There’s a narrow window of time in which emerging tech can destabilize, rather than reinforce, powerful incumbents. Our work in civic technology is to help marginalized groups access that tech sooner, while that window is still open. Love it or hate it, generative AI is currently in this window of opportunity.

Working in the social good sectors, we often have fewer resources than our adversaries. So we need to strike in this specific window of opportunity on the adoption curve. By adopting disruptive technology after it’s proven its value, but before it’s become table stakes for participation, we can earn big wins where we otherwise couldn’t. Right now, generative AI is in this sweet spot on the curve, this inflection point.

Yes, we’re still in the throes of a critical debate over how generative AI will reshape society, and still figuring out how we might use law and other social and regulatory limits to restrain it. And there’s no shortage of good people working on that question.

In the meantime, we’d be remiss not to accelerate our own work with the growing bevy of AI tools. A recent MIT working paper (pre-review) found that when equipped with ChatGPT, “college-educated professionals” worked 37% faster on tasks like grant development with similar level of quality. As the workers refined their results with ChatGPT, the quality of their work increased further. If we do end up bringing about the Singularity re-formatting grant reports, that’s on me.

Have you been experimenting? You can add your own favorites in the comments. (We’re not going to have an AI debate in the comments…there are far more impactful venues for that.)

Ideas from our community

1. Susan Tenby at TechSoup used this prompt with ChatGPT: Create a social media strategy for a nonprofit.
2. Deepak Puri at the Democracy Labs has been busy experimenting with (partisan) generative AI methods like:
   1. Creating rapid response political videos with Synthesia
   2. Creating political memes with MidJourney
   3. Deconstructing and rebutting political opponents’ policies and talking points with ChatGPT

To add to the list, I asked ChatGPT to help brainstorm how civil society groups could use it, and services like it. Then I had it organize the results by department. (I’ve done an editing pass to hopefully make it more useful or interesting).

Fundraising:

1. We currently do X, Y, and Z. How can we improve our current fundraising strategy?
2. Generate a persuasive donation request letter to a program officer who likes our project, but hasn’t funded it yet.
3. What are some innovative ideas for digital fundraising events?
4. Create a proposal for corporate sponsorship that keeps decision-making in-house.
5. Give examples of successful fundraising campaigns from other organizations.
6. Develop a script for a fundraising call for someone who hates asking for money over the phone.
7. How can we leverage social media for fundraising?
8. How can we interact more with high net worth individuals as potential donors for our organization?
9. Write an engaging email asking for recurring donations.
10. Take this grant language of everything we promised to do, and write it as a grant report, where we’ve now done all the things.

A city garden including large glass solar structures MidJourney prompt: “Visualize our planned community garden project in an urban setting. Make it solarpunk.”

Campaigning:

1. Help us create a campaign strategy for promoting democracy.
2. Develop a memorable slogan for our campaign.
3. Write a press release about our upcoming campaign, which is to…
4. What are some effective communication channels for our campaign?
5. Our campaign is to… Generate talking points for our campaign’s mission and objectives.
6. Create a script for a 3-minute campaign video, and steps for how to produce it with minimal budget.
7. How can we better mobilize volunteers for our campaign?
8. Write a persuasive Op-Ed promoting our campaign.
9. Generate a social media plan for our campaign, including a content calendar and sample posts for each of the major platforms.
10. How can we create a sense of urgency around our campaign?

Public Engagement:

1. Develop a strategy for engaging members of the public to enhance our work.
2. Write a script for opening a town hall meeting.
3. What are the best ways to engage with local communities who aren’t especially online?
4. Generate a list of topics for our podcast series.
5. Develop a set of conversation-starting discussion questions to kick off a public forum.
6. How can we use storytelling for better public engagement?
7. Write a FAQ page for our website.
8. How can we best leverage social media for public engagement?
9. Create a survey to gauge public opinion on our issue. 
10. Now make the survey educational about the issue.
11. Write a blog post about our recent activities and successes.

Policy Advocacy:

1. Help us create a strategy for advocating for our cause with policymakers.
2. Write a letter to a legislator advocating for our cause.
3. We work to… What are the most compelling arguments for our policy position?
4. Generate talking points for a policy debate.
5. Develop a white paper outlining our policy recommendations.
6. How can we best engage with policymakers?
7. Create a petition text advocating for policy change.
8. Write a policy briefing for our staff.
9. What are some examples where other organizations succeeded with policy advocacy campaigns?
10. How can we best leverage research and data in our policy advocacy?

Volunteer Management:

1. Develop a recruitment strategy for new volunteers.
2. Write a volunteer training manual.
3. What are the best ways to motivate and engage our volunteers?
4. Write a thank-you letter to our volunteers.
5. How can we better coordinate volunteer activities?
6. Create a volunteer job description.
7. Write an email inviting volunteers to a training session.
8. How can we best use technology to manage volunteers?
9. Develop a volunteer appreciation event plan.
10. What are the potential challenges in volunteer management and how can we address them?

Communications:

1. Help us create a communication strategy for our organization.
2. Write a press release about our recent success.
3. Develop a monthly newsletter for our stakeholders.
4. How can we better communicate our mission and vision?
5. Write an engaging social media post about our work.
6. Create a script for a promotional video about our organization.
7. What are the best ways to handle crisis communication?
8. How can we identify media contacts from our personal and professional networks?
9. Write a speech for our CEO’s presentation at a conference.
10. How can we increase the visibility of our organization?

Research and Data Analysis:

1. What are the current trends in civil society engagement?
2. How can we better use data to drive decision-making?
3. Write a summary of key findings from our recent survey.
4. Develop a questionnaire for our research project.
5. What are the main challenges in data collection and how can we overcome them?
6. How can we analyze the impact of our activities?
7. Write a report on our research findings.
8. What are some useful sources for data and information related to our work?
9. Create a data visualization for our annual report.
10. How can we improve our data management practices?

Member and Partner Relations:

1. Develop a strategy for building strong relationships with our members and partners.
2. Write a letter of appreciation to our partners.
3. What are the key elements of successful partnership building?
4. Create an invitation for our annual members’ meeting.
5. How can we best communicate with our members and partners?
6. Write a partnership proposal.
7. Develop a membership recruitment plan.
8. How can we increase member involvement in our activities?
9. Write a partnership agreement template.
10. How can we manage conflicts or disagreements with partners?

Leadership and Governance:

1. What are the qualities of effective leadership in civil society organizations?
2. Develop a code of conduct for our board members.
3. How can we improve our board meetings?
4. Write a board member recruitment letter.
5. What are the responsibilities of our board members?
6. Develop a board training module.
7. How can we enhance transparency and accountability in our organization?
8. Write a governance policy for our organization.
9. What are the roles of staff and board in our organization?
10. How can we best manage the relationship between the board and the CEO?

Capacity Building and Training:

1. Help us create a capacity-building plan for our organization.
2. Write a training module on fundraising.
3. What are the key elements of effective staff training?
4. How would you go about developing a webinar on policy advocacy?
5. How can we evaluate the effectiveness of our training programs?
6. Create a mentorship program plan.
7. Write a guide on using digital tools in our work.
8. What are some innovative training methods for our organization?
9. Develop a training schedule for our staff.
10. How can we best support the professional development of our staff?

Bonus! Ten image generation prompts

1. “Visualize our planned community garden project in an urban setting. Make it solarpunk.”
2. “Generate an engaging image for a social media post about our upcoming volunteer event.”
3. “Create a campaign poster promoting our movement.”
4. “Design a promotional image for our annual charity event.”
5. “Convert our latest research data on local climate change into an infographic featuring elements from our city.”
6. “Illustrate the impact of these abstract policies on some cute animals.”
7. “Generate a series of flat graphic images that tell the success story of a family who used our housing services tool.”
8. “Create a set of fresh and engaging images related to our mission for our website update.”
9. “Generate a modern image to be used as a cover for our annual report that reflects our work promoting civic literacy.”
10. “Design a logo concept and color palette for our ‘Green Cities’ environmental initiative.”