Charity AI Ready

We've been designing and deploying free AI for charities since 2022 and we've now brought our extensive AI systems, guides, toolkits and training together in our Charity AI Ready campaign.  It runs automatically, as part of our health check system, so there's no additional workload.  We've also created a Pick 'n Mix option below that allows you to focus on 6 key areas, if you prefer.

AI remains a very new technology and is continuing to change rapidly.  We very much welcome constructive criticism to improve our work.  Contact us at ian@charityexcellence.co.uk.

Charity AI - Key Risks in 2025

Battered by the crises and already desperately short of funding, our latest near and medium term fundraising outlook is very poor.  Added to that we've identified 3 key AI risks for charities.

• The risk of digital moats that we've been warning about since 2021 is now much greater as the large charities begin to roll out very powerful AI fundraising systems in 2025.
• Charities Very Unprepared.  Our AI Benchmarking Survey in Jun 24 found charities reporting that we are collectively woefully unprepared in each of the 9 areas we assessed.
• We need people to trust us to feel confident enough to come forward and use our services and for our donors and the public to trust us in order to continue to donate to fund those services.  AI poses a growing risk to the trust in charities, from slop, misinformation and scams.

Our 2 biggest AI risks are ignorance and inaction. We created Charity AI Ready in response to these.

Charity AI - Sector Readiness

With our new system, we are able to track charity sector AI adoption in near to real time.  Below is the Charity Excellence Data Store report for March 2025.  It shows we remain very unprepared in various critical areas but is at least better than the results in our June 2024 benchmarking survey.  We are making some progress but not nearly enough yet.

Charity AI - Key Opportunities in 2025

We think 2025 is the year that AI use will become very widespread, as it is increasingly built in to almost every digital system we use. Done well, adopting AI will not only enable charities to manage the AI risks but also.

• Deliver greater impact and.
• Increase fundraising, both of which will at least help to alleviate the funding crisis.
• Reduce workload on our hard pressed people and.
• Significantly increase accessibility for those individuals and groups who are too often excluded.

How well we respond to that in 2025 will set our course for the future and it could be either very good, or very bad.

AI Ready - Automated Assessment and Reporting

AI Ready runs automatically within the CEF.  Once you have scored your 8 health check questionnaires (no more than 2 hours), you can run AI Ready in the Query system (link in the black area of the left hand side, once logged in).  This will run your report assessing 4 key areas:

• AI Readiness - the extent to which your non profit has assessed the impact of AI and made the necessary changes to be 'AI Ready'.
• Data Protection will become even more critical.
• Cyber Security threats will grow both in number and effectiveness.
• Trust is critical for us but will come under increasing threat and we think that people will increasingly rely on organisations they trust, rather than search for what they need.

The report connects you to the help and resources you need and you can use the Export function to download it as an action plan.  This enables you to demonstrate that you are a safe, effective and trustworthy organisation, despite the new and growing threats AI is bringing.

Charity AI Ready - Pick 'n Mix Option

As part of our strategic thinking on charity AI, in 2024 we published Charity AI Sector Best Practice and Regulation, which was used to create resources in 6 key areas. Everything below (and more) is covered automatically when you use our health check system but you can use this, if you wish to look at particular areas of AI preparedness. 

1. AI Governance - leadership and oversight.
2. Identifying and managing AI risk.
3. AI security and compliance.
4. Charity AI Best Practice
   1. Updating Existing Policies.
   2. New Policies.
   3. Keeping People Safe.
   4. Selecting and commissioning/procuring/funding AI systems.
5. AI Training Hub - Ensuring people are trained and supported.
6. Managing Change.

AI Governance

AI is now far ahead of both the legal and ethical issues it has created. Fixing these will take years and we're likely to be in for a (possibly very) bumpy ride in the meantime.

• Our Charity AI Governance and Ethics Framework provides a simple, practical and flexible framework that anyone can use to manage these challenges.
• We've included specific AI and data roles in our example Trustee Committee Terms of Reference and also our Lead Trustee Job Descriptions.
  • You can download much more comprehensive AI Committee Terms of Reference by scoring the Governance questionnaire.

AI Risk

• Our AI Risk Register identifies and provides information on a wide range of risks relating to AI, including less obvious ones, such as moral outsourcing.
• Is AI a Threat To My Charity? - this AI tool explains the key things any charity needs to think about and gives you questions to ask to find out if AI is a threat, or the opportunity it should be.

AI Security and Compliance

• Download our AI and Data Protection Risk Register toolkit to assess and manage the risks for your own charity, from the risk register questions in the Governance and Risk questionnaires.
• We have our AI for charities guide to GDPR and data protection in an AI enabled world.
• Cyber Security for Charities. A simple practical guide - Charity AI: Cyber Security for Charities.  The cyber risk is already significant and it's going to get a lot worse, not only for your charity but also your beneficiaries and you. What you need to know and do in simple English.
• Charity CRM Systems - AI and Data Protection - a checklist of what you need to think about and na draft Data Protection Impact Assessment for CRM AI.

Charity AI Best Practice - Updating Existing Policies

• Larger Charities. For larger charities and anyone who wishes to, our AI Governance and Ethics Framework can be used as a checklist to create your own charity AI policy.
• Small Charities.  Download and tailor our AI Policy to meet your needs.  There's also an online version here.
• Charity Policies Generally.  We also have 60 downloadable charity policies within our system.  Where appropriate, these have been updated to reflect AI practices.

Charity AI Best Practice - New Procedures

AI is fundamentally moving the goal posts of well established best practice in a whole range of areas.  We not only don't yet know #WhatGoodLooksLike, but also many don't yet understand that we need to.  We are already working on these issues, in areas such as the risk of fundraising bots exploiting vulnerable donors.

Our Charity AI Best Practice Guides.

• Funding Bid Writing - why it's use is ethical and how to do it well.
• Keeping meetings and webinars safe from attack by AI bots.
• Imagery Ethics - AI has raised new ethical issues but the manipulation and faking of imagery has existed at least since the advent of photography.  This guide gives you an ethics checklist that you can use to quickly and simply create a policy for your charity.
• AI Slop - what it is, why it matters to charities and how to minimise the risk to your charity.

Charity AI Best Practice - Keeping People Safe

We are developing new procedures and ways of working that respond to emerging key issues.  These range from how to design in safety systems for vulnerable people into AI bots, to steps to mitigate the risk  of deepfakes.  We have created 3 guides so far and will be working with our partners to develop these further and also make these more accessible for vulnerable beneficiaries.

• Fact Checking - Misinformation. Free simple to use fact checking toolkit for misinformation and AI deepfakes, including procedures, checklists and resources.
• AI Deepfakes. How to safeguard against deepfake video and imagery, including how to identify deepfakes and a whole series of steps you can take to mitigate the risk of your imagery being used as a deepfake.
• Keeping Webinars and Online Meetings Safe - a short practical guide on how to assess risks and actions to take, including the use of AI Assistants.

AI Best Practice - Procurement

A draft practical set of AI design principles for those funding, designing or commissioning charity AI systems.  This is our initial work we created for ourselves but we will be working with our technology partners to create clearer, more robust and more comprehensive guidance.

AI Training Hub

We've been delivering our hugely popular, free charity AI webinar programme since early 2023.  We've now launched our AI Training Hub, which makes available a huge range of free AI webinars, on-demand videos and e learning for everyone.

Managing Change

We think AI technology will become mainstream in 2025 but that delivering the full benefits may take 2 to 5 years. This is because to achieve these will require us to change long standing ways of working and culture. It is essential that charities engage their people on this journey, respond to concerns and fears and support them in making the transition.

In larger charities, issues such as the risk of the loss of human agency in jobs and also of critical thinking will need to be taken into account.  We see this as part of our work to encourage best practice.

Find the Funding and Free Help Your Charity Needs

A registered charity ourselves, the CEF works for any non profit, not just charities.

• Funding Finder - with categories for Core Cost Funding and Small Charities & Community Groups.
• Help Finder – find anything for free, including companies that make financial donations and raffle prizes.
• Data Finder – for fundraising bids & research, impact reporting, planning and campaigning.

Plus, 100+downloadable funder lists, 60+ policies, 8 online health checks and the huge resource base.

Quick, simple and very effective.

Find Funding, Free Help & Resources - Everything Is Free.

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Charity AI Ready Is Not Professional Advice

Our work and resources for Charity AI are based on our in-depth experience of designing and building AI systems for charities but do not constitute professional legal or financial advice.  I'm neither a lawyer, nor an accountant, so not able to provide this, and I cannot write guidance that covers every charity or eventuality.  I have include links to relevant regulatory guidance, which you must check to ensure that whatever you create reflects correctly your charity’s needs and your obligations.  In using this resource, you accept that we have no responsibility whatsoever from any harm, loss or other detriment that may arise from your use of my work.

If you need professional advice, you must seek this from someone else. To do so, register, then login and use the Help Finder directory to find pro bono support. Everything is free.