Find the Right Tools for Your Work
Getting organized
To help your organization make the most of the technology—and avoid problems—experts suggest a well-planned, inclusive, and collaborative approach to AI adoption.
Form a working group
Create an internal team to guide adoption of AI across your organization. Include members with different roles, such as:
Develop a shared point-of-view
Talk with colleagues about how to work with AI, guided by your values and needs. Senior leadership should be engaged early and often.
Develop your own
AI policy
Outline guidelines and guardrails for your organization. They are likely to change over time.
Do this
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Start small, with clear use cases and real communication pain points
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Create a cross-functional working group to test and document tools
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Pilot with low-risk content types (e.g., internal training docs, FAQs)
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Build a prompt bank and encourage internal experimentation
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Share wins, caveats, and lessons learned transparently
Not that
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Don’t treat AI as a silver bullet or require immediate adoption
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Don’t experiment without guardrails, values alignment, or oversight
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Don’t implement in isolation—engage your DEI, legal, and IT teams
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Don’t leave frontline staff behind—equip them with language and tools
What tools should I use?
Experts suggest choosing a general-purpose Large Language Model (LLM) to focus on first, then trying specialized tools designed for different uses.
Ideally, coworkers will use the same tools, learn together, and assess what works best for your organization. Below are a few questions to guide you in choosing tools to experiment with.
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What communications goals and/or challenges might we address with GenAI tools?
What tools do we have now?
Which tools have a track record of success addressing our needs?
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Is the tool user-friendly and accessible to our team?
How does it handle data security and privacy concerns?
Is it compliant with regulations and standards applicable to our organization?
What training resources are available for users?
Is technical support provided by the vendor?
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Can we conduct a pilot test to assess the tool's performance?
What metrics will we use to evaluate its successes and shortcomings?
You can find information online about the strengths and weaknesses of specific AI tools, as well as videos and courses showing how to make the most of them.
Large Language Models (LLMs)
The most widely used LLMs offer both free and paid versions. Some access the Internet to do live web searches, while others only search their internal training data. They have different privacy options. They are updated often—you’ll need to look at their latest capabilities and options. Below are popular LLMs suggested by AI experts and communications professionals.
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ChatGPT
by OpenAI
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Claude
by Anthropic
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CoPilot
by Microsoft
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Gemini
by Google
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Perplexity
by Perplexity AI
Tools for communications and more
Below is a sampling of AI tools and services suggested by communications professionals at the time of this writing.
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Model Context Protocol (MCP)
an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems
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Adobe Firefly
for images, audio and video creation
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Amiga
for media pitches and press releases
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Canva Magic Studio
for graphic design
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CauseWriter
for content creation and other uses
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Change Agent
for communications, organizing, advocacy and other uses
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CharityGPT
for content generation and other uses
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Descript
for audio and video editing with AI
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Dreamwriter
for automated long-form content generation
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Jasper
for content marketing, events, PR and other uses
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Kapwing
for video creation
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Midjourney
for AI-generated visual art and illustrations
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NotebookLLM
for research synthesis, analysis and idea generation
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Pluralytics
for marketing content analysis and refinement
Strategic AI Prompts for Social Sector Communicators
This prompt library offers ready-to-use and customizable AI prompts designed to support communications teams in nonprofit and philanthropic organizations at the different stages of their AI journey.
Try these sample prompts when using AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. Remember, you will have to query specifically when asking a question, and often the AI won’t give you the best answer immediately - you may have to ask again in a slightly different way.
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“Summarize this 2-page memo in 3 bullet points for an internal Slack post.”
“Create a one-paragraph summary of this PDF report for our newsletter.”
“Condense this blog post into a quote tweet + link.”
“Write a concise summary of this grant update for our board.”
“Turn this full report into 3 talking points for a podcast guest.”
“Generate a summary email to follow up from this meeting transcript.”
“Summarize these focus group notes into one paragraph per theme.”
“Create a bulleted list of key facts from this research PDF.”
“Distill this webinar transcript into 5 actionable insights.”
“Summarize this stakeholder interview in a voice appropriate for funders.”
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“Write alt text for this image of a community gathering with quotes overlaid.”
“Simplify this blog post to an 8th grade reading level.”
“Translate this summary into plain language suitable for first-time voters.”
“Rewrite this campaign message for people unfamiliar with the issue.”
“Create a dyslexia-friendly version of this social caption.”
“Reformat this visual infographic as a text-only LinkedIn post.”
“Provide closed captioning copy for this 60-second video clip.”
“Convert this call-to-action into a screen-reader optimized email.”
“Rephrase this copy to be gender-neutral and inclusive.”
“Draft an inclusive, asset-framed, strengths-based version of this impact story.”
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“Write 3 subject lines for this donor update that are attention-grabbing but respectful.”
“Draft a thank-you email for a first-time volunteer who attended our event.”
“Generate Instagram captions to promote this youth-focused webinar.”
“Create a pre-header + subject line combo for this advocacy alert.”
“Turn this board memo into a series of tweet-length takeaways.”
“Write a LinkedIn post from our CEO reacting to recent policy news.”
“Compose a short invitation email for a community roundtable.”
“Turn this report launch into a Facebook carousel post copy set.”
“Write copy for a graphic promoting early giving on Giving Tuesday.”
“Draft a 2-line call to action for our newsletter’s fundraising section.”
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“Rewrite this success story for a major gifts officer to share in a prospective donor meeting.”
“Change this blog post into a persuasive script that applies asset-framing techniques for a phone bank volunteer.”
“Edit this article so it speaks to Gen Z activists.”
“Simplify this technical message for a newsletter for non-experts.”
“Convert this partner update into a one-page handout for the board.”
“Transform this internal memo into a public social explainer.”
“Refocus this campaign overview to appeal to environmental funders.”
“Localize this campaign message for a Midwestern rural community.”
“Translate/change this newsletter copy to suit a Spanish-speaking audience.”
“Write the same mission statement in styles for policymakers, press, and general public.”
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“What ethical concerns should we consider in launching a chatbot?”
“Summarize 5 real-world nonprofit AI success stories.”
“Find examples of how AI is being used in community journalism.”
“List the pros and cons of using AI to generate policy content.”
“Provide case studies of AI used in multilingual outreach.”
“Give us a list of metrics we might use to measure AI impact.”
“Compare the tone and reach of 3 sample tweets using different framing.”
“Analyze 5 campaign slogans and rank them by potential resonance with my audience.”
“Produce a sentiment analysis of social media content on this issue.”
“Suggest questions and methodologies for conducting audience research on this topic.
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“Rewrite this blog post in a voice that sounds bold, not aggressive.”
“Translate this donor letter into a hopeful, values-driven tone.”
“Adjust this tweet to sound more like our founder’s style.”
“Create a message that feels empathetic and empowering.”
“Rewrite this event invitation for an audience who is skeptical.”
“Make this campaign statement sound like it came from a youth leader.”
“Refine this copy to avoid urgency fatigue while maintaining motivation.”
“Turn this list of facts into a narrative with warmth and clarity.”
“Use an excited but not salesy tone for this fundraising appeal.”
“Craft a series of posts using humor that will resonate with the audience.”
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