Philanthropy has had the luxury of moving slowly on technology.
That luxury just ended.
For years, switching systems meant entering a challenge of data migration, learning new workflows, and staff education. And with other more pressing challenges, most organizations stayed put.
The problem is that when core systems can't be replaced, new ones can't be meaningfully adopted either.
Philanthropy has operated this way for years.
But AI breaks that pattern.
Right now, other sectors are rebuilding entire workflows around it. Finance automates portfolio analysis. Healthcare surfaces diagnostic patterns. Education personalizes learning at scale.
In philanthropy, of course we use ChatGPT like everyone else. But purpose-built AI for grantmaking, due diligence, or fundraising workflows barely exists.
You might think AI will just leapfrog over all of that. That philanthropy will stay stuck while innovation happens elsewhere.
But that's not how this works.
AI is coming from inside the sector. Those of us that adopt it, build with it, and integrate it into real workflows will be the ones shaping what's possible.