Not-for-Profit Navigator
With Nicole Aebi-Moyo - SalesFix For Purpose Practice Lead
Welcome to this month’s edition of the Not-For-Profit Navigator where we call you out if you’re not using AI yet.
AI? Really, do we have to?
Yes, I’m afraid we do. I know AI is all everyone is talking about, and we may have mentioned it once or twice, but I think we need to talk about it again.
Hands up how many of you are using AI multiple times a day? And not just to find a good recipe for dinner based on what you’ve just found in your fridge (just me? OK then). Do you sit down at a restaurant and ask ChatGPT for suggestions on what to have? Do you ask Gemini for some advice on how to handle a situation or what to do next? Do you use Dataro to help identify your next major donor and do some prospect research? Do you ask Agentforce to run an intake process and assign a new client to a program of work?
No?
Well what are you doing with your time then?!
Look, I get it. It’s hard to know where to start. But as the saying goes, better to start somewhere than never start at all.
We got a kick up the proverbial at our team meeting on Monday. We’re building all these tools to help our team deliver great Salesforce outcomes…but we’re not using them. Change is hard and changing your habits, especially when the first couple of times you use something new seems to take longer, can be really difficult.
So we’re trying to change our mindset a bit. We’re not saying to ourselves, how could I use AI to be more efficient, we’re trying to think of AI as a “quality multiplier”. How can we use AI to deliver better outcomes for our clients? Time saving is an added bonus.
I’m trying to get into the habit of asking myself “could I use AI to do this task?”. Sometimes, the answer is no. Like today when I sat down and wanted to write this article myself. I’ve not used AI to even get to a draft. I’m using my old fashioned brain. But I am trying to think outside the box in other areas of my work.
And I’m really keen that there’s a clearly defined problem to solve. I don’t want to play with AI just because it’s a shiny toy (I can do that in my own time).
Some of the things the team is getting AI to do include (from the fairly obvious to “wow that’s a bit geeky”):
Use Case | Quality Add | Time Saving |
Writing a first draft of user stories from multiple sources such as documentation and meeting transcripts | Identifying user stories we may have missed. Ensuring consistent format and style throughout.
| Speed to delivery of a first draft. Reducing overall time to create user stories. |
Integration of data without middleware | Easily understand the JSON received and provide mapping and enhanced documentation and trouble shoot failings suggesting improvements to code to accommodate less structured data. | Ability for AI to run and rerun across multiple records, digest debug logs and cope with the variety of data received |
Data migration where address received was in a single column in excel | Separated the address into street, suburb, state and postcode | Days of manual data tidy |
Build of an App for AgentFix’s AI Ready | Based on process and documentation developed by a human, the AI solution now takes that work and enhances it. | More time now available to spend with the client. |
Creating first drafts of marketing materials | Often includes items that may have been forgotten | Saves time getting to the first draft. |
Advice and Mentoring | A slightly tricky one to see the quality add as AI isn’t unbiased (just like humans), but it can be asked to provide guidance tailored to you as an individual which humans aren’t always good at! | AI is always available so the conversations can be had whenever they’re needed. |
Am I surprised at the number of things the team is doing with AI? No (and these are just some examples).
Am I surprised that AI is being used to create things like user stories and code? No.
I am surprised, though, that AI is being used to provide advice and mentorship. That’s a pretty cool use case. Our technical architects are actually having conversations with AI like they would a colleague. And being pretty impressed with the answers!
If you’re not using AI, or not using it enough to make a difference in your working life, maybe take 15 minutes out of your day to ask yourself “what could I be doing with AI?”. Dive right in and give it a go.
If you need some help, we’re right here. Check out the AgentFix AI Readiness Assessment to get some advice on whether you’re ready and what you might need to do to get ready, and have a look at the Safe Start Packages on offer to get you started, safely.
True Blue Blazing Melbourne 2025
I couldn’t finish without mentioning the biggest community led Salesforce event in Australia: True Blue Blazing. Held on 14 November, this was an absolute blast. If you weren’t there, you missed out. Nearly 300 people came together to talk all things Salesforce and more. Held at the Marvel Stadium on a lovely sunny day, we had ice creams on the balcony, churros in the stands, and coffee as we chatted. Over 30 sessions were presented and included workshops, panel discussions and even a quiz. We gave out more swag than you can imagine and the buzz in the air was palpable!
If you missed it, we’re already talking about the next one…stay tuned!
If you would like to chat about AI in the NFP day-to-day or True Blue Blazing, feel free to reach out I am always happy to help: [email protected]
Until next time,
Nicole
Useful Resources
Join our Fundraising Community of Practice: meeting virtually once a month to discuss all things fundraising and tech. Email [email protected] to join.
Australian Salesforce user groups
If you use Salesforce and you’re not part of a user group, you’re missing out! There’s over 30 groups in Australia and New Zealand alone, and many now meet online so there’s no excuse for not joining in and finding out more.