AI Artificial Intelligence at Nonprofits with Matt Eshleman

Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

The pace of new AI tools and uses on the market is like a rocket. Does your nonprofit have questions about cybersecurity, opting out, or best practices when using AI?

Microsoft released a new AI Governance Framework for Nonprofits joining many institutions putting out guidelines and studying the impact of AI on nonprofits and the ways nonprofits are using AI. Many nonprofits are approaching AI very cautiously, or may not have developed policies yet to use AI securely. Or your nonprofit may have ethical questions about using AI at all.

How do you even attempt to opt out of AI tools that are packaged with an update of tools you already use?

How do you communicate with your staff the ethics your organization expects staff to use when using AI?
Nonprofit Cybersecurity expert Matt Eshleman shares his thoughts in this podcast on the importance of AI Artificial Intelligence at nonprofits. Some key takeaways:

• Understanding that you can use your organization values about using AI without opting out of everything.
• Opting out is difficult as tools you already use add AI enhancements and upgrades. It can be done but must be intentional.
• Cybersecurity concerns are valid concerns when using AI.
• Understand when an AI is public and your queries and its responses will be part of a public data set, and when an AI tool is private to your own organization’s data.
• AI for automation can be a very beneficial add to nonprofit productivity and ability to do more with less.
• Having someone or a team at your organization “own” training for secure and productive AI use is a good concept to embrace.
• Some nonprofits are very tech-savvy and will be exploring AI uses for mission use cases.
  • Almost every nonprofit is going to be using AI for increased productivity unless they plan to be vigilant and intentional about opting out.
• Pay attention to the tools and reputation of the vendors.
  • Larger organizations have a higher level of reputation to maintain and more resources to spend to get their AI tools right.
  • During this AI bubble where so many new vendors are rushing to enter the market, nonprofits should be intentional about vetting new tools and vendors before committing.
  • When updating existing tools, research and evaluate and understand the new AI enhancements, and communicate them to staff.
• AI will be transformative to the nonprofit and every other sector.

As the Chief Technology Officer at Community IT, Matthew Eshleman leads the team responsible for strategic planning, research, and implementation of the technology platforms used by nonprofit organization clients to be secure and productive. With extensive experience serving nonprofits, Matt also understands nonprofit culture and constraints, and has a history of implementing cost-effective and secure solutions at the enterprise level.

Matt has over 23 years of expertise in cybersecurity, IT support, team leadership, software selection and research, and client support.

Matt holds dual degrees in Computer Science and Computer Information Systems from Eastern Mennonite University, and an MBA from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University.

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