Content Generation

One of the foremost strengths of large language models is their ability to generate diverse and rich content. This is especially beneficial for social impact organizations aiming to communicate their mission, engage with various stakeholders, and amplify their advocacy efforts. One of the great things about using Gen AI tools is that many freely available tools, like ChatGPT and Gemini, are all you need to create a variety of content-rich materials—from blog posts and grant proposals to social media updates and training manuals—all aligned with the organization's mission and audience needs.

The effectiveness of leveraging generative AI for text and other content generation tasks really depends on the user's skill in crafting prompts that specify the desired output, audience, and tone. Here, we explore various applications of content generation that can support social impact organizations and their efforts to inform, advocate, educate, and engage effectively.

When considering how to use generative AI in your daily operations, I suggest looking for repetitive tasks that take a lot of your time. Computers excel at handling repetition. At the same time, creating high-quality content, even with generative AI, takes time, so you must think carefully about when and how to use this technology. Just because you can doesn’t mean that you should. In this module, we provide you with a prompting guide that you can use and adapt for your own use case.

Let’s take some time and review a few of them now, starting with email. LLMs can help you draft, revise, and even alter the tone of an email. For instance, sometimes you may have a single message that you need to adjust for different stakeholder groups. With a carefully written prompt, an LLM can handle this task effortlessly. LLMs are highly effective at transforming existing content into new formats. By inputting documents like workshop summaries or grant proposals, LLMs can craft compelling content suitable for a range of platforms. This ability allows for the production of blog posts or social media updates that either highlight key issues or demonstrate an organization’s achievements.

Writing reports is another common organizational task. Look for opportunities in your daily workflow where you could reuse content. Envision this as a process where AI merges content from various sources into a unified report. Achieving this effectively requires that you carefully organize your information over time so it can be easily retrieved and reused.

Generative AI can be leveraged to design personalized learning modules for your employees, focusing on best practices, organizational policies, or specialized skills. For example, you could input the latest best practice guidelines or your organization’s updated policies into an LLM. Then, with carefully crafted prompts, the LLM could tailor training content to meet the unique needs of different departments or roles within your organization.

Generative AI is great at creating text; it’s also very good at creating images and is getting better every day. Social impact organizations often struggle with creating a visual impact. We want to show images of our impact, but sometimes we can't use images of real clients, and paying for stock images can be expensive and may not get exactly what we’re looking for. We could use generative AI to create images and then iterate on the process until we get just what we’re looking for.

Many social impact organizations depend on donors or grants for funding. Writing grant proposals and donor outreach content is time-consuming and typically requires specialized writing skills. This can be especially challenging for smaller organizations, which may not have the resources to hire experienced writers. Generative AI can significantly ease this burden by assisting in the creation of compelling narratives for grant applications and other fundraising materials. This technology can help secure funding from donors and foundations by generating persuasive and well-structured texts.

Additionally, generative AI can produce narratives for brochures, flyers, or informational packages that effectively communicate critical social issues. This tool enables organizations to convey their messages powerfully and efficiently, potentially increasing their impact and funding opportunities. It’s worth noting that these tools can generate content in English and various other languages. This capability allows your organization to broaden its reach, communicating effectively with a more diverse audience. By utilizing generative AI for multilingual content generation, you can save both valuable time and resources, making your efforts in securing funding and raising awareness more efficient and inclusive.

Lastly, one of the most efficient time-saving applications I favor is summarizing meetings or workshops. For example, if you host a video meeting, you can often access a transcript. You can then provide an LLM with the transcript to create concise summaries. This approach ensures that key information is captured accurately and allows for concise, easy-to-understand summaries that can be distributed to participants or used for follow-up actions.

In closing, it’s important to emphasize that you should not use generative AI systems with confidential or sensitive information. This caution forms a part of the broader ethical considerations surrounding AI technologies, which we’ll delve into in more detail in a subsequent module. However, it’s essential to highlight this concern early on. When using generative AI in your operations, always be mindful of the data that you input into these systems. The safeguarding of privacy and the ethical use of information must be paramount. This approach protects your organization and the individuals it serves, in alignment with best practices in responsible AI use.