Is It Ethical to Use AI to Write Your Nonprofit Communications?

This is the second post in the Nonprofit AI Studio Ethics Series — an honest, ongoing conversation about the questions nonprofit leaders are asking about AI. Because getting this right matters as much as getting it done.

I use AI every day. I also lose sleep over whether I am doing it right.

I tell you that not to be dramatic but because I think it is the most honest way to start this conversation. I am not here to sell you on AI as a perfect solution. I am here to think through it with you — as someone who uses these tools constantly, believes in their potential, and also lies awake sometimes wondering whether we are getting this right.

Because I do not think AI is perfectly ethical. I think it is a powerful tool that can do real good and real harm depending on how it is used. And I think nonprofit leaders — people who have spent their careers fighting for the communities most likely to be hurt when powerful tools are misused — have both the responsibility and the credibility to lead this conversation.

So let me share how I think about it. Every single day.

Let Me Ask You Something First

Think about the last grant proposal your organization submitted.

Did you write every single word from scratch? Or did you pull language from a previous successful proposal? Use a template from a fundraising guide? Ask a colleague to review and sharpen it before you sent it?

Think about the last donor appeal.

Did you write it alone from nothing? Or did you start with a sample letter? Work with a consultant? Pull the best lines from last year's campaign?

Of course you did. Because that is how good work gets done. You use every tool available to you. You build on what has worked. You ask for help. And then you bring your own knowledge, your own judgment, and your own relationships to make it real.

I do the exact same thing with AI. Every single day.

And here is the thing I have come to believe deeply — my motto is less admin, more mission. Every hour a nonprofit staff member spends wrestling with a blank screen, rewriting a template from scratch, or formatting meeting minutes is an hour not spent with a client, a donor, or a community member. The people who love your organization — your donors, your volunteers, your clients — they do not want your best people buried in administrative tasks. They want them doing the work they came to do. When I use AI to reduce that administrative burden I am not cutting corners. I am protecting the mission. And I think the people who care most about your organization would agree.

What AI Actually Does in My Work

When I use AI to draft a donor thank you email I do not type "write me a thank you email" and hit send on whatever comes back.

I give it context. I tell it about the organization, the donor, the impact of the gift, the tone I want. I read what comes back carefully. I change the parts that do not sound like me. I add the detail that only I know — the specific story, the personal connection, the moment that made this donor's gift meaningful.

AI gives me a starting point. A strong, well-structured first draft that I then make my own.

That is not deception. That is drafting.

Every communicator has a drafting process. Every great fundraiser has tools they rely on. The question has never been whether you use tools. It has always been whether the final product is true, accurate, and genuinely representative of your organization and its work.

The Canva Moment

Here is the analogy that always lands for me.

Think about when Canva came along. I was smitten. Suddenly my lack of graphic design skills did not prevent me from producing beautiful annual reports, event flyers, and social media graphics. And nobody — not a single donor, board member, or funder — questioned whether those communications were authentic because a design tool helped create them.

AI is a writing tool. The same logic applies.

The authenticity of your communications has never been about whether you did everything yourself from scratch. It has always been about whether what you put out into the world is true, thoughtful, and genuinely reflective of your mission and your relationships.

I believe that with everything I have. And I also know it is not the whole story.

Where I Think the Ethical Line Actually Is

Here is where I believe the line is — and where I draw it in my own work.

It crosses a line if you use AI to fabricate impact stories that did not happen. It crosses a line if you use AI to make claims about your organization that are not true. It crosses a line if you let AI respond to a donor or a client as though it is you — without their knowledge. And it crosses a line if you enter sensitive client or donor information into an AI tool without understanding how that data is stored and used.

And there are bigger concerns too. The bias built into AI systems that can reproduce and amplify historical inequity. The environmental cost of AI infrastructure that falls hardest on the communities we serve. The data privacy questions that do not have clean answers yet.

These are real. They are serious. And we are going to explore every single one of them in this series.

Because I do not think the answer to those concerns is to avoid AI entirely. I think the answer is to use it thoughtfully, critically, and with your eyes wide open — asking hard questions at every step.

A Note on Transparency

Some organizations are choosing to disclose their use of AI in their communications. I think that is a thoughtful and values-aligned choice. It is not currently a legal requirement in most contexts but it reflects a commitment to transparency that I deeply respect.

My own position is this — use AI as a tool, always review and personalize the output, never misrepresent your organization or its work, and make your own decision about disclosure based on your community and your values.

There is no single right answer. But there is a right conversation to have. And I hope this is the start of it for your organization.

Coming Up in the Ethics Series

In the posts ahead I am going to dig into the ethical questions I hear most from nonprofit leaders — bias and who gets left behind when AI gets it wrong, the environmental cost of AI that nobody is talking about, data privacy and what actually happens to the information you put into these tools, and how to get your board on board.

I don’t have perfect answers to all of these questions. But I am committed to thinking through them honestly — with you, in public, as someone who cares deeply about getting this right.

Because getting this right matters as much as getting it done.

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