Episode 66: A New Paradigm: A Preview of the FundraisingAI Global Summit with Woodrow Rosenbaum
Overview
In this week’s episode, we welcome Mallory Erickson, the creator of Practivated, and Woodrow Rosenbaum, founder and CEO of With Intent. This conversation focuses on the balance between productivity and efficiency with the help of AI in a world where speed often overshadows substance. Together, they shed light on how innovation can empower nonprofits to reimagine generosity for the future.
Mallory and Woodrow start the conversation by addressing the tension between people and technology, where Woodrow explains AI indeed is important to stay relevant and impactful for nonprofits, but its true potential lies beyond efficiency gains. He further explains how AI doing mediocre tasks does not serve a nonprofit in making an impact and advises them to think expansively about how AI can reshape structures, strategies, and impact while keeping people at the center of technology use. They then move onto discussing the common feeling of overwhelm and fear surrounding adopting and using AI. According to Woodrow, with so much AI content and the pressure of falling behind, it’s rather natural and valid to feel confused by technologies, eventually leading to fear of using them. Woodrow suggests a simple step-by-step approach with AI, including basic policies and a framework. Next, Mallory and Woodrow pay their attention to engagement over avoidance when using AI. They discuss how shutting down or dismissing conversations about AI can leave nonprofits powerless in regard to ethical usage, policy, and long-term impact. Woodrow suggests adopting an active engagement with AI, even in the simplest ways, so you can mitigate risks and get better outcomes.
Episode highlights
- 06:22 Introduction and background to Mallory and Woodrow.
- 10:11 AI’s potential to transform organizations and impact.
- 15:00 From AI hype to real transformation in nonprofits.
- 18:40 The overwhelm and fear surrounding AI.
- 23:05 The fear of change and getting comfortable with discomfort.
- 33:23 The mindset shift: Building prompting skills in safe contexts.
- 42:53 Leadership in rapidly changing AI landscape.
- 48:04 Addressing bias and inequity in AI training and applications.
- 54:02 AI Global Summit: Learning and adopting AI that is best for nonprofit organizations.
Tips and tools to implement today
- Don’t settle for just automating repetitive tasks. Go beyond efficiency while using AI.
- Leverage the hype wisely. Use the momentum to improve your organization’s data practices.
- Acknowledge the fear of change. That discomfort is natural and necessary for innovation.
- The avoidance of AI means forfeiting the influence over its ethical and practical outcomes. Stay in the conversation.
- Focus on empowering responsible usage of AI rather than restricting tools.
- Expand access to generosity and use AI to include those who are currently left out of giving opportunities.
Favorite quotes
- “I would love to see more expansive thinking about how this technology might transform our organizations, our structures, and the impact that we're having in the world beyond ‘this will make my job easier’.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “We're not going to realize the transformational benefit from this transformational technology if the only thing we do is the same thing we've already been doing much faster.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “Getting comfortable with that discomfort is just a necessary component of any kind of change.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “There are also real risks of harm that come with the adoption of this technology, and there are both ethical and practical considerations that need to be addressed.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “The best way to learn that skill is, in fact, to work with the tool and ask it to do something and understand how it was wrong, and refine how you're engaging what your inputs are to get the outputs that you want.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “If you're waiting, you will always be waiting. It's not going to get any clearer.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
- “If I think about what I would like to see in this realm, as a result of this technology, I think I'd like to see that all people are afforded the opportunity to make positive change for themselves, their communities and the world.” - Woodrow Rosenbaum
Connect with us
This episode is sponsored by AI for Anyone.
