Stop Dabbling, Start Investing in AI

Fundraising & Philanthropy magazine has asked me to share what I'm seeing at the coalface of generative AI deployment in the purpose-led sector — where the real opportunities are, what's holding organisations back, and what needs to change.

My first piece makes a direct case to boards and executive teams: stop experimenting at the margins and start making serious investment in AI capability.

The numbers are stark. 75% of NFP directors recognise AI's potential. Only 10% of organisations are acting on it. In a sector employing 1.54 million people and tackling homelessness, mental health, family violence and chronic disease, that gap has real human costs.

The organisations solving society's most intractable problems deserve access to the same transformative technology reshaping every other sector. The real opportunities lie in sophisticated AI agents that work like members of your team:

• Grant writing and funder research — reducing preparation time from weeks to hours, with submissions that retain your authentic voice and institutional knowledge

• Procurement — compressing six-month processes into days

• Compliance and reporting — freeing care workers, researchers and frontline staff to focus on the work that drew them to the sector

• Philanthropic revenue — enabling organisations to pursue significantly larger funding targets with a fraction of the research time previously required

• Institutional knowledge retention — so expertise compounds rather than walking out the door when staff leave

The capability exists. The barrier is a failure of investment and governance — not technology.

I'd welcome your thoughts, particularly from those already navigating this in their own organisations.

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