GivingTuesday 2026

Today, the topic of AI seems to be everywhere, but alongside the enthusiasm come real questions for nonprofits. What happens to human work and value when we hand parts of it to a machine? What about the environmental cost of these tools, or the human creativity that trained them and the labor they might displace? These questions deserve serious answers.

At the same time, the nonprofit sector keeps hearing that AI can augment its work and amplify its impact. That part is true, too. Small teams are drafting donor communications faster, making sense of messy data, and taking on projects that used to require a budget line they didn’t have.

Wherever your organization is on your AI journey, a GivingTuesday campaign is a good moment to make room for the conversation. It’s a bounded project with clear deliverables and a firm deadline, an ideal opportunity to try something and find out whether it genuinely helps you and your team. That’s what this series is for. In the coming weeks we’ll share practical ways to use AI in your GivingTuesday planning, along with the questions worth asking before you do. We hope it encourages exploration and education that amplifies your work. A great place to start is developing an AI use policy at your organization, and we’ve included some solid resources below.

Ten Years of Persistence: Hazel McLean’s Volunteer Story

Hazel McLean has been a long-standing volunteer with Volunteer Now, giving her time to projects that champion the rights of older people and help them stay connected to their local community.

For years, she kept coming back to one idea: Belfast City Centre needed a safe space for older people — somewhere they could drop in, spend time with others and find some company in a place where they might otherwise feel isolated or alone.

For ten years, Hazel made the case. She spoke with policy makers and organizations that support older people, without a budget behind the idea and without any guarantee that someone would eventually say yes. But she kept at it.

In 2024, a small pot of funding from the Belfast Health Development Unit made a pilot possible. Working with Age Friendly Belfast, Volunteer Now and the Healthy Ageing Strategic Partnership, Hazel helped shape and design the drop-in center she had been describing for so long.

The center opens every Tuesday, from 11am to 1pm, at 2 Royal Avenue. Two older volunteers give their time at each session. There is tea and coffee for everyone who comes through the door, a place to sit and rest, people to talk to, and information about services and projects for older people.

It took ten years for Hazel’s idea to become a reality. Today, older people in Belfast City Centre have a welcoming place where they can drop in, meet others and find a little company. And the center continues to rely on that same spirit of generosity through volunteering: people giving a couple of hours of their time each week so that anyone who walks through the door has someone there to welcome them.

“When you’re a bit older volunteering helps your mind and body stay active.” — Hazel McLean