Move from skepticism to success by harnessing the power of A.I. in fundraising. This episode highlights A.I.'s ability to optimize processes, reduce time constraints, and magnify impact, encouraging fundraising professionals to welcome this advancing technology as a crucial ally in their philanthropic pursuits.

Maria Newhouse, Director, Corporate & Foundation Relations | Kalamazoo College 

Maria brings her extensive expertise to foster partnerships that drive educational advancement. Hailing from Portage, Michigan, she attended Western Michigan University locally, graduating in 2006 with her Bachelor’s Degree (Spanish, Philosophy and Gender and Women’s Studies) before pursuing a Master’s Degree in Social Work (2010) and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership (2013). Prior to joining the team at Kalamazoo College, she served for more than five-years as the grant writer and donor relations specialist at the Smithsonian-affiliated Air Zoo. Beyond her professional accomplishments in the fundraising realm, she is the creative force behind Maria Newhouse Photography, intertwining her artistic passion with family experiences, as she navigates life with her husband and four young children. 

Links:

• Khan, Imad. “Chat GPT Glossary: 41 AI Terms that Everyone Should Know” https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/ai-glossary-basic-terms-all-chatgpt-users-should-know 

• Le, Vu. “The Ethics and Opportunities of Artificial Intelligence in the Nonprofit Sector.”  https://nonprofitaf.com/2023/03/the-ethics-and-opportunities-of-artificial-intelligence-in-the-nonprofit-sector/ 

• Mollick, Ethan. “Embracing weirdness: What it means to use AI as a (writing) tool” https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/embracing-weirdness-what-it-means 

• Mollick, Ethan. “The Shape of the Shadow of the Thing.”  https://www.oneusefulthing.org/p/the-shape-of-the-shadow-of-the-thing?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web 

• Wolfram, Stephen. “What is ChatGPT Doing and Why Does It Work?” https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/ 

• AI @ WMU: A Deep Dive into the Resources https://docs.google.com/document/d/1snSfb_weI1oITJm8Lh5IpOqc7qRqfyzn/edit 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-newhouse-73607589/ 

What I hear most is that people think A.I. is going to make us as human beings irrelevant. Right. But I don't I don't think that's where this is going.

Hello and welcome to the Founder Connected Philanthropy Podcast. Today, we are privileged to have Maria Newhouse, director of corporate and foundation Relations at Kalamazoo College as our guest. And we are going to be talking about A.I. today. More specifically, we will be digging into the type of opportunities that A.I. could bring to grant and fundraising professionals. If we could just get a little more comfortable with the new technology.

Maria is a founding client who I've connected and collaborated with many times over the past several years. She has a bachelor's degree, Spanish philosophy, gender and woman, studies a master's degree in social work and a master of arts in educational leadership and lot of work experience in several areas that bring her thoughtful approach. And paired with this background in education and social sector, she brings such a unique and important perspective.

I'm excited to have her share her journey and insights on air with our community. Thank you for being here.

Yeah, I'm excited to be here, Tammy.

I am excited to find out. Before we dive in, this is a question I always love to ask. Can you tell our community a little bit more about yourself? And I always find it interesting to hear about your journey with your career of how you ended up to where you are today.

Wow. That's a that's a big question. And I'll try and keep it brief because I think we could be here all day on this. But I actually was thinking about this a little bit and realize that it's been almost two decades since I dove into this profession, which seems kind of impossible. I was like, No, your math can't be right enough.

No, no, no. That math checks out. So I would say like like a lot of fundraisers, right? I did not end up in this field on purpose when I was in undergrad. Actually, I was offered a position at a local food pantry as their development intern. I had no idea what the word development meant, but I needed the job.

Right, Like so many undergrads. So I signed on and as I dove into the work, I loved it. And so I asked some of my more seasons colleagues, like, how do I do this work forever? And they pointed me in the direction of social work, which is where how I ended up in social work and my master's degree.

There is actually an administration, right? So from there I went on to be a community educator for our local YWCA for a while before actually going back to my alma mater as a part time instructor and full time staff person while I got a second master's degree in Educational leadership. More recently, I actually was at a local, nationally recognized aviation history museum where I served as their primary grant writer and donor relations person person before moving here into my current position and corporate and foundation relations.

So from not knowing what the word development meant.

To.

Being a director and corporate foundation relations was kind of a zigzag path. But here.

I am. Excellent. Thank you for that. Usually isn't a direct path, but finding out what interests you and what steps you take next. I love to hear about that. So I.

Hey, I love it.

But if you can share is a bit of your journey and how you became interested in the intersection of AI and fundraising.

Yeah. So lately. So I got to be honest, when I first heard sort of that buzz around Chat Getty, what, a year ago in the fall, I kinda wrote it off. I didn't really pay much attention to it. I was like a busy, I got stuff to do. And then I got this email in November from my alma mater.

You know, I mentioned I used to teach there, right? So this was an email sort of from there, a faculty development area inviting people to come to a webinar and learn more about this thing that was, you know, sort of taking the nation by storm or whatever. And I thought, well, okay, why not? Let's log on and learn more about it.

It's easy. It's at my lunch hour, whatever. And they were like, But before you come, log in and try it out so you know what we're talking about. So I did. I logged in, I played with it. I had it write a poem about my kids. I thought it was really funny. And and then I went through this webinar and like I said, it was focused more on teaching and how to use it in the classroom.

But the connections were really obvious to me. I was like, Wow, okay, I'm the only grant writer here in my office. And some of the ways that they're showing us how to use this, I can really see.

How it.

Would be useful in my day to day life. Like I could have this little digital thought partner, like in my computer constantly helping and supporting the things that I that I'm doing. And it just it hooks me, right. And beyond that, I mean, that's a year ago. And today this technology is just changing so fast that there's constantly new things that I can find and discover and learn to do, to do my work differently and a little bit better and a little more efficiently.

So it's just been a really fun, incredible journey in that sense.

Yeah, I similarly thought that, oh, I've seen AI and it just doesn't really hit get over that hurdle of being real useful. But this, this time you're right. I similarly had an experience where a year or so ago getting introduced to it, but similar to your experience and lying for someone who might be skeptical or hesitant to embrace AI for whatever the common reasons are, what What practical advice would you now offer to help them get started, especially considering all the like you said, we're we're busy.

We have other.

Things. So, so busy. But yeah, and I mean, I totally get that. I was skeptical at first, like, right. I didn't just dive in it. It really took it coming to me for me to get involved in this. So I really I get the skepticism. And and beyond that, I think some context, right? I am busy, too, right?

I'm I'm a mom of four, right? I am a full time fundraiser. I'm a part time photographer. So at the end of the day, I don't have time or energy or the brain bandwidth for anything that isn't essential. But I think this is I think this is really essential to us. It's not going anywhere. It's rapidly permeating every single industry.

And so beyond beyond actually just leveraging it to enhance my own effectiveness and my own efficiency, I think it's really important to use it to remain competitive, right, and to remain relevant in the job market today. So, so good makes your question right. Practical advice. I've got two parts on this that I think about when I think about practical advice.

The first one is kind of simple. Just look at all the ways that you are already actively using AI. So I mean, I love I love that my inbox now sorts out all of the like actual people I know from the junk marketing stuff, right? That's why you're already using it. Right. And it's and it's it's streamlining. Streamlining life.

Excuse me. And then I think about if I log in and I don't know what movie I want to watch or her I read, if I had a quick present for one of my kids and I log into a shopping platform and it suggests something to me, that's A.I., right? So there are all these ways that we're already using.

And if we take a minute and pause and just take a deep breath about A.I. and think to yourself, how is it already making my life better? I think it makes the next step easier, because the next step is how do you want to intentionally integrate it into your life or into your workflow? And I borrow this idea now that I heard from Mallory Erickson because I thought it was really brilliant.

She said, Just look for your pain point. And with that she meant, We've all got something that we're doing in our job, right that we just get stuck on. And usually it's a simple little task. So for me it's just often getting the ball rolling with ideas on how I frame a project, right? Like once I have that idea and I know what I want to write and how I want to write it, or the approach that I want to take, The words are like just crazy flowing.

You can imagine from how quickly I talk, right?

Well, once I get started.

The words flow. But but before that, it's almost like there's this quirk stuck, right? So for me, that's my pain point, right? I need somebody or something to help me get the ball rolling on ideas. And so I turn to an AI assistant, right? I like chat GPT and I like Claud. They're both free. They're non specialized. Right?

And and that's where I started it. That's where I jumped in just using it for idea generation. So that's my really practical thing, right? Find your thing, find your pain point, find whatever it is you can and then just identify a tool, one tool that can help you and learn that and integrate that into your workflow. I think the the place where we all get stuck is this is A.I. is just so giant.

There's so much happening, and it feels overwhelming to think about where do I start and how do I learn it all? And the thing is, you don't have to learn them all. Not now, not ever. But I really do think you ought to get familiar with the ones that are relevant to what you do and can help make what you do easier.

So that would be my practical advice. What are you doing? Passively identify that. Celebrate it, you're using it, and then see if there's one thing that you can do to identify and do with with intentionality. And from there you can decide how you want to grow your API use.

Yes, yes. And when one of the things that I've noticed and have seen in myself and others is, Oh, a I, that must be complex in the background and maybe it is, but I don't think people really realize that you could set aside, you know, half hour at the most but even 10 minutes to just go to chat you Betty.

Or.

I and and start a little account and ask it to write a poem about your cancer.

All right. It's so easy.

Just and I almost would assign everybody as a homework for that. You know, regardless of what your choice is to use it or not. And it maybe people are way beyond that. But the the thing that I have seen is this hesitancy. And it's there's a lot of preconceived notion about to just get started. It's going to take, you know, I need to block out a week to just learn about it.

And really you could dip your toe in so quickly. And yeah, we had.

As I said, you can text message, you can use one of these chat bots pretty easily, right? I mean the their setup, they're set up exactly as you would expect them to be for a technologically sort of savvy society that we have now. It looks like a text message window, right When you're talking to them and talk to them like they're a human being.

And I guess that would be the other piece, right? This is when I started. I didn't start with any intentionality on the output that I needed. I just played and I think that's the other great way to do it. Don't don't dive into it like, Hey, I'm going to write my annual appeal with this kid.

You're going to be disappointed.

Because you don't really know how to use the system and you don't have the feel for that back and forth. But like but saying, Hey, write me a poem about my children. It was really fun, right? It was just a fun little exercise. And I started thinking that I'm a photographer, right? And I had to write Somebody want me to write a biography about myself?

I was like, Oh, I'm not going to write about me. Oh, Lord. And then I threw some information in there and it helped me come up with my artist bio, write my artist statement I helped was was crafted in part by Chad, GPT and Claude. So, you know, just simple stuff like that is easy to get started. And it, you know, I got tripped up because you don't have specific expectations coming out of it.

Yes. Yes. So specific to fundraising, why do you think it's crucial and not something to be overlooked for other professionals in grants and fundraising?

Yeah. So I think honestly that this technology has a real a real ability to help us work a lot more strategically and honestly amplify our impact. So I think about it this way. I don't know a single fundraiser who isn't crunched for time, right? We are all incredibly busy and this allows us to dive in and work a little smarter.

And when we work smarter, we can achieve greater outcomes, right, for for the causes that we're championing. So a practical example, right? I was talking to a grant writer recently, Tammy, you were actually there, right? And she said, right, she had this grant, this big grant all prepped and she's ready to submit it. She logs in to submit it, and the funder had to use all the character counts.

As she said, she spent about 12 hours redoing all of her answers to fit. And I just was like, Oh God, 12 hours. And I felt almost bad telling her like, Hey, I could have done it in like an hour or two if you just used a chat bot, right? You could put your own words in there and just ask it to shorten it down and it's going to help cut it all down.

And, and then I think about it this way What else could she have accomplished in those ten or 11 hours that it took her to have to shorten that down? And I think about that every time I'm, you know, reforming a proposal to fit a different Grantor's expectations before maybe that was going to take me a whole day with the time I shaved off.

What else can I do that is impactful for the work and the organizations that I'm representing? I mean, even beyond that, like, there's just so much more that it can do. I mean, it can analyze our data. It can help us identify patterns and insights, right? It can give us different ways if we're stuck on trying to reach our donors on different ways that we can try and reach them.

But the time thing for me, I mean, just this ability to streamline processes and increase efficiencies just makes me go, why wouldn't fundraisers embrace AI technologies?

I know I, I always have this thought of AI. I can't be good at everything. What do I enjoy the most? What do I feel is in my wheelhouse and that I love to bring my special stuff to? And what? What like I love how you said. It's just like there's a core stuff that I just get started it and it's the it's it would surprise you especially I love you know, working with grant writers, but writing is not my jam, right?

So sometimes when I send out those monthly emails, the letter welcome paragraph, I could spend way too much time. Yes, right. Oh, yes. Kind of make that sound right. And I know it goes to so many people and I'm just like, you know, frozen. What should I. I could pull it out. These things become something I enjoy doing now, and I could put a time on how much it's going to take before it was, well, I better put it at the end of the day, because I don't know how late I'm to stay up the minute.

Right. So yes. And then to your point, what can then I, what, what can I then lean into more with, with where I feel I add unique value and do more of that or have a more balanced life. There's so many people that in this work that have too much work on their plate and the hard time balancing that.

So it also could help do that. I love that you brought that up.

I would add the caveat to that. That is this just because I allows us to work more efficiently doesn't mean that we ought to pile on more. Right? So working more efficiently doesn't mean that we ought to just try and do, do, do more, right? It means that, yeah, to your point, we should have that work life integration, that balance that.

And I think it will help us with that, you know, lean into the things that you love and that can make a make an impact, but don't necessarily say, oh, it's not going to take me quite as long to do that thing. So I should add six more responsibilities to my plate.

Yes. And talking with people is one of the things I enjoy. So yeah, adding that in gives me more time.

That.

Might feel more charged and add more ideas. Yes, the the number one thing in your pushback that I have heard in the grant world is is about ethical considerations and and other elements in the context of fundraising for organizations. What what do they need to be mindful of when implementing or using A.I.?

Yeah. And so, I mean, I think what everybody's coming back to is right is confidentiality, transparency, data, privacy. Those are those are the big ones. And I don't want to downplay this, but I think about it this way, right? So what are these systems? Are you already using and how are you being mindful about the ways that you use that?

I don't think I should be any different in that sense. Right. So, I mean, I wouldn't send somebody my social Security number through Gmail, Right. Well, by it's not secure. Right. That wouldn't even make sense. That would be I be crazy. Now, ten years ago, we wouldn't think that was so crazy. But, you know, ten years ago, we didn't know what we know now about people stealing identities and data and information.

But in the same way that I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't put sensitive donor data into a public chat bot. Right. So chatty Betty, clod barred. These are all public, right? Public chat bots. And for those that check my privacy settings regularly. Right. So they all have privacy settings you can check those and I don't put specific like private information into them when I use them.

If it's proprietary to my institution, it doesn't go in there. And there are very easy ways. I mean, I generally don't even put my institution name in there. I just say the college, right? I work for I work for a college, right? The institution, the organization, and I'll say the foundation, for example, inside these and putting in specific foundation information.

I'm careful like that in the ways that I use them, and I'm careful in the ways that I use other platforms as well. Right? So I think if we take a level of common sense to this, we don't need to panic. Now, I don't work a lot with, for example, researchers. I don't work with with professors who are doing research or anything crazy private.

So it's a little bit easier for me to filter out my dad and I'm conscious of that. But again, it's I don't think it's quite as big of a deal as people are making it out to be. If you just approach it with a little bit of savvy. I got to be honest too. I was, you know, I think that the knee jerk reaction to some of this, too, is just to say there's just so many concerns.

We just can't use it. Right. And I, I was actually talking to somebody about that this morning and I was commenting that I think that the places that are doing that that are outright banning this this technology are really quickly going to find that the technology is going to outpace their ban. Right. So, I mean, I see that to say that we're not maybe asking the right questions when we're asking, you know, what are the concerns, For example, is it really the platform you're concerned about?

Right. Are you concerned about chat JPT, for example? Are you concerned about A.I. in general? Those are different. Those are really different questions to be asking when you really pass it out. And at the rate that A.I. is going, you're not going to be able to avoid A.I. integrations in your day to day life, in your day to day workflow, and in how how this touches your life.

So you can set guidelines around how the tech is used. I don't think you can just say, No, we can't use it. No, we shouldn't use it. I think we need to ask these thoughtful questions constantly and continuously. But at the end of the day, I just say I tell people like, proceed with caution. Right? For sure. Have caution, don't die that head first.

Don't just throw everything you've got into chat to, but learn the technology and be smart about it. Right? I think that's the best we can do right now. It's evolving so fast, right? There's I mean, there's legislation pending. I mean, pretty much around the country. You've got people who are created and co-created these AI platforms saying, hey, hey, we need legislation.

This should be legislated, this should be regulated, this shouldn't be the Wild West. But it is right now a little bit it is a little bit the Wild West. The other caveat I would say is so many of these platforms here, what people are saying, right. I hear that you are concerned about data integrity. They hear that you are concerned about confidentiality and they're building that stuff into their platforms.

I mean, I was literally talking to somebody right before this and they were commenting that Microsoft Azure I'm not sure if I'm actually saying that that right but they are integrating chat GPT into all of their services. Right. So it's going to be something that's in your email, it's in teams that's all over the place that you can use and there's a ton around the confidentiality and data security because Microsoft wants people to buy this, they want people to jump into it.

So look also at the platform you're using. They want your money, right? If you're paying for something and if you're doing a free version. Right. They don't want to get a bad name because they also have a paid version on the other end. Right? They have their free version, but they have their paid version and they don't want to get a bad name in terms of privacy and data use.

So look at what you're look at what you're using. Look at how you're using it and just be smart.

Yes. Yeah. Says, as you mentioned, we have integrated AI into part of our products and listening to our clients as we tested that or talked to them. I know you were one that we reached out to. You could ask questions about. We came away with, Hey, there's got to be a master switch so that people can control that when they're comfortable, when they've learned enough about it, when they, you know, that there is a way to to control that on their journey.

And like you said, things are evolving so, so quickly. I looking at the future of fundraising and how it could evolve with continued integration of AI technologies, do you have any thoughts or ideas or opportunities that you can look into?

The crystal ball.

Yeah, yeah.

So somebody said this a while ago and it really stuck with me. I'd give credit where credit is due, except I honestly can't remember where I read it. But they said that the AI you're using today is probably the worst AI you're ever going to use, right? So I wouldn't say necessarily that we're in like the infancy of the AI tech wave, but but.

We're we're.

We're early on. Right? And so I think what's going to come next is just going to make what we're using today look childish. And I honestly I think we'll look back and kind of I'm not sure that will laugh about having these conversations, but it'll seem so funny that we couldn't imagine life with AI because I don't think we're going to be able to manage imagine life without it right?

So to the question, I think I really has the power to reshape our field, but maybe not in the ways that people think about or are getting worried about. Because what I hear most is that people think AI is going to make us as human beings irrelevant. Right? But I don't I don't think that's where this is going.

Right. So we were talking earlier about that, the amount of time we have. Right. And you said, I love talking to people. And if I can if I can, you know, take less time to write that intro paragraph, I have more time to talk to people. I think that's going to be one of the powerful changes. We are going to have the ability to automate more of the day to day grind stuff that keeps us from getting to the heart and the meat of the work that we are trying to do, right?

The people, the relationships. Because at the end of the day, if I don't have to spend or you don't have to spend hours reworking a paragraph, we can spend hours talking to people or getting to know what's happening on our campuses or in our organization and right doing the things that a computer or a program or a piece of technology can't do for us.

And then the other thing I think about is I think it has the power really to level the playing field. So when I see that, I'm thinking about like those small nonprofits who can't afford someone like me, right, that can't afford a full time grant writer, I think about the impact that has on funding and funding distribution, and I think that I has the power to just help that it's not going to go away.

Right. But I think it has the power to level that out and make it so that people can access more funding in more equitable ways. I mean, beyond that, I think, you know, simply it's going to increase efficiencies, right? We're going to be able to do things differently, right? Prospect research is going to be different. I can pop on the cloud now and ask it to give me a list of ten foundations that do X, Y or Z thing instead of having to go into a database and fill out 17 different forms to make sure.

Right. Like to make sure that I've asked the question in the right way. And then I can go do some research or I can ask, you know, like, Hey, well, where did you pull that information or can you find me that funders website or, you know, just it's simple. It's much more streamlined. I, I, I think it saves me a lot of time and I think it's just going to change those processes.

But again, I don't think I don't think I think this is so important to hear that it's not going to take away from the people part of things. Other than that, I think it's really hard to say because what what we have today, like I said, is in its infancy and it's going to change so much as we move forward.

But I think that's where right now is so important, right? If we can learn how to harness this and how to integrate it effectively into what we do, we, I mean that we remain relevant, right? We remain tech savvy and we can prove how much we plus the technology can rocket our jobs.

I love that. I love that ad. And just looking at what could be next if we inspire people to not push it away, learn a little bit about it as we we wrap up. I would love for you to share with our nonprofit listeners an overview of some resources and services that that you feel might be good ones to watch for because there's just so much out there.

What have you found?

Yes, So I think I mentioned already, like I love I love Chat and Clod. I would play around and those those are those are both free. They're non specialized and they both have the ability like record a super specific about data security. It doesn't store anything automatically and then chat to party. You can turn off that that functionality.

So if you're going to play with chat bots, those too I think are really good for what we do if you're looking for something free. I've also shared with Tammy a number of links that were really helpful for me as I started on this journey. So they're mostly blogs. There's a glossary of terms that I found really helpful When I was diving.

I was like, What are people talking about? What does it mean that it hallucinates? Oh, it's making stuff up, right? So it's an actual glossary that I go back to periodically when I hear people say something. I'm like, I don't know what that means. What does that mean? Let's see. There's also actually a a document that's a ton of links from my Alma mater.

They've been collecting specific blogs and stuff like that. I would caveat that that one is a lot towards teaching, but there are some real gems in there around ethics, around use, that sort of thing. I love there's this article in there from Stephen Wolfram about how charity actually works. Now that one is I really loved it, but I am an I have a very nerdy brain, so it's like, it's like really deep into the science.

There are diagrams about how the algorithms work and stuff, so, so proceed with caution. And then there's some blogs I've also attached some blogs. So like Julie did one on ethics and I love his stuff. There's a couple other in there that I just thought were really helpful in framing and contextualizing AI and how it works. So there's a whole bunch of them and people are always welcome to reach out as well to me and ask questions or thoughts.

So lots of good resources.

Great, great. That is quite a well-rounded and one of every kind type of depending on whether all.

Over the place.

As well or like list of resource is all of that. Thank you. I will make sure that we include those links and resources that that Maria mentioned in our show notes and I want to just thank you for coming on.

And thanks for having me.

Bite sized. Yeah, this bite sized like what? What's the step we could take? Not trying to make this so big and cover everything about it. And I, I feel that that's going to be important for our community. And like you said, take this step and then watch how it goes, because it's going to be changing so fast. MM Oh, but do you have any final thoughts or advice to leave our listeners with?

Yeah, I guess I would say if there's one thing anybody takes from this is that help is really this Aha is not going away. And I genuinely think that if you refuse to learn it, I think you're probably going to regret it later. Right. I mean I, I've said this already, but I don't always have the energy to learn new skills either.

And frankly, more often than not, I pass on learning new things. I'm just like, nope, not I don't have time or energy for that, but I just I genuinely don't. I honestly, I honestly don't think that we can afford to do it with this. Right. I think that's going to come back to bite us later. So that's one thing.

Just figure out where your comfort level is and die then. I know it's scary. I know it's hard. I know it's. I know, I know it feels like a lot right now, but I think it's going to be worth it in the long run.

Great advice. Thank you so much for being here and sharing all this, your story and journey with I and we hope that our community has has learned something from today's Connected Philanthropy podcast. And if you have, please share the podcast with others who might also enjoy and benefit from it. We look forward to connecting in our Future Webinars, podcast and community discussions.

We thank you again, Maria, and we wish you all the best success. And again, thank you for all you do.

Thank you.