Helping you prosper
Advantages of AI for charities
AI can automate administrative processes and provide real‑time financial insights, which is particularly valuable for stretched finance teams.
Examples of how charities can use AI
Accounts payable automation
AI can read supplier invoices, extract key information and post transactions to the correct department codes. This reduces manual data entry, speeds up processing and improves accuracy.
Anomaly detection
AI can automatically review transactions in the general ledger and flag anomalies for human review, supporting strong financial controls and data integrity.
Grant writing support
AI‑powered tools can analyse successful funding applications and help draft tailored responses, giving charities a better chance of securing grants.
Research assistance
AI can identify potential funders, analyse giving patterns and highlight alignment opportunities, helping charities refine their fundraising pipeline.
Donor engagement
AI can segment supporter data to identify the best prospects for specific campaigns, improving targeting and engagement.
Personalised communications
AI can draft and tailor communications at scale, enabling charities to strengthen relationships with donors and supporters.
Important considerations when using AI
Understand how AI is currently used across your organisation
Do you know what tools staff are using, what information they are sharing and whether they have permission to input that data into AI systems? Bringing informal or individual AI use into an organisational framework helps ensure data is appropriately anonymised and protected.
Ensure staff understand AI’s limitations
AI is not 100% accurate and should not replace professional judgement. Think of AI outputs as suggestions that require human review and approval. Clear checkpoints should be built into workflows to maintain accountability.
Be transparent about AI use
Recent media stories have shown the reputational risk of failing to disclose decisions supported by AI‑generated information. Transparency helps maintain trust.
Be aware of bias
AI can reinforce unconscious bias, so encourage teams to challenge outputs by prompting for both pros and cons or alternative viewpoints.
Consider implementing an AI governance policy
AI is now embedded in the everyday tools, software and hardware used across most organisations. By putting governance in place, charities can ensure the use of AI is safe, open and aligned with organisational values.
The next step
If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in this blog, please contact Hannah Ormston or your usual UHY charity adviser or get in touch using the contact form below.
