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Nonprofit AI: Microsoft Elevate Changemakers Announcement

• Community IT Innovators • Season 7 • Episode 25

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A major new initiative from Microsoft aims to provide the training and resources needed to adopt AI tools at nonprofits. In this episode, Carolyn Woodard breaks down the recently announced Microsoft Elevate for Changemakers program. This initiative is a structured effort to build AI capacity through professional certifications, hands-on training, and global fellowships designed specifically for the nonprofit sector.

Carolyn discusses how the sector has shifted from skepticism to active adoption and explores how AI can expand human agency rather than replace it. She describes the four key areas where Microsoft believes AI can make a measurable difference and the case studies they share for each area: enriching staff time, delivering impactful programs, engaging donors, and transforming operations. 

Whether you are looking to automate manual data entry or scale your mission through local language tools, this episode provides a roadmap for staying at the forefront of responsible AI use.

The conversation covers:

  • The new LinkedIn AI for Nonprofits professional certificate and on-demand capacity-building training.
  • Details on the Changemaker Fellowship for organizations with actionable AI projects ready for investment.
  • How AI helps nonprofit staff move away from busywork and toward creative, mission-driven thinking.
  • Links to real-world case studies of organizations using AI to save 6 to 8 hours a day on administrative tasks.
  • Strategies for using AI to scale programs and build stronger, data-informed donor relationships.
  • The importance of professional training and leadership in adopting responsible AI frameworks.

Resources Mentioned:

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Carolyn Woodard

Hello and welcome to the Community IT Innovators Midweek Nonprofit AI check-in. I'm Carolyn Woodard, your host. I'm not an AI expert. No one is right now, but I am very interested and curious about AI. I'm definitely seeing so much that the nonprofit sector is doing around AI, to adopt AI, to adapt themselves to AI, and to question the ethics, the frameworks, what the AI is doing and how we are using it to further our missions, how it is impacting our communities that we care about, and a whole host of other issues with AI. So thank you for joining me. And uh

Carolyn Woodard

Today I wanted to just talk about this announcement from Microsoft. They announced uh last week, March 25th, that they are creating a program to strengthen the nonprofit sector to meet tomorrow's challenges, as they put it in their corporate speak. So this is called Microsoft Elevate for Changemakers. It's a new initiative that has a couple different branches, and they announced it at the nonprofit the global nonprofit leaders summit uh last week.

Carolyn Woodard

If you were at the summit, I would love to hear from you, get in touch. Uh last year we interviewed some people who went about their impressions, and I remember it was all about agents. So I will link to that interview in the show notes.

Carolyn Woodard

But this year, uh yeah, they announced this initiative. So one of the channels in this initiative is an AI for nonprofits credential. The AI for nonprofits credential is a professional certificate developed with LinkedIn and NetHope that gives participants a clear, structured learning path built around the real work happening across the nonprofit sector. Earners will receive a LinkedIn professional certificate, providing formal recognition of their growing expertise and their commitment to responsible AI use at their organizations.

Carolyn Woodard

There will also be another channel of support for AI through Microsoft, which is live and on-demand AI training to build capacity. Practice skills training built around real nonprofit work, not generic AI content repackaged for the sector. From Copilot fundamentals to change management to responsible AI governance, every module is designed to simplify workflows for nonprofits and help them do more with ease.

Carolyn Woodard

So it sounds like there's two different areas there. There's the LinkedIn nonprofit credential, and then there's some on-demand AI training that you can get through Microsoft.

Carolyn Woodard

And then there is a fellowship, the Changemaker Fellowship, which is a global program for nonprofit professionals at organizations with actionable AI projects ready to advance their missions. This fellowship provides the essential resources, investment, and expert guidance needed to turn AI ambition into lasting impact. Fellows will join a worldwide cohort, create and implement responsible AI adoption plans, develop critical technical and change management skills, and connect with a trusted network of nonprofit AI leaders, all with support from Microsoft and launch partners, including EY and Caribou. The Changemaker Fellowship is now open to nonprofits of all backgrounds to apply.

Carolyn Woodard

Microsoft Elevate for ChangeMakers. And I will share that URL with you through the show notes, but you can Google it and find it. This is a very recent announcement from last week.

Carolyn Woodard

And then they have four different areas where they describe transformative potential of AI for nonprofits. So I'm going to read a little bit about each of those and maybe it'll spark you thinking about how you are using it or how you are planning to use AI tools and what governance you need around it, what leadership needs to know about AI.

Carolyn Woodard

I feel like we went from last year everyone was an AI skeptic, like, oh, there's a lot of hype, and we're going to wait and see how it pans out, to this year, pretty much everyone in nonprofits that I'm interacting with is all about AI all the time. We're starting to see the real benefits of the efficiencies and productivity tools that we can use.

Carolyn Woodard

Of course, we're seeing a lot of cautionary tales of this nonprofit used this chat bot and it told the person the wrong thing and there was a reputational harm, or this nonprofit uploaded all of their student data to the, you know, chat GPT, public chat GPT, and there were problems with that. It went against their privacy policies.

Carolyn Woodard

So definitely everything is all AI this year. And Community IT, of course, is also trying to get smart fast and help our clients in the sector quickly to master these new ideas, new resources, and new tools. So this is a big new resource from one of the big kahunas, Microsoft, supporting the nonprofit sector.

Carolyn Woodard

So here's what they say about these four uh kind of buckets of possibilities. AI should expand human agency at its best rather than replace it. The real opportunity is to give people more capacity to solve problems, build new ideas, and strengthen the communities around them.

Carolyn Woodard

This tracks with something I've been saying since the beginning, which is that a lot of for-profit companies might look at AI tools and think, oh, I can pay people less, I can fire some people because one person could do five people's job. So that's a savings for me, and that's why I'm going to invest in it. For nonprofits, it seems more that you already have one person doing five people's jobs. So the AI can help them do five people's jobs more efficiently and more accurately and more productively. Then that frees them up to do more of the jobs that only a human person can do at their nonprofit and more of the thinking and creative side of what nonprofits do, which I feel like having worked at nonprofits, a lot of us felt like we would like more time to do the thinking part and would like to have to spend less time on the busywork part.

Carolyn Woodard

So for Microsoft's Elevate Changemakers initiative, they have these four areas. So one is enriching staff time. Much of a typical nonprofit employee week does not directly contribute to the mission work. In fact, research finds that nearly half of nonprofit organizations still use manual data entry, spreadsheets for compliance documentation, meeting summaries, case notes, other operations. AI can reduce that burden in ways that are already real and measurable.

Carolyn Woodard

They give a case use of ARCARE, a health care provider in underserved communities across Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi that is seeing benefits of using AI technology to handle administrative tasks, giving staff more time to spend on patient care and less time on data collection. They estimate they have eliminated six to eight hours a day of manual tasks through using AI technology. So enriching staff time, I think that's something that we could all agree that we could have more of. So that's one area that this announcement of the Elevate Changemakers covers.

Carolyn Woodard

The second area they talk about is delivering more impactful programs. AI gives nonprofits the ability to scale what works without losing what makes it work. They give a case study of Opportunity International, which is using AI to scale impact through a local language chatbot to provide farmers with instant agricultural guidance, overcoming literacy barriers, and dramatically expanding their reach. By making critical knowledge accessible, AI can free the frontline teams to focus on relationships, mentoring, and long-term change without having to spend a lot of their time, it appears, in answering questions.

Carolyn Woodard

So they have this AI chatbot that can answer those questions through local languages reliably and accurately. So that's an interesting case study. And yeah, so they're looking at ways that nonprofits are can use and are using AI to further mission. And I think that's something we're all really excited about, but also have concerns about kind of building that on top of a rickety foundation in AI or IT in general.

Carolyn Woodard

All right, the third area that they talk about is engaging supporters and funders more effectively. All nonprofits want to have more secure and stable funding streams. So being able to use AI to engage those donors in really personal ways is, of course, an advantage that AI can give to your nonprofit. Raising funds, obtaining grants, and building donor relationships are often the most important strategic priorities and challenges for nonprofits that are facing a growing demand for services at this time of economic uncertainty.

Carolyn Woodard

So you have this dilemma of spending more of your precious staff time on programs or really focusing on that revenue stream. AI can give people managing those relationships more time and capacity to focus on what builds them. You shouldn't use AI to replace donor relationships.

Carolyn Woodard

They have a case study with Head Start Homes that found as AI increased their organizational bandwidth, they could scale programs and attract new funding. So some ideas there to help you manage those donor relationships, the donor understanding your data about your donors, why they give, when they give, what moves them, and that can, of course, impact your programs as well of what you're doing that donors really care about.

Carolyn Woodard

And then the fourth area, fourth bucket of AI potential is transforming operations. AI gives nonprofits the ability to innovate and optimize how they work, bringing greater security, sharper data, and more informed decision-making to every part of the organization. The result can be less time spent managing complexity and more capacity directed toward results.

Carolyn Woodard

They give a case study of D Alliantie, which is a social housing organization. Using AI has allowed D Alliantie to boost efficiency while keeping a human-centered approach to housing support at the center of everything they do. They have more than 3,000 calls coming in each week for housing support. And so they are using an AI chatbot to allow the call center staff to help more people because their goal is not efficiency for efficiency's sake, it is to make sure that the human benefit always comes first when they are interacting with their clients and constituents.

Carolyn Woodard

These are some stories of the ways AI can empower mission-driven organizations. It takes dedicated individuals within those nonprofits to step forward and lead this kind of transformational change. That could be you if you're interested in AI and starting to see the benefits and see opportunities and ideas for how you can use these tools to build efficiencies, further your mission, increase security. You can step forward, embrace this new technology, learn new skills, and be at the forefront of adopting responsible AI in this sector, which can be really a guideline for other sectors who are maybe racing into it and not thinking about the ethics or not thinking about the ways AI can empower humans to do human work.

Carolyn Woodard

So I urge you to read this uh blog post that they put out last week. I will share the link with you. They have the application, they have more information on this Elevate for Changemakers, which is their program that they are promoting, which is helping the people behind the mission confidently use AI to drive impact.

Carolyn Woodard

So it's a real recognition that nonprofits are not going to be able to use these tools unless we have a lot of training, we have these certificates, we have comfort. The more comfortable you are with the tools, the more you use them, the more you can see opportunities and capacity building.

Carolyn Woodard

So, as I've said a couple of times, we really need to think this year and the next year about taking that training really seriously at your nonprofit. And you yourself may be stepping up and getting one of these certificates that are available. So I'm really excited to see this from Microsoft. I'll be excited to see how it plays out and start seeing people getting those certifications on LinkedIn. And uh maybe I'll go out and try to get one myself.

Carolyn Woodard

So I love interacting with you. Please get in touch with me through the podcast through our website, community.com. And I'd love to hear other topics you'd like to hear about for AI. You can hear me on Friday in our regular, regularly scheduled uh technology topics podcast. Uh, this week we are going to be following up on the webinar that we had last week about becoming go moving from accidental to intentional nonprofit technology change leader, change maker.

Carolyn Woodard

So, this is probably another one of those tools that you would think about in terms of your positioning yourself as a strategic partner around AI and IT and IT use and IT skills at your nonprofit. So please get in touch if we can be of help.

Carolyn Woodard

If you have topics you'd like to hear about, let me know that as well. Of course, we're over on Reddit also at r slash nonprofit IT management. Love to hear from you there. So there's lots of ways to stay in touch until Friday when you hear me, and next Tuesday when we'll talk about AI again. Take care.