From Google For Nonprofits - How-To Guides

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about generative AI recently and might be wondering what it is and how you can use it. As access to these tools rolls out to more countries and languages, we’re sharing some tips to help your organization get the most out of Bard, an early AI experiment by Google.

Bard is an experimental conversational AI service trained on a massive dataset of text and code. Nonprofits can use Bard in a variety of ways to increase productivity and reach your goals faster — freeing up time to focus on your nonprofit’s mission. By using Bard, nonprofits can save time and money and make better decisions. Bard even helped us write this article! 

If you or your organization are interested in trying it out, you can check to see if it's available in your country and can sign up at bard.google.com. As shared in the Bard announcement blog, remember that Bard is an experiment and doesn’t always get it right, but we value the testing and feedback from all users, including nonprofits. 

A few ideas to get started with Bard...

Let’s use the example of a local animal adoption nonprofit planning a fundraising event. You can use Bard to help your organization plan, promote, manage, and analyze it all. 

1. Manage Events

Bard can be a great tool to kickstart event planning. You can use it to brainstorm event ideas, suggest ways to successfully run the day, or help you think through a plan for what needs to get done.

Example Bard prompt: "I'm planning a fundraiser for 200 people supporting my nonprofit that rescues dogs and cats. Can you suggest ideas for the event?"

2. Increase Awareness

Marketing and content creation can take lots of time and resources, and generative AI tools, like Bard, can help reduce this load so organizations can focus on other tasks. Bard can draft blog posts, newsletter articles, social media posts, or press releases and provide suggestions on how to best reach a larger audience.

Example Bard prompt: Let's say Bard suggests an idea that you liked, you can continue the conversation - "Great! Can you suggest a social media strategy for the pet costume contest?"

3. Fundraise

Nonprofits can use Bard to help write grants, create donor appeals and write personalized emails to each recipient to increase engagement. 

Example Bard prompt: "Draft an email template to send to event attendees encouraging donations"

4. Manage Volunteers

Organizations can use Bard to help manage volunteer programs right from the start. It can help match volunteers’ skills and interests to potential opportunities. It can help you track hours, survey volunteers and report on the program. It can do this while also helping you create personalized emails to each volunteer to keep them engaged and excited about your nonprofit’s mission.

Example Bard prompt: "Things to consider before setting up a volunteer management system for the pet costume contest?"

5. Communicate Impact

Bard can be a big help in telling your story, whether through helping your team figure out what to measure, organizing your results, or summarizing outcomes in simple terms for your stakeholders.

Example Bard prompt: "Tips for writing a post-event report to send to attendees, donors and volunteers"

Is your organization using Bard and generative AI to better operations and free up time for more impact? Google would love to hear your story.

Resources: What is generative AI? ⼁ Try Bard and share your feedback

Questions? Interested in learning more?
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