Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

Community IT Innovators
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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

  1. 15h ago

    Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits with Jean Westrick

    Carolyn Woodard talks with Jean Westrick, President and CEO of the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG), about why nonprofit technology management should be treated as organizational capacity. Jean argues that digital resilience is becoming as essential as financial resilience. The conversation moves through why nonprofit IT funding is so hard to secure, what it looks like when funders get this right, and how technology providers and MSPs can be stronger partners.  Jean and Carolyn also preview a white paper they co-authored for TAG and Community IT, Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits, built on the idea that most nonprofit technology struggles are not about the software, they are about capacity - and that growing capacity is an opportunity for funders, nonprofits, and the sector. Want to learn more? Register for the Community IT September 23 webinar, where Carolyn and Johan Hammerstrom dig deeper into these ideas. This episode covers: Three reasons IT funding is so hard to secure: outdated ideas about overhead, funders treating a technology purchase as the finish line instead of ongoing management, and a failure to recognize that technology decisions are strategic, leadership decisions.Naming has power. When the Kauffman Foundation names IT planning, cybersecurity, and AI readiness as eligible capacity building expenses it sends a powerful signal to grantees that they are allowed to ask.How the Virtual CTO Program from TechSoup and Tech Impact gives small nonprofits access to technology assessments and long-term roadmaps at an affordable price point and connects them to a cohort of nonprofits on the same IT journey who can share resources and knowledge.Why every organization needs IT friends and translators, people who can connect a technology decision back to the mission it is meant to serve.A first look at Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits, the white paper Carolyn authored, coming from TAG in early 2027.  Resources Mentioned: Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG)Virtual CTO Program for the Nonprofit Sector, TechSoup and Tech ImpactCapacity Building Grants, Ewing Marion Kauffman FoundationRegister for the Sept 23 webinar with Carolyn and Johan Hammerstrom on Growing IT Management Capacity at 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.

    Growing IT Management Capacity at Nonprofits with Jean Westrick

  2. 3d ago

    Nonprofit AI: Calls for Regulation

    This week, host Carolyn Woodard tackles the AI story that made it onto TV and radio news this weekend: an essay from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei calling for a deliberate slowdown in frontier AI development, followed within about 24 hours by agreement from OpenAI's Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Google DeepMind.  If the headlines had you feeling like you should be very afraid, Carolyn walks through what's actually happening, why the timing is worth a second look, and why nonprofits have more agency in this moment than the news cycle suggests. She also digs into a practical question raised by Anthropic's own account bans this week: how did they know what users were asking? The answer has real implications for any nonprofit using AI tools with sensitive data. This episode covers: Anthropic bans five accounts tied to bioweapons-related research just days after a top researcher, Jacob Coxon, publicly resigns over AI safety concerns — the backdrop that turned Amodei's essay into a weekend news cycle, alongside Congress's narrow pre-midterm window and today's unlikely Bernie Sanders–Steve Bannon press conference calling for AI curbs from opposite ends of the political spectrum."Regulatory capture" gets a plain-language explainer. The same self-regulation playbook the auto and food safety industries have used for decades, now showing up in AI companies' pitch that only they understand their technology well enough to write the rules for themselves.A nuclear arms race compare and contrast - exponential capability growth, decades-long treaty timelines, and a key difference: nuclear weapons required nation-state resources and scientists, while today's dangerous capability increasingly just requires an AI assistant and the right specialized background.How did Anthropic actually catch the flagged accounts? Automated safety classifiers scan for risk patterns, similar to how YouTube flags copyrighted content, and escalating flags trigger human investigation. Anthropic doesn't have a person reading every chat. Check your terms and conditions for more information on the AI tool you use. Practical, org-level steps for nonprofits worried about AI vendor trust: a free AI Acceptable Use Policy Template, a nonprofit-specific tool safety guide, and the suggestion to ask funders what due diligence they've already done and hang on to their coattails (if they have more time and budget for due diligence than you do)Andrew Strait, formerly of Google and DeepMind, questions who gets to appoint AI safety evaluators and what counts as "safety." Two real regulatory alternatives are already on the table, including a Wharton proposal modeled on two centuries of bank regulation.Where does philanthropy fit in? John Palfrey and MacArthur Foundation's reaction, the nine-foundation Humanity AI coalition, and an honest look at whether philanthropy's slow pace can keep up with this pace of change. Resources Mentioned: We Must Pace the Frontier – Dario Amodei – https://darioamodei.com/post/we-must-pace-the-frontierDetecting and Countering Misuse of AI: September 2026 – Anthropic – https://www.anthropic.com/threat-intelligence-report-september-2026Anthropic's Moral Conflict Is Playing Out in Real Time – Wall Street Journal (paywalled, free with account) – https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anthropics-moral-conflict-is-playing-out-in-real-time-c503e0c1Exclusive: Sam Altman interview – Fortune – https://fortune.com/2026/09/12/sam-altman-interview-ai-doomsday-safety-models-control-ipo-2027/Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon to share a stage to promote curbs on AI – NPR – https://www.npr.org/2026/09/15/nx-s1-5968678/bernie-sanders-and-steve-bannon-to-share-a-stage-to-promote-curbs-on-aiLinkedIn post on AI industry self-regulation – Andrew Strait – https://www.linkedin.com/posts/agstrait_there-are-significant-reasons-to-be-skeptical-ugcPost-7504112678676885505-QG8l/'Pace the Frontier,' They Say. But Who Sets the Pace? – Tech Policy Press – https://www.techpolicy.press/pace-the-frontier-they-say-but-who-sets-the-pace/Supervising Risk: A New Deal for Artificial Intelligence – Kevin Werbach & Peter Conti-Brown, Wharton – https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6781380AI Tools Safety Guide – Meet the Moment – https://nonprofit-ai-tools-trust-directory.mtmapps.nowAI Acceptable Use Policy Template – Community IT Innovators – https://communityit.com/template-acceptable-use-of-ai-tools-in-the-nonprofit-workplace/Nonprofit AI Framework Webinar – Community IT Innovators – https://communityit.com/webinar-nonprofit-ai-framework/Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Ethics for Nonprofits Webinar – Community IT Innovators – https://communityit.com/webinar-artificial-intelligence-ai-and-ethics-for-nonprofits/LinkedIn post on industry self-regulation and AI accountability – John Palfrey, MacArthur Foundation – https://lnkd.in/p/gtNmCyeUHumanity AI – https://humanityai.ai/Current AI – https://www.currentai.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: Calls for Regulation

  3. Sep 11

    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

  4. Sep 8

    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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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
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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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