Leveraging AI Without Spending a Dime

As AI tools become more common, their adoption across sectors is skyrocketing. Trainings, certifications, and credentials are springing up just as quickly, with platforms like Coursera reporting significant upticks in AI-related course enrollments. According to LinkedIn, AI literacy skills grew by 177% over the past year—that’s nearly five times the growth rate of other skills (LinkedIn Economic Graph, 2024).

With all this momentum, it feels like AI is everywhere—and for good reason. It really is, and it’s continuing to change rapidly, with no sign of slowing. When I first started talking about AI over two years ago, what excited me most was its potential to level the playing field—especially for smaller nonprofits with limited resources. Free or low-cost tools promised a way to do more with less. But here’s the catch: almost every training I sit in on now highlights these incredible features… with a steep price tag attached. And you know what? For some nonprofits, even that $20/month for the paid version of ChatGPT is too much. It adds up fast when you multiply that by a whole team or across multiple tools.

And guess what? That’s incredibly frustrating—like being invited to a party but told you can’t come unless you bring the fanciest gift. Quite frankly, I think most of us are tired of being left out simply because our budgets are limited. Small nonprofits shouldn’t have to break the bank to keep up.

And yet, with so much training now focused on cost-based products, it’s fair to ask: is there still room at the table for us?

Yes. 100 times yes.

With the right approach, nonprofits can get tremendous value from AI—without spending a dime. Many of today’s most powerful tools offer free tiers or come built into platforms you already use (hello, ChatGPT). Here's how I like to think about it, using only the free tools you already have at your disposal:

Assessing Strategic Fit

AI can be incredibly helpful long before you dive into the written work of a project. I like to think of it as my pre-writing research assistant—helping me ask sharper questions, evaluate fit and avoid wasting time on misaligned opportunities. Keep in mind, everything I’m sharing here comes from using the free version of (mostly) ChatGPT, and I’ve had great success with it flagging strong connections and suggesting strategic projects I hadn’t considered—helping me decide whether to invest time in a full proposal.

Consider, for a moment, the power of using AI to assess funder alignment rather than relying solely on your own interpretation of their goals. I’ve started doing this myself—pasting a foundation’s mission alongside a scrubbed proposal draft and asking ChatGPT to highlight alignment, especially when I have limited knowledge of or connection to the funder.

You can take this further by prompting large language models to scan a funder’s website and compare it to your organization’s work, uncovering connections you might not have noticed. When I’m unsure where to start but sense a potential partnership, I ask: “What do you know about [funder name]?” followed by, “What is my institution doing right now that aligns with this funder’s goals?”

Want to go next level? AI can surface funder priorities buried deep in 990s or annual reports. Just paste in excerpts or upload publicly available documents and ask, “What themes do you see here?” This can be especially helpful when online information is vague, incomplete, or nonexistent (hello, funders without websites!).

This isn’t just a neat trick—as any experienced grant writer (or fundraiser) will tell you, mission alignment is foundational to successful fundraising. Why? Beyond just not wanting to waste everyone’s time, it’s vital to remember that funders are charged to “support nonprofit organizations that best fit their own vision,” and align with their funding mandates (GrantStation, 2025).

And yes, you can use this approach with individual donors without compromising your data. One option is to draft a generic donor profile or upload a scrubbed version of their giving history with your organization to guide your request. Using AI this way—whether for proposals or donor outreach—lets you enter your drafting phase with clarity and purpose, saving time, sharpening your case, and reducing the chance of pursuing misaligned funders.

Generating Mission Driven Content

As we all know by now, AI tools can be incredibly powerful co-writers. Their ability to support as you move from first draft to polished final version more quickly and confidently is an incredible time saver—especially for lean organizations. In my own work, I’ve used AI to help cut dense language, streamline LOIs, and even reframe a summary to better match a funder’s preferred tone.

One time I was on a tight turnaround (who hasn’t been?) and asked ChatGPT to “align this project overview with this funder’s mission”—and it nailed the adjustment to my own writing in a way that was both mission-aligned and still sounded like me. It’s not a magic bullet, but it’s absolutely a helpful brainstorming partner, especially when time is running short. I’ve even used it to quickly update our generic organization history and mission to better align with the mission and vision of a specific funder—highlighting the work that we do that most closely aligns with what they’re passionate about instead of simply focusing on the aspects that we’re most proud of.

And it’s not just about speed. Research shows that AI-generated arguments can actually be more persuasive than those crafted by humans—especially when the tool is tuned to your audience (see Salvi et al., 2025). In other words, using AI to shape your messaging isn’t just convenient—it may help your ideas land more effectively, too. You can also lean on AI to personalize donor outreach and messaging, especially when you’re short on time. From thank-you emails to personalized appeals, it can generate warm, mission-driven language with a clear sense of the audience you are trying to appeal to.

Trying to decide between subject lines, tweak a call to action, or even create different email versions tailored to various funder priorities—like one focused on their mission and another on their impact? AI can help you test and refine communications, offering options based on tone or predicted engagement (hello, A/B testing!). With all that said, emerging research also suggests that relying too heavily on AI can dull your own brain activity, so it’s worth setting up guardrails to stay sharp (see Kosmyna et al., 2025). That means being thoughtful about when and how you rely on AI—and making sure your creative mind stays actively engaged in the process.

Translating Strategy into Action

Once your strategy and messaging are in place, AI can help you bring them to life. In my own work, I’ve leaned on AI to build out draft timelines for multi-stage initiatives—especially when I’m working on grants for capital projects (which, frankly, is not my area of expertise). I’ll often ask ChatGPT to outline a project schedule that matches what the funder is asking for and then send that draft to the internal team doing the work so they can fill in the real details. It saves me hours trying to create a timeline from scratch and keeps the process moving without bottlenecks.

Say you’re launching a new program or rolling out a multi-stage grant initiative—AI can help map key phases, generate realistic timelines, and even flag potential gaps in your plan. It can draft task lists, suggest sequencing, and clarify what success might look like at each stage. Have you ever asked it to generate outputs or outcomes for a grant based on your project narrative? When you're juggling multiple projects, AI can also synthesize updates, prep meeting agendas, or generate talking points that keep everyone aligned and moving forward.

And let’s be honest—no grant writer is ever writing just one version of a proposal for a project. You’re constantly tailoring the same core idea to different funders, donors, or stakeholders, each with their own priorities and language. AI can be a huge help here. It can quickly adjust tone, reframe emphasis, or simplify language depending on whether you're speaking to board members, funders, or frontline staff.

It’s especially useful when you're translating broad vision into specific action steps—whether that’s in a stewardship calendar, a funding proposal, or an internal work plan. With the right prompt, you can move faster and be more strategic about how your message lands. In short, AI isn’t just a thinking partner—it’s a doing partner. When your time is limited and your goals are ambitious, it can help you operationalize your vision with more clarity, speed, and consistency.

Hidden (Free) Power Tools

The thing I’m really excited about right now—and sorry to bury the lead—is some unique ways I’ve been using to take full advantage of free (but sometimes slightly hidden) AI tools many of us already have at our fingertips. It’s wild, but some of the most powerful features are quietly baked into these free versions, and with a little strategy, you can stretch those capabilities much further than you might think.

For example, even with limited searches in the free ChatGPT, you can do deep research that goes way beyond simple queries. Have you tried it yet? It’s pretty incredible. I first tested it by asking ChatGPT to prepare a donor profile on me—finding connections to my institution and assessing my capacity to give. There were a couple of inaccuracies, which I asked it to explain, and then I had ChatGPT redo my profile and (once I assessed that it was correct) asked it to create the framework it used to deliver the accurate version of the profile of me.

Then I asked it to remember that for next time. Because guess what?

Another game changer is the customizable memory feature. It’s certainly not perfect, but ChatGPT can remember who you are, how you write, and what matters to you. You can create different memory profiles for the various hats you wear—whether you’re a grant writer, fundraiser, or program strategist—and train the tool to reflect your tone, values, and style. The more you use it, the smarter and more tailored it becomes. In fact, I have different ChatGPT accounts for each area of my work: personal, grant writer, community organizer. I train each one differently. And yes, it’s free.

What does this all mean? It means that you can train a personal research assistant ready to scan for funders in your region, spot recent grant awards, or explore emerging trends in your program area. For organizations without dedicated prospect researchers, this kind of support can be transformative.

Bottom line: you don’t need a premium license or a tech degree to make AI work for you. What you do need is curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to experiment. With the right prompts and a clear goal, free AI tools can help you work faster, write better, and think more strategically—no budget required.

Want to put all this into action? Here are some starter prompts to help you experiment:

• Assess funder alignment: “Here is a foundation’s mission statement: [paste]. Compare it to this draft proposal summary: [paste]. Highlight areas of strong alignment and suggest improvements.” or “Please review [funder website] and compare it to [organization website]. Where do you see potential funding alignment?”
• Streamline content creation: “Help me draft a one-page Letter of Inquiry for a foundation focused on [mission]. Use clear, concise language and emphasize the community impact of [organization].”
• Personalize donor messaging: “Write a warm and personal thank-you email for a donor who gave [$] to support [are of interest]. Pull examples of impact from [organization’s news or blog site].”
• Test and refine communications: “Write two different subject lines for a donor appeal email focused on [topic] and recommend which might have better open rates.”
• Strategic thinking partner: “Brainstorm 5 innovative stewardship strategies for mid-level donors that align with [organization’s] commitment to [topic].”
• Manage timelines and project planning: “Create a 6-month project timeline for a [describe program], including milestones and key deliverables.”
• Prep presentations and talking points: “Outline talking points for a 10-minute presentation on how AI can enhance nonprofit fundraising efforts.”
• Conduct deep research: “Summarize recent trends in college scholarship funding and identify gaps where our institution could uniquely position itself.” or “Please create a prospect briefing on [Full Name], including their professional background, civic involvement, local influence, and especially any connections to [organization] (family ties, volunteerism, philanthropy, or relationships with K alumni, faculty, or staff). Include personal information like spouse and children if publicly available. Also estimate giving potential and suggest engagement strategies if possible.”
• Activate memory: “Remember that in my role as [job title], I like to use a conversational tone, avoid jargon, and keep proposals under two pages when possible.”