By Melanie Emerson, PhD
As artificial intelligence (AI) grows more integrated into society, ethical questions surrounding how it can and should be used have become central to discussions about its future. Nonprofits, often driven by values of compassion and social good, have unique opportunities to employ AI responsibly, maximizing benefits for their causes while remaining aware of and addressing potential ethical issues.
Here, I’ll explore the ethical landscape of AI in the nonprofit sector, discuss how organizations can responsibly use this technology, and outline specific examples where AI has improved efficiency, outreach, and impact.
Key Ethical Questions Regarding AI
Many AI applications require substantial data, raising concerns about privacy, data ownership, and security. Nonprofits often handle sensitive information—donor profiles, beneficiary and service recipient histories (sometimes medical), and volunteer records—that must be safeguarded. AI can amplify privacy risks if not carefully managed, making it essential for nonprofits to use data responsibly and transparently.
AI models can (and do) perpetuate or even magnify existing biases present when “training” the data. For example, predictive models trained on biased data or by biased programmer may inadvertently favor certain groups, disadvantaging others. Nonprofits, particularly those addressing social inequities, must remain vigilant about potential biases in AI tools to ensure fair and inclusive services and support.
Additionally, AI often operates as a "black box"; making its decision-making processes difficult to understand. This lack of transparency can make it challenging to hold the technology accountable, particularly when decisions significantly impact individuals’ lives.
Nonprofits should strive for transparency in AI applications, ensuring constituents and stakeholders understand how AI influences outcomes. As AI becomes more common, there is a risk of nonprofits overly relying on technology, potentially impacting human job roles. While AI can enhance productivity, nonprofits should use it to complement rather than replace human employees, ensuring a balance that preserves the organization’s
human expertise. And, as nonprofits are mission-driven, any use of AI must align with your core values.
Before utilizing these technologies within your organization, consider whether AI applications truly support the organization’s objectives or if they risk steering the organization in unintended directions. How can nonprofits ethically and effectively integrate us of AI into programs, communication, fundraising and administration?
I’ve included several brief case studies that demonstrate how AI can ethically enhance nonprofit work while respecting ethical considerations.
Optimizing Resource Allocation through Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics, a form of AI that forecasts future trends, can help nonprofits allocate resources more effectively. For example, an organization addressing food insecurity can use predictive models to analyze factors like seasonal demand fluctuations, economic indicators, and demographic changes to anticipate areas of need. This approach helps nonprofits focus efforts where they are most needed, ensuring resources are used efficiently and maximizing community impact.
Ethical Considerations:
Avoiding Bias: Predictive analytics should be transparent, and you should be cautious to avoid reinforcing stereotypes or biases that may emerge from historical data. Nonprofits can address these issues by auditing models for fairness and regularly updating data to reflect changing societal conditions.
Automating Routine Tasks to Save Time for Human-Centric Work: Nonprofits often operate with limited staff and budgets. By automating repetitive tasks like data entry, donation processing, or basic inquiry responses, AI frees up human employees to focus on strategic, relationship-building tasks. For instance, AI-powered chatbots can handle common inquiries, providing timely responses and improving engagement while allowing staff to address complex cases requiring interpersonal engagement, empathy and judgment.
Transparency: Transparency is essential, as constituents should know when they are interacting with an AI rather than a human. Nonprofits should also set up escalation procedures, ensuring that AI does not replace human intervention in sensitive situations.
Personalizing Donor Engagement and Communication
AI can help tailor communication with donors based on their previous interactions, donation patterns, and expressed interests. This can be beneficial for nonprofits with a wide donor base, as it enables them to send more relevant content, increasing the likelihood of engagement and repeat donations. For example, AI might identify donors interested in specific programs and send them updates, stories, or fundraising appeals related to those areas.
Ethical Considerations:
Privacy: While personalization can improve communication, nonprofits must respect donor privacy, avoid overstepping with invasive recommendations, and give donors control over their data. Regularly seeking consent and clearly communicating data use policies are essential practices for maintaining trust.
Enhancing Impact Measurement and Reporting
Impact measurement is crucial for nonprofits to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs and communicate results to stakeholders, funders and government. AI-powered tools can analyze vast amounts of data from surveys, case studies, and social media feedback to assess outcomes and generate insights. For instance, sentiment analysis of beneficiary feedback on social media can provide real-time insights into program success, helping nonprofits refine their services.
Ethical Considerations:
Ensuring Diverse Voices: Nonprofits must ensure that AI-driven impact assessments account for diverse stakeholder voices, avoiding biased interpretations. Transparency in how these insights are derived and clear communication about the technology’s limitations are key to ethical use.
AI for Crisis Response and Disaster Relief
AI can play a critical role in crisis response by analyzing satellite images, social media data, news reporting, and other sources to identify disaster zones, assess damage, and allocate resources. For example, AI-driven image recognition can help a humanitarian organization quickly identify areas affected by a natural disaster, ensuring rapid mobilization of relief efforts.
Ethical Considerations:
In crisis settings, nonprofits must handle AI-generated insights with caution, as
errors could have severe consequences. Ensuring that AI does not inadvertently exclude vulnerable groups or misallocate resources due to biased data is essential for ethical deployment.
Improving Accessibility and Inclusion
AI has the potential to make nonprofit resources more accessible to people with disabilities. For example, nonprofits providing educational content can use AI to generate captions, transcriptions, or translations, making materials available in multiple formats and languages. This increases the reach and inclusivity of their programs, aligning with many nonprofits’ goals to eliminate barriers to participation.
Ethical Considerations:
While AI can enhance accessibility, nonprofits should ensure that these tools work effectively across diverse languages and dialects, particularly for marginalized communities. They should also invite feedback from beneficiaries to refine these tools, making sure they genuinely enhance inclusivity.
For nonprofits, the potential of AI is transformative, enabling more efficient operations, better communication, and greater impact. However, ethical considerations must guide these applications, ensuring that the technology serves both the mission and the people it intends to benefit. By embracing transparent, fair, and inclusive practices, nonprofits can leverage AI ethically, enhancing their work without compromising their core values. AI should be seen as a tool to augment the human-centric approach of nonprofits, not a replacement for the compassion, understanding, and accountability that define their work. With careful consideration and deliberate use, AI can help nonprofits better serve their
communities, increase their impact, and build trust among stakeholders.
Bynes Consulting Group can assist your organization to identify ethical uses of AI to as apply to your organization’s programs, administration, fundraising, and communications. Likewise, Bynes Consulting Group can help your organization design data retention, management and use policies and procedures, including the use and application of AI, and associated data use disclosure statements to ensure transparency with and accountability to stakeholders, clients, and funders.
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