How Non-Profits Can Use AI for Content Development

INTRODUCTION

For non-profits, developing content can be time-consuming and resource-heavy. Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools offer cost-effective solutions to streamline content creation.

Here are five ways non-profits can use AI for content development.

OPTIMIZE YOUR CONTENT WITH SEO KEYWORDS AND TRENDING TOPICS

AI tools like ChatGPT and Yoast (a WordPress plugin) can help your staff quickly identify high-impact keywords and trending topics that align with your nonprofit’s cause, making your website, blog and social posts more discoverable. These tools also can spark content ideas that align with search intent and optimize existing content for better visibility.

When using ChatGPT, here are some example prompts to use to find keywords and topics:

• Identify top keywords related to [your cause] that potential donors have searched for in the last year.
• What are common questions people ask about [your cause]?

Meanwhile, Yoast AI provides suggestions to optimize your existing copy for SEO, and it can help you generate meta descriptions.

USE AI TO MAXIMIZE DONOR ENGAGEMENT

AI tools like MailChimp Intuit Assist and OpenRefine can analyze your donation data to spot hidden patterns. This can help you understand when donors are most likely to give, what causes they care about most and how much they typically donate.

For example, a new AI feature in MailChimp will help you determine which prospects are likely to donate and create personalized marketing content for them.

Email optimization is another helpful tool. AI can test different subject lines, message formats and even the best time of day, to find what works best for different donor groups.

CREATE HIGH-QUALITY VISUALS AND VIDEOS WITH EASE

AI-powered design tools like Canva Pro allow you to create visuals and videos quickly without needing professional design skills.

Canvo Pro AI features include Magic Design, which allows users to submit your logo, brand colors and content type (e.g., social post). It will then create on-brand designs for you, and it also can remove backgrounds easily and resize photos.

For videos, Canva’s Video Suite provides AI-generated templates that make adding your nonprofit’s content and branding easy. It also has text-to-speech capabilities for voiceovers and auto-animation tools as well.

SCHEDULE CONTENT MORE EFFECTIVELY

Determining when to schedule social posts can be burdensome. The solution for non-profit organizations is to use AI scheduling features in tools like Later.com or Buffer to help automate social media posts.

Later.com incorporates AI algorithms that analyze your historical engagement patterns across platforms to determine optimal posting times. When you upload a batch of content, the platform processes this data (keeping your audience behavior patterns in mind) to create a customized posting schedule that maximizes visibility and engagement.

Meanwhile, Buffer allows you to create specialized content categories, such as donation appeals, impact stories and volunteer spotlights, and then uses machine learning to optimize the distribution of these different content types. It also provides performance predictions before posts go live, analyzing elements like caption length, hashtag effectiveness and image placement to suggest real-time improvements.

SUMMARIZE LONGER CONTENT 

Sometimes you may need to summarize longer content, such as the transcript of a webinar or a speech. AI tools like Dovetail and Claude will take your text and write summaries that you can use for blog posts, social media posts and newsletter articles geared toward your volunteers, partners and donors.

Dovetail has a free version but otherwise costs $29/user/month. Similarly, Claude has a free version, with the pro version priced at $18/user/month.