins, to the ACLU of Massachusetts building staff AI literacy with the AI Now Institute and then pushing for federal rules limiting consequential AI decisions in realms like hiring, credit, housing, and criminal justice. This episode covers: The three dimensions of the framework: Augment for internal capacity, Advance for mission and program expansion, and Advocate for shaping our national and international AI governance and policy. Most organizations will lead with one, but all three are worth understanding.What the survey found: 70% of nonprofit leaders say they are not taking advantage of meaningful AI opportunities, only 8% have a formal AI roadmap, 4% report AI meaningfully embedded across the organization, and 57% have not named anyone responsible for AI oversight.Why naming an AI owner, whether that is a formal title on your executive team, a coordinator, a small committee, or a board member, is becoming a practical necessity rather than a nice to have.No regrets steps for limited resource organizations: set a responsible use policy and train staff on it, inventory your workflow bottlenecks, pick one or two low risk use cases to experiment with, learn from peer organizations, and stay informed on the AI risks that touch your community.What funders can do differently: fund capacity rather than licenses, carry pilots through to sustained operations and past go live, and play a convening role so nonprofits can make their own informed choices. 69% of survey respondents reported zero AI funding of any kind.Resources Mentioned: Choosing Your AI Path, Bridgespan and NTENImpala MCPCandid MCP connector for ClaudeCharity Navigator on PerplexityAI Now InstituteTemplate, Acceptable Use of AI Tools in the Nonprofit Workplace, Community ITNew every Tuesday. _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Nonprofit AI: Impala MCP and Bridgespan NTEN Report

  7. Aug 21

    AI in Practice for Nonprofits with Carolyn Woodard and Erik Solce pt 1

    Carolyn Woodard explores how a nonprofit marketer with no IT background can run a real AI project with Erik Solce, IT Business Manager at Community IT.  For years Carolyn had marketing data scattered across nine separate channel dashboards and no way to see any of it in context. Every attempt to build a unified report stalled out. In part one of this case study, she and Erik walk through the three part structure that finally made the project doable, and why it took weeks instead of the months she expected. Erik shares what went sideways along the way, including a false path through Power BI, access and permission problems, and AI memory that kept reaching for a storage location the team had abandoned months earlier.  Carolyn talks candidly about working with Copilot, Gemini, and Claude, why she moved between them, and what running into token limits taught her about choosing the right license.  Carolyn and Erik discuss: The three part structure for AI enabled projects: the instigator who owns the problem, the tech coach who grounds it in reality, and the AI tool that helps analyze, research, and iterate.Why the subject matter expert has to stay involved in building the thing rather than waiting for someone to hand it over finished.What belongs in your IT foundation before you add AI, including an acceptable use policy, leadership ownership of IT strategy, and an IT roadmap to measure new tools against.Why an organization that has decided not to use AI still needs that decision written down in policy.How asking questions first, instead of writing a prompt, changed the project from a dashboard into a data lake.Resources Mentioned: AI Resources for NonprofitsMission Aligned AI Adoption Model for NonprofitsTemplate: Acceptable Use of AI Tools in the Nonprofit WorkplaceCybersecurity Readiness for Nonprofits PlaybookHow to Use AI Tools Safely at NonprofitsNonprofit IT Management Reddit CommunityMicrosoft 365 Copilot for NonprofitsGemini through Google for NonprofitsClaude for Nonprofits _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    AI in Practice for Nonprofits with Carolyn Woodard and Erik Solce pt 1

  8. Aug 18

    Nonprofit AI: Where do you get your information about AI?

    Carolyn Woodard covers a question worth asking before your nonprofit makes any decision about AI: where is your information about AI coming from, and what does that source need from you? As a consumer you have had roughly a billion dollars of advertising aimed at getting you to adopt AI. That does not make what you are hearing wrong, but it does mean the messengers deserve a look. This episode maps the sources you are hearing from, including AI companies, funders and foundations, vendors and IT providers like Community IT, environmentally engaged nonprofits, and your peers in the sector. Each has a legitimate reason to be in this conversation, and each has a tilt.  Carolyn then works through two recent articles that complicate the optimistic story: a Nonprofit Quarterly critique of the third wave of tech giving, and reporting on how fossil fuel companies are using AI to become more efficient in finding, extracting, and selling more fuel, adding un-tracked costs to the equation of AI harms and benefits.  This episode covers: Why the third wave of tech philanthropy can't be expected to repair what the extraction phase created, since the harm has already happened and the decision makers remain geographically and institutionally separated from the communities bearing the costs.Why data centers have become a fulcrum in the public conversation, galvanizing opposition across the political spectrum in places like Texas in a way that a decade of theoretical pieces about machine intelligence never did.The self-reinforcing loop between AI and fossil fuels: Chevron building a Texas gas plant to power Microsoft data centers that run the AI helping Chevron pull out and sell more fossil fuel.Why AI literacy  matters more than ever for nonprofit organizations - including those that have decided not to adopt AI at all.Three questions to bring to any source of AI information: who paid for this, what do they sell, and what is this source not going to tell me?Why designating an AI owner, a person or small committee who tames the fire hose of information, is worth doing whether or not your organization is adopting AI.Resources Mentioned: AI Use Case Library, Patrick J. McGovern FoundationCan Tech Philanthropy Solve What Tech Extraction Creates? Michelle Flores Vryn, Nonprofit QuarterlyThe third wave of American philanthropy, Nan Ransohoff, SubstackAI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions, WIREDAI-driven productivity gains enable more CO2 emissions than they avoid in a global energy-economy model, Alpine et al., npj Climate ActionAI Applications for Oil and Gas Companies Worsen Climate Pollution, Inside Climate NewsNew every Tuesday. _______________________________ Start a conversation :) Register to attend a webinar in real time, and find all past transcripts at https://communityit.com/webinars/email Carolyn at cwoodard@communityit.comon LinkedIn on reddit/r/nonprofitITmanagementon the Community IT websiteThanks for listening.

    Nonprofit AI: Where do you get your information about AI?
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Community IT offers free webinars monthly to promote learning within our nonprofit technology community. Our podcast is appropriate for a varied level of technology expertise. Community IT is vendor-agnostic and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Something on your mind you don’t see covered here? Contact us to suggest a topic! http://www.communityit.com

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