Nonprofit leaders are surrounded by AI noise. Vendors promise transformation. Headlines swing between miracle and menace. Meanwhile, executives still have to make real decisions about budgets, staffing, governance, and risk, often without a trusted, independent source of guidance.
The Center for Nonprofit AI was created to be that source. We help nonprofit executives, boards, and philanthropic leaders move past the hype and determine where artificial intelligence can create measurable organizational value, and where it cannot.
To help nonprofit leaders make informed decisions about artificial intelligence that strengthen mission outcomes, organizational effectiveness, and long-term sustainability.
Buying software is easy. Strategy, governance, staff readiness, process redesign, and change management are what determine results.
We do not sell software and we are not paid to recommend tools. Our only product is sound judgment.
Nonprofits hold the trust of donors, members, and communities. AI use has to protect that trust through ethics, transparency, and governance.
We favor use cases that demonstrably improve capacity, revenue, service delivery, or decision quality over novelty projects.
Michael Lugo is a nonprofit executive with more than 14 years of leadership experience, including over a decade with one of the nation’s largest nonprofit organizations. His background spans organizational operations, membership growth, volunteer engagement, staff leadership, process improvement, and data-informed decision-making, including hands-on use of AI to expand organizational capacity. He has also served on numerous nonprofit boards.
He holds an Associate in Applied Science from Dallas College and a Bachelor of Arts with a concentration in International Business from the University of North Texas, and is completing an MBA through West Virginia University alongside MIT Professional Education’s Leading AI Strategy program. He founded the Center for Nonprofit AI to bring practical, operator-grade AI guidance to the sector he has spent his career serving.
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