AI as an Act of Resistence: A Case for Putting AI in the Hands of Good People
I was lying in bed last night talking to my partner. We were going through it — the way a lot of us are right now. War. Immigrants under attack in our own country. A President posing as Jesus. A political moment that feels, some days, like it's designed to exhaust us into giving up. My partner is an immigrant. This isn't abstract for us. This is our dinner table conversation.
He said something that stopped me. He told me he'd spent the day actively looking for good news. Not ignoring the hard stuff — just deliberately choosing, for one day, to find the positive. To look for evidence that people are still doing good things in the world.
I couldn't stop thinking about that. And I couldn't stop thinking about what we're doing here.
The Fear Is Real. And So Is the Hope.
A lot of people are scared of AI right now. Scared of sentience. Scared of bad actors using it to spread misinformation, manipulate elections, surveil communities. Scared that the technology is moving faster than our ability to govern it.
Those fears are real. I've written about them in this series and I'll keep writing about them because pretending the risks don't exist isn't honesty, it's wishful thinking.
But today, I want to look for the good news. Here's what I know: the same technology that can be used to harm can also be used to heal. The same tools that bad actors are picking up are sitting right there, waiting to be picked up by good ones.
And the good actors? They're you. They're the people reading this.
Who Is Actually Doing This Work
Think about who runs community-based nonprofits. Think about the executive directors of small organizations serving immigrant families, unhoused neighbors, survivors of violence, trans youth who've been written off by every system that was supposed to protect them.
These aren't people who got into this work for the money or the prestige. They got into it because something in them couldn't look away. Because they are — like the volunteers and staff I've worked alongside for 25 years — genuinely, uncomplicatedly good people doing genuinely important work.
And right now, in this moment, they are under-resourced, overwhelmed, and operating in a political environment that is actively hostile to the communities they serve.
They need every tool they can get.
AI is one of those tools. A powerful one. And the question isn't whether AI will be used — it will be, by everyone, for everything. The question is who picks it up first and what they do with it.
I want it to be you.
An Act of Resistance
I've always been a work-within-the-system kind of person. I believe in institutions, in policy, in the slow and unglamorous work of building something that lasts. But I also know that in moments like this one, working within the system requires more power than most of us have on our own.
AI gives you more power. More reach. More capacity. More time for the work that actually matters — and less time buried in the administrative weight that keeps you from it.
Using AI to strengthen your organization right now isn't just practical. It's an act of resistance. It's choosing to show up more powerfully for the people who need you. It's refusing to let the weight of the moment grind you into paralysis.
My call to action today is simple: take 20 minutes. Open one of the AI tools we've talked about in this series. Try one prompt from our library. Do one thing that saves you time and gives that time back to your mission.
That's it. Twenty minutes. One small act of power in a moment that needs as many of those as we can muster.
The Organizations Doing This Work
You don't have to figure this out alone. Here are some organizations focused specifically on helping nonprofits and women navigate AI — each doing this work with the values and community focus that our sector deserves:
NonProfit AI Studio — that's us. Free prompts, tips, and ethics guidance at nonprofitaistudio.org
She Leads AI — a community built specifically for women to discuss AI openly and honestly — the promise, the peril, and the questions that keep us up at night. Founded by Anne Murphy, a nonprofit fundraising veteran who has trained thousands of professionals in ethical AI. sheleadsai.ai
Women Defining AI — a nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender-tech gap and empowering women and nonbinary individuals to lead in the AI era. womendefiningai.org
NTEN — nonprofit technology education and AI resources at nten.org
TechSoup — technology tools and training for nonprofits at techsoup.org
NetHope — AI resources specifically for humanitarian organizations at nethope.org
Anthropic and GivingTuesday's AI Fluency for Nonprofits — free course at anthropic.skilljar.com
The tools are here. The community is here. The good people are here.
Go do something good with it today.
This is Post #3 in the Nonprofit AI Studio Ethics Series. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram so you never miss a post. Visit nonprofitaistudio.org to access our free Prompt Library.