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.

If you’ve tried an AI tool and found the results lacking, frequently it isn’t the tool that’s the problem. Ask an LLM to “write a GivingTuesday appeal” and you’ll get a perfectly competent appeal for a nonprofit in the abstract, but not for your nonprofit. 

One fix is a context document, a “campaign brief,” that will take you about 45 minutes to complete. In a blank document, write a brief about your organization: your mission in plain language, who you actually serve, who gives and why, what you tried last GivingTuesday and what you learned, this year’s goal and the constraints you’re working under, and any other relevant information. This is an opportune time to review GivingTuesday’s goal-setting post.  

Now put the brief to work with your AI assistant. Use whatever tool you’re comfortable with: Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini as examples. Or take this as a chance to try a new tool (but stick to tools your organization has approved for work tasks). Paste in your brief, then your draft goals, and ask for scrutiny instead of output: Which of these is unrealistic for our size? What am I assuming that I haven’t checked? What haven’t I told you that you’d need to know? The questions it asks back are often the useful part. 

Update and save the brief somewhere you can easily access; later entries in this series build on it. Most tools can store this permanently, improving output throughout your GivingTuesday campaign planning. 

And two important cautions: Context makes output more relevant, not more true, so read anything the AI delivers thoroughly before you share it. And providing more information doesn’t mean sharing everything: Follow your organization’s AI use policy and always keep confidential information, personally identifiable donor information, and other sensitive data out of any tool that isn’t approved to handle it.

Partnership outreach often fails before anyone writes an email. You’re asking a stranger for something without knowing what they fund, who they’ve supported, or whether you’re the kind of organization they typically work with. That’s a research problem, and research is an area where AI has improved significantly in the past two years. But it matters which job you’re asking it to do. 

Start by getting specific. “We want more partners” isn’t a research question. A tool given a vague request will hand back a vague list. Spend ten minutes turning it into criteria: what kind of organization, how close to you, how large, what you actually need from them, whether that’s matching funds, a venue, volunteers, a co-host, or an audience. Paste in your Campaign Brief from Week 2, describe the kind of partner you’re after, and ask what else the tool would need to know to make a useful shortlist. The questions it asks back may reveal gaps in your planning.  

Search inward. Your own records hold a partnership map you may have never looked at: board members’ employers, vendors you pay every month, where your volunteers work, donors who own businesses, and more. Pull those organization names into one list (be cautious adding people’s names here; your organization’s AI policy should always apply) and ask what patterns it sees. Which appear more than once? Which cluster by industry or neighborhood? Which roll up to the same parent company? You already know who’s connected to what; this is about seeing the shape of it. 

Search outward. Now widen the field. Ask your AI tool for businesses in your area matching your criteria, or companies whose community giving overlaps your cause. Then ask the same question about nonprofits: Who else serves the families you serve, works the same neighborhoods, or shows up at the same community events? A joint campaign with a peer organization costs neither of you much and reaches an audience you don’t already have. Treat everything here as leads, not findings. The tool is generating possibilities, not verified facts.

Search deep. For the handful worth pursuing, use a tool with web search and dig in. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Copilot all have the ability to search the internet for the most up-to-date information. Search one-by-one or paste in a larger list. What have they sponsored locally? Do they have a foundation, and when do application windows open? What do they explicitly not fund? For a nonprofit prospect: what campaigns have they run, and with whom? Then verify. Double-check the output. If a claim has no link behind it, treat it as a guess.

Everything above stops short of the ask. The introduction from your board chair, the phone call, the thank-you: those stay human. Research earns you a better conversation; it doesn’t replace one.

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

Finding a New Voice: Gladys Leung’s Volunteer Story

Following a diagnosis of tongue cancer and surgery that significantly affected her ability to speak, Gladys Leung found a “new voice” through creative crafts, including candle making and floral design.

Today, as a dedicated volunteer with Eli Care, part of the Agency for Volunteer Service (AVS) Elite Volunteer Network, Gladys uses expressive arts to bring warmth, comfort and companionship to seniors, patients and caregivers. Through her workshops, she shares more than creative skills. She creates opportunities for people to connect, express themselves and feel supported during difficult moments.

Having experienced the fear and vulnerability that can come with a cancer diagnosis firsthand, Gladys understands what it means to need encouragement and companionship. Her own journey has shaped the way she volunteers, allowing her to meet others with empathy and understanding.

Her commitment to helping others was recognized when Gladys was named a winner of the Outstanding Volunteer Award at the Hong Kong Volunteer Award 2025, co-organized by the Home and Youth Affairs Bureau and the Agency for Volunteer Service.

But for Gladys, volunteering is not simply about recognition. It is a way of expressing gratitude for the second chance at life she has been given, and a way to pay forward the kindness she received during her own journey.

Through her creativity, time and kindness, Gladys continues to turn a difficult personal experience into an opportunity to bring comfort, connection and hope to others.

From Participants to Co-Creators: Volunteering at Social Atelier

At DKolektiv’s Social Atelier in Osijek, volunteering begins with a simple idea: a community space can be shaped by the people who use it.

Young people, international volunteers, students, older citizens and other community members come together at the Atelier, bringing their skills, interests and ideas with them. Many first arrive as participants. Over time, some take on more active roles as volunteers, organizers or initiators of new activities.

That shift is at the heart of Social Atelier.

Volunteers share their time and knowledge in many different ways. They support older people as they build confidence using smartphones and digital services, lead language and conversation clubs, tutor children, design workshops and organize community events. They also facilitate creative and intergenerational activities and are supported to develop their own initiatives around issues they care about.

In doing so, volunteering becomes more than giving time. It becomes an opportunity to share knowledge, create connections and help others become more active in their community.

In 2025, 448 people took part in Social Atelier activities. More than 30 young people and volunteers participated in its volunteer club, supported 84 older people through the Digital Corner and organized community activities, events, dialogues and workshops.

The growth of the volunteer club is an important part of that story. It reflects a move from occasional volunteering toward shared responsibility for the Atelier’s program, creating space for new activities to grow from the interests and experiences of community members.

For international volunteer Andrea Sánchez, the experience was about more than what she was able to give. “It was a project that not only contributed to them, but also to me; I learned, I grew.”

At Social Atelier, generosity takes many forms: a person sharing a skill, giving their attention to someone who needs support, working alongside someone from another generation or helping turn an idea into a community activity. Together, these contributions help create a space where people can participate, connect, and contribute.