Using AI in Charities: Real-World Applications and Success Stories
A practical guide for how you can easily and safely use tools like ChatGPT right now
From stock imagery to grant applications a range of ideas for how you can increase your impact
In the rapidly evolving field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), charities are finding innovative ways to leverage technology for greater impact. Here James Gadsby Peet, our Director of Digital & Strategy, delves into the diverse applications of AI in charity work, highlighting real-world examples and practical guidance from conversations with our clients and others in the sector.
This content was originally created for a webinar in partnership with Platypus Digital - you can read more about their AI use case here: https://www.platypusdigital.com/5-ways-your-charity-can-use-chatgpt
[Written in May 2024 - all the information in this article is liable to change rapidly]
Coaching: Paired Writing
One of the biggest opportunities with AI tools is the ability to have a coach teacher in any subject - who has infinite patience and learns how you learn best, personalising their style to match your needs.
We’re starting to see some success with using ChatGPT as an editor to bounce ideas off when creating content for clients.
We always use the core model to frame the conversation - as it centres the content on what people need and how they’re going to find it.
In a recent example, we wanted to write an article about our experience of involving team members on maternity leave in our company retreat. We started by asking ChatGPT to play the role of an expert content designer:
From here we gave it further context about the people who would read the article including their goals and how they would find it through LinkedIn. Finally we asked for feedback as an expert content designer:
The suggestions to improve the piece focussed on how to tell the story of the people involved, plus some useful LinkedIn optimisation suggestions. Finally the tool gave ideas on how to measure the success of the article once it had been published.
Whilst we wouldn’t tend to ask ChatGPT to write the article for us, a useful first step can be to ask what headings it would start with. This was its response:
- Introduction: Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work
- Why Inclusion Matters Even During Maternity Leave
- Our Approach to Inclusion at the Company Retreat
- A Closer Look: Experiences from the Retreat
- The Impact: Reflections and Outcomes
- How Other Organisations Can Implement Similar Practices
- Conclusion: The Future of Work is Inclusive
- Invitation to Engage
Whilst this was a useful starting point, we ended up focussing more on the practical aspects of the retreat and how we include people throughout their maternity leave, as you can see in the final article:
Grant applications
As noted in other articles, the ability to quickly and effectively apply for different grant funding is a huge opportunity for different charities.
The first thing to say is to check the terms and conditions of the grants that you’re applying for. Most don’t have any terms or conditions about using AI tools, but it’s likely they will do soon.
Our hope is that this will result in more equitable, people focussed application processes rather than the lengthy forms which are currently the norm. However we will have to see.
Here we’ll talk through an example of applying for the Community Ownership Fund, with the Star of Greenwich - a community owned pub that I run in South East London.
Give the fund information
The first thing to add is all the information about the fund that you are applying for. In the example of the Community Ownership Fund there is a full prospectus that you can easily send to Chat GPT:
It is also crucial that you find and show ChatGPT the evaluation criteria for the fund you’re applying to. This will allow it to tailor its answers to give you the best possible score using the information you provide it.
Show ChatGPT all the things you have done
From here, we could then talk ChatGPT through all of the impact we are having in our community. Obviously the information you have will vary drastically depending on the project, but we included:
Impact Reports
Testimonials
Governance plans
Business cases
Financial models
Surveyors report & valuation
Local council plans
Use ChatGPT to create first drafts that maximise your score
You can then ask ChatGPT to make suggestions for how to structure your answers to the fund questions. We have found it particularly helpful in amending testimonials to highlight the important aspects of the evaluation criteria:
We have even asked it to create first drafts of testimonials for local councillors to amend and update, rather than starting with a blank page:
Finally we used the tool to create first drafts of responses to some of the questions through the Community Ownership Fund.
These were all drawing on the information we have provided about the impact that we have in our community. With the right information, the tool is excellent at drawing out specific examples that support your application, without creating anything new which isn’t based in reality.
Stock Imagery
Stock imagery is often used to illustrate aspects of articles, guides and case studies for charities. It is rarely used for high value hero content, but usually when there are no better options available or affordable.
There are specific difficulties in finding stock imagery for charities - especially those working in medical or scientific fields when access to hospitals and doctors is so difficult to come by.
These are the times when ChatGPTs image creation can be particularly helpful.
When working with imagery, it is particularly important to define the kind of diversity you want to see. Whilst most tools are getting better at representing a broader range of people in their images, some are still largely trained on existing imagery which is biased towards certain groups.
This example shows a doctor examining a patient in a medical setting - with a descriptor of what the picture is showing.
You can quickly update the style and content of the picture created - testing different images. This is particularly helpful if you are using the tool to test a wide range of adverts - allowing you to rapidly create different options to see which resonate with your audience.
Canva’s Magic Studio
Canva is a design studio that is free for charities and not for profit organisations. They are investing heavily in AI tools to help people design a wide range of content.
Some of their features include
Magic Edit: This feature allows users to make complex image edits simply by entering text prompts. Users can modify colors, swap backgrounds, or transform day scenes into night scenes, all with ease (Canva).
Magic Media: Combining Canva’s capabilities with other powerful AI tools like OpenAI’s DALL-E and Google’s Imagen, Magic Media allows users to generate images, artworks, and short videos from text prompts (Canva).
Magic Animate: This tool adds animations and transitions to designs with just one click, making it simpler to create dynamic presentations and videos (Canva).
Magic Write: An AI writing assistant that helps generate drafts, summarize texts, or expand them, now featuring a built-in brand voice checker to ensure consistency in tone across company communications (Canva).
Magic Morph: Automatically applies consistent styling across various design elements, ensuring a unified look without manual adjustments (Canva).
Magic Switch: This feature converts media from one form to another, such as turning presentations into videos or blog posts, simplifying the creation process across different media types (Fast Company).
Magic Grab and Magic Expand: Tools for manipulating image layers and expanding images beyond their original frames, respectively, aiding in more flexible design creation (Fast Company).
Quickly prototyping to collaborate
We are seeing different use cases, especially in the rapid prototyping world. Here is an example of creating a storyboard for a marketing campaign - something which would have previously taken days of work. The speed at which you can now create these elements, means you can more quickly collaborate with other people and build on each other’s ideas.
Alt text for images
The wonderful Paul de Gregorio had this suggestion for a great use case of AI tools - using them to create alt text that will be read by screen readers to help people understand digital images if they can’t see them.
We gave it a go on the previous article about welcoming children to our team retreat, and whilst the results needed refinement they were a helpful starting point that allowed us to more quickly create effective alt text.
Setting up an AI community of practice
To so many of us it feels like cheating to be using these new approaches to old challenges. However the organisations that grow their impact and increase their fundraising will be the ones that embrace these new ways of working.
However, there is much to still work out for everyone within each organisation - so our recommendation would be to set up a community of practice about AI. Communities of practice can unite people across an organisation and help them learn from one another whilst pushing forward everyone’s capability.
Find out more about how to set up a community of practice here:
https://www.williamjoseph.co.uk/blog/communities-of-practice-an-introduction
Or get in touch if you’d like to discuss some support in making this happen: james@williamjoseph.co.uk