Overview

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This course helps nonprofit staff in fundraising, communications, program delivery, operations, and leadership build practical AI collaboration skills through the 4D Framework (Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence). Participants will explore how the framework applies to common nonprofit tasks and what it means to thoughtfully implement AI across a mission-driven organization. Nonprofit professionals are uniquely positioned to leverage AI for social good, but only if they can approach it intentionally, with resilience and clear purpose. This course is built for the realities of nonprofit work, where limited resources, multiple stakeholder accountabilities, and mission alignment create unique considerations for AI collaboration. Developed through a partnership between Anthropic and GivingTuesday, the course draws on research with nonprofit professionals about their actual needs, concerns, and aspirations for AI adoption. By the end, participants will have a practical foundation for using AI to extend their impact while staying grounded in the values that drive their work. Recommended prerequisites: Completion of AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations is recommended for deeper understanding. Learners should have access to an AI chat tool for hands-on practice. Examples use Claude.ai, but any chatbot will work.

Syllabus

Introduction and AI Fluency framework

In this module, you'll get oriented to AI Fluency through the lens of mission-driven work. You'll learn what AI Fluency means — the practical skills, knowledge, and values that let you use AI in ways that are effective, efficient, ethical, and safe — and how to articulate the values and constraints that should guide your nonprofit's use of AI. You'll then learn the 4D Framework (Delegation, Description, Discernment, Diligence) and the two interconnected loops — Delegation-Diligence and Description-Discernment — that organize the rest of the course.

The Description-Discernment loop

In this module, you'll learn to engage with AI effectively in the day-to-day work of running a nonprofit. You'll practice the Description-Discernment loop on two of the most common AI use cases — researching topics relevant to your mission, and writing communications like grant proposals — building skill in providing rich context, iterating on prompts, and critically evaluating AI output for accuracy, voice, and alignment with your organization's values. By the end, you'll have a repeatable approach for collaborative back-and-forth with AI on real nonprofit tasks.

The Delegation-Diligence loop

In this module, you'll learn to make responsible higher-level decisions about when and how to bring AI into your work. You'll start with privacy and data — what actually happens to information you share with AI, how to evaluate platforms by their data-handling policies, and how to protect sensitive donor, beneficiary, or program data. You'll then apply the Delegation-Diligence loop to data analysis, learning how to validate AI's analytical capabilities against work you already understand so you can build confidence before trusting AI with new analyses.

Putting it all together

In this module, you'll combine all four competencies into practical, organization-level applications. You'll learn to design a repeatable AI-augmented workflow — categorizing tasks by what AI should handle versus what needs human judgment, describing the system precisely, and testing iteratively with real examples. You'll then learn how to integrate AI across your organization in ways that strengthen human capacity rather than replace it, including how to address concerns about AI dependency, preserve human connection, and create an organizational AI policy that reflects your mission and values.

Conclusion

In this module, you'll consolidate the full 4D Framework and chart how you'll keep building AI Fluency after the course. You'll see how Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence work as a loop rather than a checklist, and you'll plan a real task from your nonprofit work — a grant proposal, donor report, or program data analysis — to put into practice this week. You'll also be pointed to blueprints and resources for continued learning, and shown where to collect your certificate of completion.