Last month, we were invited to attend an ‘AI Learning Series’ hosted by our partners at CD&R.
The overarching themes of the two-day event included:
- Desire & Demand: A clear need among team members to learn how to effectively use AI and incorporate it into day-to-day workflows.
- Governance & Policy: The necessity to establish new AI policies—or update existing ones—to cover emerging platforms.
- Addressing Hesitancy: Overcoming resistance from staff who feel AI outputs are low quality, have ethical or environmental/sustainability concerns, or feel uncomfortable with new technology.
- Data Security & Privacy: Navigating confidentiality and Personally Identifiable Information (PII) risks, particularly when operating on non-enterprise accounts.
- Varied Adoption: Recognising that adoption is uneven across the organisation, with some departments (and individuals) significantly further along than others.
AI for Non-Profit Marketing & Outreach
The final session of the two-day event, presented by consultancy West Monroe, focused specifically on AI for Non-Profit Marketing & Outreach. The workshop provided practical techniques on moving from simple, single-line AI prompts to structured, repeatable workflows for campaign planning and content generation.
Using AI as an Ideation Partner
Rather than asking AI to immediately write campaign copy or a communications plan, the session demonstrated the value of “prompt gates.” Prompt gates follow a repeatable ‘recipe’:
- Outline your targeted final output
- Request clarifying questions
- Choose a direction
- Pressure test failure points
- Refine your inputs
An example of this would be:
- “I want help creating a donor outreach campaign for [your charity: who you serve, campaign goal deadline, target audiences, channels you have, tone]
- “First, ask me 5 questions about anything else you need to know before planning
- “Do not create the campaign until I answer your five questions
- “Then give me 3 campaign options in a table with: audience, campaign idea, core message, channel, СТА, assets to create, risk, and success metric.
- “Wait for me to choose one before drafting any соpу.”
This would ensure that the AI gains all necessary context before generating ideas, avoiding generic or irrelevant outputs. You maintain complete creative direction and decision-making authority at every stage. Time is saved by eliminating endless back-and-forth revisions.
Translating your Plan into Visual Materials
If you need to create visual materials to support your campaign:
- Ideation & Storyboarding: Use AI text tools to generate detailed visual briefs, image concepts, or descriptive prompts.
- Using Approved Canva Templates: When building visual assets in Canva, use our official Brand Kits and pre-approved templates to maintain brand consistency (colours, logos, and fonts).
- Brand Compliance & Sign-off: Please note that AI-generated visual concepts are intended for internal drafting and brainstorming. All external-facing graphics and materials must be reviewed and signed off by the MarComms team prior to publication. You can submit them using the MarComms ClickUp form.
Building a Reusable Prompt Library
If you or your team frequently execute similar tasks (such as event promotion, newsletter drafting, or donor reporting), you can build a shared Prompt Library.
By storing standardised prompts in a central document, team members can easily copy and paste proven prompt structures. You can also re-upload project briefs or past prompt histories into the AI tool to instantly pick up where a project left off without losing context.
Summary & Key Takeaway
The overarching message from the session was that the primary value of AI isn’t simply generating more content faster. It’s about building a structured, repeatable process that we can control, refine, and reuse.
Ultimately, AI is not here to replace human creativity, strategic judgment, or our jobs. Instead, it serves as a powerful assistant. It enhances our efficiency and eliminates routine administrative tasks.