Start Small with AI: A Gentle Guide for Charities Ready to Explore

How to build confidence and curiosity with today’s most powerful tools

Most charity and social enterprise leaders now understand that AI is here — and that it’s already woven into their daily work. From email platforms to fundraising tools, AI quietly supports the sector behind the scenes.

But once that penny drops, a new question emerges:

How do we start using AI more intentionally?

The good news: you don’t need a strategy, a specialist, or a budget to begin. What you need is permission to play.

This blog is about starting small — experimenting, exploring, and learning what these tools can do for you.

From Passive User to Active Explorer

If you’ve read our blog — The Charity Leader’s Guide to AI: Beyond the Hype — you’ll know that AI isn’t some distant technology. It’s already part of your organisation’s toolkit.

Now it’s time to shift from using AI accidentally to trying it on purpose.

This doesn’t mean launching big projects. It means opening the door to curiosity. Because once you start exploring, you’ll begin to see where AI can genuinely help you work smarter, not harder.

The Four Tools to Start With

You don’t need to use everything. In fact, we recommend you start by picking just one of the four big platforms.

These are the tools leading the global AI movement — and they’re all designed to be approachable for everyday users, not just engineers.

1. ChatGPT (OpenAI)

• A powerful, conversational assistant

• Use it to write, summarise, brainstorm, or simplify

• Best for trying out prompts and creative tasks
  💡 Try this: “Rewrite this paragraph for a general audience” or “Give me 3 ideas for a volunteer recruitment poster.”

2. Claude (Anthropic)

• Similar to ChatGPT, but especially good at long documents

• Upload reports, proposals, or transcripts and ask questions

• Designed to be helpful, honest, and safe
  💡 Try this: Upload a recent impact report and ask, “What are the main outcomes from this work?”

3. Google Gemini

• AI assistant built into Gmail, Docs, and Sheets

• Helps you write, edit, structure, and find insights in your data

• Seamless for charities already using Google Workspace
  💡 Try this: In Google Docs, write a rough funding bid and ask Gemini to improve the tone and structure.

4. Microsoft Copilot

• AI built into Word, Excel, Outlook, and Teams

• Helps you format data, summarise meetings, and draft documents

• A natural next step for those using Microsoft 365
  💡 Try this: In Word, paste in a raw meeting transcript and ask Copilot to summarise the key actions.

5 Simple Ways to Experiment This Week

You don’t need a big goal. Just try something small. Here are five ways you could get started:

1. Summarise a report
   Upload a long report to Claude or paste it into ChatGPT and ask for a summary in plain English.

2. Draft an email or social post
   Use ChatGPT or Gemini to write a first draft for an upcoming campaign or supporter update.

3. Extract themes from feedback
   Paste in survey comments and ask for the top 3 themes and a few representative quotes.

4. Polish a paragraph
   Take a bit of clunky writing and ask an AI tool to make it clearer or more engaging.

5. Generate ideas
   Stuck on a workshop title or event format? Ask for five suggestions based on your audience.

Encourage Your Team to Play, Too

You don’t need to be the only one experimenting. Invite your colleagues to test a few things, too — maybe as part of a team meeting or a “Friday AI hour.” No pressure. Just curiosity.

A few ways to build momentum:

• Share the tools and invite people to try one task

• Create a shared doc where people post what they learned

• Celebrate small wins (e.g. “It saved me 30 minutes!”)

The aim isn’t perfection. It’s confidence.

Start Now, Reflect Later

You don’t need to define an AI strategy before trying AI. In fact, experimentation is the best way to figure out what your strategy should be.

Start now. Reflect later. Learn what fits your team, your culture, your mission.

Your Next Step

You don’t need to learn everything.

You just need to log in, try something, and see what happens.

Choose one tool from the list above. Set aside 20 minutes. Pick one task you’d love to do faster or better. And give it a go.

Your organisation is already using AI. Now’s the time to use it on purpose.

Want help figuring out what to try first — or how to bring your team along? Join our early list for resources and guidance.