Last year, I wrote an article about whether or not your Not for Profit should have an AI Strategy.
My conclusion at the time?
“AI, by itself, should not be the goal. It is a tool.”
It’s been almost 18 months since I made that recommendation, and today I want to make a subtle distinction in my advice:
Your org does NOT need an AI Strategy, but it DOES need an AI Adoption Strategy.
The word, “Adoption” is important because every Not for Profit that I’ve spoken to lately has acknowledged that AI is in their workplace, and yet it’s rarely governed or strategically utilised in a way that benefits the organisation as a whole.
Let me try to show the distinction using pictures, as shown below.
The differences between an organisation with and without an AI Adoption Strategy
If some people are using AI for their own work tasks, they may personally benefit from improvements in the productivity and quality of their work. However, notice that there are no measurable benefits to the organisation itself.
Furthermore, these benefits are limited to the individuals who proactively take steps to trial and test AI tools on their own.
At the same time, if the appropriate guardrails are not in place, there could be “leaky walls” where data is leaving the organisation in an uncontrolled way and could hurt the very people you are trying to help.
Now, let’s compare that type of organisation with one that does have an AI Adoption Strategy in place.
The benefits that individual staff members received from the use of AI before are likely to remain. However, the potential benefits for departments or the organisation as a whole are significantly higher as it makes strategic decisions and investments with KPIs and (hopefully) regular training too.
Furthermore, by adding the appropriate governance framework and related guardrails around these types of powerful tools, the organisation reduces the privacy and cybersecurity risks associated with them.
Final Thoughts
I never thought it was appropriate for Not for Profits to build a business strategy around AI tools. However, it’s clear now that if organisations want to reap the greatest benefits from this new technology while protecting themselves from inappropriate use, an AI Adoption Strategy is an absolute must.
Need help with your AI Adoption Strategy? Check out our AI Adoption Strategy Guided Program for Not for Profits starting on 9 October 2025. You can prepare your organisation’s Board-Ready strategy in just 6 weeks with our help.
P.S. If you found this article helpful, you might want to read these too:
Tammy Ven Dange is a former charity CEO, Association President, Not for Profit Board Member and IT Executive. Today, she helps NFPs with strategic IT decisions, especially around IT risks and investments.