Upskilling Your Nonprofit's Workforce with AI Skills for Today – and Tomorrow

Welcome to the latest edition of Moving Forward, a newsletter designed to help nonprofits exchange ideas and learn from one another to unlock the full potential of the sector. Generative AI (GAI) seems to be a hot topic everywhere these days – including within the nonprofit sector. To learn more about the possibilities this evolving technology has for the organizations around the world, and how nonprofits can upskill their workers to succeed, we spoke to Naria Santa Lucia , General Manager, Digital Inclusion at 微软 :

The entire global workforce stands to benefit from the power of GAI, including the nonprofit industry. Can you share some of the ways nonprofits, in particular, might benefit from GAI?

Let’s start with what is most important to nonprofits – delivering real and lasting impact through the programs you deploy. Generative AI can help nonprofits improve their efficiency by automating tasks so that workers can spend more time focused on the mission.? For example, AI can help assess and flag external issues such as weather, financials and geography that may impact delivery of supplies or staff to a crisis area. And then automatically draft an email or alert to notify impacted staff and volunteers on the ground.

The benefits in fundraising are just as powerful. AI enables nonprofits to analyze donors' data and create a personalized approach. Using GAI, they can easily segment donors most likely to give and then generate high-quality content and marketing material that can lead to a higher response rate and increased giving.

Part of harnessing the power of GAI is understanding how it works and how to best implement it into your workflow. How can budget-conscious nonprofits upskill their workforces with AI skills?

To take full advantage of its many benefits, workers in organizations of every size and type will need to develop their AI skills. Most of us already use AI in our daily lives. Understanding how and when to apply it will be increasingly important as technology continues to advance.? It’s critical that people also learn about the ethical considerations of using generative AI.

AI offers tremendous opportunities to improve our world – it’s vital that it is used responsibly and that it serves society broadly, not narrowly. Microsoft offers numerous free training courses to meet learners where they are on their AI skilling journey. In fact, in partnership with LinkedIn, we recently launched a new professional certificate in Generative AI to help workers learn the core concepts of artificial intelligence and generative AI functionality, including a look at responsible AI frameworks.

Once nonprofits have up-skilled their employees, what are some simple ways they start putting their team's new AI skills to use?

Some of the most exciting ways to use AI skills are actually the simplest, like utilizing the AI capabilities already in your existing tools. Nonprofits can also encourage staff to use AI to get a creative jumpstart on content or to generate new ideas. Bing with GPT-4 can help employees accelerate and simplify content creation by delivering better search results, more complete answers, and the ability to generate content and images in over 100 languages.?

There are also many powerful new AI tools and capabilities in Microsoft Cloud for Nonprofit. Putting AI to work to amplify fundraising and marketing efforts is another practical place to start and helps solve issues common to almost every nonprofit on the planet. ? ?

What other resources do you recommend nonprofits leverage to continue to learn about AI and keep up to speed? ?

Microsoft is hosting a series of free virtual community events to help explain the fundamentals of generative AI. The agenda will include an introduction to AI, trends in the future of work, a preview of exciting new technology, and free new tools, resources and training to help workers stay ahead with in-demand skills for the AI economy.? The events start in September and we encourage you to share this event with your community and with your own teams and register here.??

To support their upskilling journey, organizations can learn more about Microsoft’s AI Skills initiative, explore additional AI training resources, and follow the Microsoft for Nonprofits LinkedIn page.?

Have you started to leverage GAI at your organization? Tell us about it! Share your insights in the comments below:?

Tolulope Oyenuga, ACIPM , Program Manager at Adewunmi Desalu Parkinson's Foundation , shares insights about professional capacity building within nonprofits.

Brandon Canute , Senior Development Officer at United Way of Broward County , celebrates the dedication and efforts of volunteers during a recent school supply distribution to local families.

Casey Vattimo , Senior Vice President for External Relations at Special Olympics New York , shares about her weekly golf game with Special Olympics athletes, all made possible with the support of generous donors.

• Don’t miss our next webinar, tomorrow Aug. 17, “Best practices for posting on LinkedIn.” Learn about LinkedIn’s different content and posting options, gain insights on what to post on your personal and nonprofit pages, and get your questions answered live! RSVP here for free! Can’t join live? Watch the recording on-demand afterwards!
• How to Make Your Nonprofit Storytelling Resonate: How can you and your team build nonprofit storytelling skills and unlock the potential of your organization's impactful narrative? Here’s what you need to know
• The Impact Insight: Nonprofit Fundraising and Donor Generosity: Download our latest report to discover how the current economic climate is affecting fundraising — and if donor behavior has greatly changed.

Is there a particular topic you'd like us to cover or a nonprofit thought leader you'd love to hear from? Let us know in the comments!