AI is the great equalizer for small nonprofits

4:25

Can a small nonprofit compete using AI?

Yes. For the first time, a small nonprofit can have capabilities that used to require a big staff, like a full marketing team, a designer or a data analyst. The software is affordable and available to everyone at once. What separates organizations now is whether they learn to use it well.

I told Colleen in September that I think nonprofits will see this clearly over the next few years. We just happen to see it first, because we work in it every day.

nonprofits have this incredible opportunity in this moment to leverage something new in the world that can finally give them an even playing field with everybody else.

Scott Williams · Recorded conversation, Sep 11, 2026

Why is AI different for nonprofits than for businesses?

Because nonprofits start with the opposite problem. A lot of companies are using AI to do the same work with fewer people. Most nonprofits have never had enough people to do the work in the first place, so AI lands as capacity they've always needed and never had.

Colleen and I were looking back on our first year of If Possible when I said this:

the problem is the exact opposite. Is that there is not enough people to do the work.

Scott Williams · Recorded conversation, Sep 3, 2026

That's why I call AI the great equalizer for nonprofits. Big organizations already had the staff. Small ones are the ones who gain the most when the work no longer depends on headcount.

What could a small nonprofit never afford before AI?

A team. Colleen described what it takes to run a modern giving day campaign the way the best schools and nonprofits do it. Separate messages for parents, faculty, students, donors and community members, written and designed for every channel. That takes a whole marketing and communications team.

Almost no small nonprofit has one. Here's what I said next:

The tools nonprofits always needed were out of reach because they cost human capital. Now a lot of that work can be done by machines your team directs.

What happens to a team that's been understaffed for years?

It stops dreaming. When there's more work than people for long enough, teams quietly lower their expectations of what's possible. AI's biggest gift to a small nonprofit may be restoring ambition alongside the extra capacity.

Colleen named this better than anyone I've heard during a masterclass in October:

I see this in our cohorts all the time. One If Possible cohort member is the only fundraiser at a national crisis-support organization of about 400 people. That's the classic case. AI arrives for her as reinforcements, a team of agents working underneath her on the things she'd never have gotten to.

Do you need to be good at design or marketing to compete?

No. You need to know what good looks like and be willing to direct the tools. AI fills in the skills your team doesn't have, as long as someone with judgment decides what goes out the door.

Colleen is the clearest example I know. She's a strategist, and she told a client in October that she isn't good at design and creative production, and that she can make those things now anyway.

Earlier this summer she tested how far that goes. On a Saturday, she built a campaign for a nonprofit that works mainly in India, written for Hindi speakers. Colleen doesn't speak Hindi. Native Hindi speakers who reviewed it told her it was culturally resonant and appropriate. That's a language barrier and a culture barrier crossed in a day.

How much does it cost a small nonprofit to start with AI?

Less than most leaders expect. Colleen's rough estimate is $5 to $20 a seat per month for the software, and many tools offer nonprofit pricing. Most of the real investment is in training your team and setting up the system AI works from.

That's why I don't think funding is the barrier it seems to be. The bigger risk for a small nonprofit is waiting. Here's a simple way to start this month:

1. Name the capability you've always lacked. Marketing, design, data or administrative support.
2. Pick one recurring task in that area. A monthly newsletter, weekly social posts or a board report.
3. Give AI your context first. Your mission, voice and examples, before you ask for anything.
4. Keep a person in charge. Someone decides, edits and approves every piece.
5. Measure the time you get back. Then put it toward relationships only people can build.

If you're building the case for this with leadership, start with the board conversation about AI. Tools vs systems vs coaching will help you decide where to invest first, and your first 30 days with AI lays out the rollout. There's more in our strategy articles.

For one practical idea each week, join the If Possible newsletter. If you want to build this capacity alongside other small nonprofit teams, get on the cohort waitlist.