As AI Encroaches, It's Time to Break Free From the Machine We Were Never Supposed to Be In
As community-based orgs, nonprofits have a duty to march to a different drum
While everybody and their brother and sister talks about AI these days, I don’t think we’ve had a single word about it here yet. We’re changing that today. And this is most definitely not the final word. More than anything, I’m starting a conversation here. Between us, yes. But even more, I hope that this one will spark meaningful conversations for you — with yourself, and with your colleagues.
Read on….
For You: Today’s Main Course
Time to slow our roll, my fellow nonprofiteers.
The fact that nonprofits are so readily embracing AI these days shows us how little humanity we’ve maintained in our work.
We’re getting caught up in the competition, essentially — i.e. not wanting to be left behind while our peers charge ahead — and only thinking about that, acting far more like corporations… than community-based orgs.
➡️ What about ethical concerns?
➡️ What about harms to the natural world? To people?
➡️ Why aren’t we being more cautious and critical, determined to deeply vet this brand-new, powerful, broadly disruptive technology… and use it only in the most necessary/meaningful ways, if at all?
Essentially, it’s not exactly surprising that we’re responding this way to a disruptive new technology that brings many potential downsides…
… because we’ve already been creeping down this path for decades now.
We treat program outcomes like widgets on a factory line. The fact that we routinely use logic models doesn’t help this reality, but we genuinely act like you can just systematically and repeatedly input certain variables into our programs and, like clockwork, the desired outcomes will output on the other end. As if humans aren’t involved. As if anything involving humans isn’t, by nature, unpredictable and messy.
We chew up and spit out staff. We’ve now widely accepted that 18 months is the norm for longevity of development staff (as if someone hasn’t just learned the ropes at that point, let alone been able to grow meaningful relationships or achieve any significant successes — which always take time). Tenures of program staff are often just as tenuous, which boggles the mind, given the fact that their work is quite literally the bread and butter of the org’s whole purpose.
We prioritize speed over connection. On our staffs, people resign, are fired, or are laid off… and the work just churns on, with barely a blip. Or our fundraisers and program staff are always looking for more ways to squeeze more work into less time, because their plates are always over-full — which means efficiency becomes a priority over slowing down to make real, meaningful connections with donors and clients.
We accept calendars and timelines like they’re gods. So many orgs have cultures where people can schedule time on others’ calendars without asking them — meaning that whatever that person’s human needs are, they need to be subjugated for whatever meeting was deemed more important. Meetings are scheduled at all hours, regardless of the needs of the humans involved. People are supposed to bend over backward to adapt to calendars and timelines… rather than the other way around.
We leave little room to breathe. So often, peoples’ schedules involve back-to-back meetings with no breaks. Or the next proposal gets started immediately after one is submitted. Or a big event or project wraps up and, without any kind of celebration, or a chance to rest a bit, we’re on to the next thing. Machines don’t need breathing room. People do. But you wouldn’t know that, given how little breathing room we give the humans that work in our organizations.
We abhor a mess. Perfectionism runs rampant in many nonprofits. Mistakes are not welcome. Failure is to be avoided at all costs. None of that is human. Heck, even machines often can’t maintain those standards!
We avoid conflict at almost all costs. Ohhhh there could be a whole post on this one. Or probably a book! Feelings and conflict get stuffed and ignored. The work must continue! Unabated! As though real humans aren’t involved! And then, when conflict inevitably spills out into the open and creates some chaos… that chaos gets locked down (forget genuine resolution and repair!) as quickly as possible.
We act like there are single ways to do something “right.” Boy do we love a “best practice” in nonprofits, don’t we? Whenever we’re about to do something new-to-us, it seems our first impulse is to look around and see what other nonprofits are doing. Because of course, the machinery of a nonprofit should function exactly the same no matter which nonprofit, nor where it is, nor what its mission is, now what its business model is, nor who it serves, etc… right?
We treat an organization like a hunk of metal, vs. a living breathing growing organism. Rigid. Maybe a bend here or there, to try to make something work. But mostly static. Repetitive. Predictable. Operating “the way we’ve always done it.” Versus recognizing the reality that an organization should be allowed to be an organism. Dynamic. Evolving. Flexible. Always growing and changing.
We don’t acknowledge the ecosystem we’re a part of. Machines don’t exist within ecosystems. But organisms do. And, given how mechanically we usually do business within nonprofits, we don’t function like part of an interdependent, mutually-giving-and-receiving ecosystem, like exists all around us in the natural world — even though that is actually the more appropriate way for nonprofits to function.
We avoid depth. Machines don’t have feelings. Machines repeatedly, consistently perform tasks, with no reason to stop unless there’s a mechanical breakdown. Humans, in contrast, need regular rest and breathing room and deep intra- and inter-personal connection on the regular, in order to experience a sense of belonging and meaning, which all humans need. Going deeper together is the way to get there. But going deeper is a very rare thing in this work.
We treat donors like customers. We “plug” prospective donors into “acquisition” machines modeled after commercial direct marketing. Annual and major donors get plugged into processes that are modeled after commercial sales machines. Development processes usually function like a well-oiled if/then computer program, ideally as efficiently as possible. And we do our best to keep donors happy, because they (the customer) are always right… right?
In a work culture like this…
… a new tool that can make everything quicker, and more efficient, and flatten out all the human foibles and hiccups and problems… is a slam dunk. Sign us up, right?!
That certainly seems to be the overwhelming response I’ve seen.
And I’m just watching…
… and wondering…
… how this can — or even very likely will — drain even more humanity from our work, work that always should have been very human, given its reality… but somehow has seemed to get less and less so over time.
Before we entangle ourselves in the AI machine…
… don’t you think we might first consider the ways we want to disentangle ourselves from the machinery we’ve already accepted as our norm? Especially because that machinery seems fairly antithetical to most of what we say we’re about, when we’re talking about our work?
Community-Weaving for Fundraisers
Life’s been LIFING lately, yes?! Now is the time to reach out and connect with others. When you’re embedded in supportive community, even the most difficult things don’t seem so hard. Your community is waiting for you!
Advice when you need it. Been-there, done-thats. Commiseration. Support. A place to vent. Guidance and mentoring.
All of this, and more, is what I anticipate happening at Community-Weaving for Fundraisers. Just community-based fundraisers. Gathering for (virtual) lunch together. Twice a month. Year-round. Chatting and supporting each other via WhatsApp in between lunches. Being there for each other.
All you need to do is show up, and be present… while I guide, facilitate, organize, and create the container.
Conversation: Your Response
I really want to know your more detailed thoughts, too. Got more to say? Visit the comments section!
Check out these previously published episodes of the For the Love of Humanity Podcast!
I’m not saying but I’m just saying that, despite how much of a folk hero he is, Vu Le’s episode on the For the Love of Humanity Podcast has not been the number-one-downloaded so far.
That honor has belonged to The Nonprofit Industrial Complex Must Be Composted, since it first aired. That one obviously hit a nerve with y’all!
But…
Slowly but surely, Vu’s episode — Vu Le Enters His Elder Era: Wisdom Incoming! — has been gaining downloads… and it is now TIED for first.
Will Vu pull ahead??
Only time will tell.
Other good episodes to check out right now, before the next episode airs:
Philanthropy’s Final Frontier: Time to Go Deeper Together
Why Does Fundraising Feel So Bad?
Practice: Make It Yours
Find yourself a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted.
Have something to take notes.
Sit with yourself for at least ten minutes, reviewing your most recent week at work. If it helps you remember, you can look at your calendar for reminders of what happened.
Go day by day, reviewing how you spent them.
Remember how they felt especially.
Remember where you felt less human.
Remember where you felt like you had to act like a machine.
Take notes on these things.
Then, choose at least one of these things — but ideally more than one! — to bring back to work and talk to your colleagues about.
Your goal is to explore how you can change things at work, materially…
… to be more human than machine-like.
Inspiration: Something to Mull Over
So in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines.
All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
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