How to Use AI at Work in a Charity: Free Tools to Try

If you work in the charity sector, chances are you may be wearing the hats of more than one person. Growing demands and leaner teams are a typical reality. Although AI tools won’t fix structural challenges, when used thoughtfully, they can genuinely help take some of the weight off by acting as your very own assistant for many day-to-day tasks.

This guide on how to use AI at work is for charity sector employees across all functions, not just those in tech-facing roles. Whether you work in fundraising, finance, HR or policy, there are free AI tools that can help you work faster, research smarter and spend less time on the tasks that eat your day but don’t add much value.

We’ve focused specifically on free tools, because we know that most charities aren’t in a position to take on new software subscriptions. The tools referenced throughout include; ChatGPT (free tier), AI Chat (free tier), Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot (available free via a Microsoft account), and Perplexity. These are all accessible without a paid plan, though some have usage limits at the free level.

AI limitations

A few important principles before you dive in:

• AI makes mistakes. Always review and edit what it produces. Never submit, send or publish anything AI has written without human oversight.
• Data privacy matters. Don’t paste sensitive personal data, donor details, beneficiary information or confidential financial figures into a public AI tool. Most  free-tier tools use your input to improve their models.
• AI is a starting point, not a finished product. The best outputs come when you use your context, knowledge and charity’s voice to shape what AI produces.

How to use AI at work in a charity

1. Writing and drafting

One of AI’s biggest strengths is that it can help you get past blank pages. Rather than starting from scratch, it can give you a useful first draft that you can adapt using your own knowledge and experience.

This is useful across almost every role within a charity.

You can use AI at work at a charity to:

• Draft emails to donors, volunteers, trustees or colleagues.
• Create first drafts of grant applications and funding bids.
• Write job descriptions and recruitment adverts.
• Draft policies, procedures and volunteer agreements.
• Write newsletters, press releases and website copy.
• Prepare meeting agendas and follow-up notes.

Example prompt: “Act as a communications officer for a UK charity. Write a friendly email thanking volunteers for supporting our fundraising event. Keep the tone warm and professional and keep it under 250 words.”

Top tip: The quality of AI’s response depends on the quality of your instructions. Tell it who the audience is, what you’re trying to achieve and the tone you’d like it to use.

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot

2. Research and information gathering

Research can be one of the most time-consuming parts of working in a charity. AI can help you be more productive in work by gathering background information, spotting key themes and summarising sources more quickly.

It’s particularly useful during the early stages of research, helping you understand a topic before carrying out your own research and checking the sources.

You can use AI to:

• Research potential grant funders.
• Compare suppliers or software options.
• Explain unfamiliar policy or financial terms.
• Gather background information before meetings.
• Find useful sources and information to look into further.

 Example prompt: “Summarise the latest research on loneliness among older people in the UK. Highlight the key findings and include reliable sources for further reading.”

Top tip: Always verify important facts and information using the original source.

Suggested free tools: Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google Gemini

3. Summarising and explaining information

A lot of charity professionals spend time turning detailed information into something that colleagues, trustees or supporters can understand quickly. AI can help by summarising large amounts of information and making technical or complicated language easier to understand for different audiences.

You can use AI to:

• Turn meeting notes into action lists.
• Summarise board papers and reports.
• Explain financial information in plain English.
• Condense research reports.
• Rewrite technical information for beneficiaries or volunteers.

Example prompt: “Summarise this report into five key points for our trustees, using clear and simple language.”

Top tip: Tell AI who will be reading the summary, for example, trustees, senior leaders or volunteers as this will influence how much detail it includes.

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot

4. Planning and organisation

AI can be useful for keeping your work organised. While it shouldn’t make decisions for you, it can help you structure projects, suggest checklists and help organise information in a logical way. This can be particularly helpful for smaller charities, where people often have to manage several projects at the same time.

You can use AI to:

• Create event planning checklists.
• Build project timelines.
• Draft onboarding plans.
• Produce risk register templates.
• Structure campaign plans.
• Put together volunteer induction checklists. 

Example prompt: “Create a planning checklist for a community fundraising event taking place in three months. Include volunteer recruitment, marketing, suppliers and post-event evaluation.”

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude

5. Editing and improving content

AI isn’t just useful when you’re starting something from scratch, it can also help improve work you’ve already written. It can help make content clearer, easier to read and more appropriate for different audiences without changing your core message.

You can use AI to:

• Proofread documents.
• Adjust tone for different audiences.
• Shorten or expand content.
• Improve readability.
• Adapt longer content for newsletters or social media.

Example prompt: “Make this charity newsletter shorter and easier to read, while keeping the main points and friendly tone. Avoid using overly formal or complicated language.”

Top tip: Always review the final version yourself. If it doesn’t sound like your organisation, keep editing until it does.

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude, Google Gemini

6. Brainstorming and problem solving

Using AI at work at a charity can also help you explore ideas and look at things from a different perspective. Use it to help you think things through, rather than making final decisions for you.

You can use AI to:

• Generate fundraising campaign ideas.
• Suggest volunteer engagement activities.
• Develop campaign messaging.
• Identify potential project risks.
• Brainstorm event themes or awareness campaigns.

Example prompt: “Suggest ten fundraising ideas for a small UK environmental charity with a budget of £X. Include a mixture of online and community-based activities.”

Top tip: AI doesn’t know your organisation or supporters as well as you do. So only use its suggestions as inspiration rather than recommendations.

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude

7. Creating templates and repeatable resources

Many charities don’t have dedicated specialists for every area of work. AI can help fill some of these gaps by creating practical templates and resources that staff can adapt and reuse.

You can use AI to create:

• HR policy templates.
• Volunteer agreements.
• Standard operating procedures.
• Governance documents.
• Supplier evaluation forms.
• Risk register templates.
• Financial procedures.
• Meeting templates.

Example prompt: “Create a simple volunteer feedback form that we can use after events. Include questions about what went well, what could be improved and any suggestions for future events.”

Top tip: Remember that templates should always be reviewed and adapted to suit your organisation and its needs.

Suggested free tools: ChatGPT, Claude

Get started using AI at work with three practical steps

• Start small: Pick the category from this guide that feels most relevant to your role and try one task this week. A good starting point for most people is drafting an email or document you need to write anyway and comparing the AI version to what you’d have produced yourself.
• Build a good prompt habit: The quality of response depends heavily on how well you brief it. The more context you give, i.e., who you are, what your charity does, who the audience is, the tone you want, word count or formatting requirements, then the better the output.
• Share what works! AI adoption in the charity sector is most effective when knowledge is shared across teams. If you find a particularly useful application or prompt, share it with your colleagues. Many charities are now building internal prompt libraries with examples for common tasks, so everyone can benefit from it.

For more guidance on AI in the charity sector, see CharityJob’s guide to Navigating AI in Recruitment.