Your Team Is Already Using AI. Does Anyone Have a Plan?

Our Q3 2026 AI Insights Report is out, built on research released July through September. The headline: nearly every nonprofit now uses AI, and the gap has moved from tools to leadership.

Where nonprofits actually stand

A September report from NTEN and The Bridgespan Group found that 98% of nonprofits use AI in some way. Only 4% have fully built it into how they work.

But most haven't put the basics in place to support it:

• 58% have no AI roadmap.
• 57% of nonprofit executives have no dedicated AI budget.
• Back in Q2, 86% of nonprofits had no AI policy at all, according to the 2026 Nonprofit Tech for Good Report.

None of that is a technology problem. The tools are cheap and easy to find. What is missing is someone deciding what AI is for, what the rules are, and how the team learns to use it well. That is a leadership job.

What changed since our Q2 report

Three months isn't long, but a few things moved. Gallup asks U.S. workers the same questions every quarter, which makes it easy to see what moved:

The other shifts we saw:

• Organizations are catching up to their staff. The jump in workers who say their organization has adopted AI, 6 points in one quarter, was the biggest move in Gallup's numbers.
• The research asked new questions. Q2 studies mostly asked whether nonprofits were using AI. Q3's biggest nonprofit studies asked who owns it, whether there's a budget, and where boards stand.
• Search kept shifting. In Q2, the story was AI summaries at the top of Google. By Q3, Google said its AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly users and merged it with AI Overviews into one search experience.
• Disclosure got specific to nonprofits. Q2's nonprofit research focused on donor trust: 67.7% of Americans said trust is essential before they give, and only 7% said AI search summaries shaped their giving. Q3 added the first direct answer on disclosure: 76% say nonprofits should fully disclose when and how they use AI.

One caution: outside of Gallup, the Q2 and Q3 numbers often come from different surveys. Read those comparisons as direction, not exact growth.

Your staff are ahead of your rules

If you think your team isn't using AI yet, they probably are. 53% of nonprofit respondents say they use AI in ways their organization hasn't approved. That includes 57% of executives.

Most of that happens on free tools. Our Q2 report found only 17% of nonprofits pay for an AI chatbot. And only 40% of executives say they have written guidance on what data can go into one.

That matters because the data in question is often your donors' names, emails and giving history. 71% of Americans already believe AI will make their personal information less secure, according to Pew Research Center.

What to do: Ask before you write rules. A quick anonymous survey will tell you which tools people use and what they use them for. Then write a one-page policy: which tools are approved, what data never goes in, and who reviews anything before it goes out.

Your supporters want you to be upfront about it

People are getting more uneasy about AI, not less. In August, Pew found that 52% of Americans are more concerned than excited about it, up from 37% in 2021.

That unease reaches nonprofits too. In Independent Sector's July survey, 76% of Americans said nonprofits should fully disclose when and how they use AI. 37% said a nonprofit's use of AI would make them less likely to trust it. Only 22% said more likely.

People are also tired of AI-made content in general. Gartner found that 65% of consumers think brands produce too much of it, and 57% say it has made them trust brand messaging less.

The good news is that nonprofits start from a strong place. 56% of Americans have high trust in nonprofits, almost double the 29% for philanthropy. That trust is worth protecting.

What to do: Put a short AI statement on your website. Say what you use AI for, what you never use it for, and that a real person reviews what goes out. Then keep your stories human. Let AI help with first drafts and editing, and let your people, photos and quotes carry the message.

The way people find you is changing

A donor who searches for a cause in your area may never land on your website now. Our Q2 report found that 60% of U.S. adults read the AI summaries at the top of search results. When one of those summaries appears, the top-ranked page gets a 58% lower click-through rate, according to an Ahrefs study.

Nonprofits are already feeling it. In the 2026 M+R Benchmarks Study, search still drove 39% of nonprofit website visits, but that share slid through 2025. In Q3, Google said its AI Mode passed 1 billion monthly users, so this shift is speeding up, not slowing down.

What to do: Ask ChatGPT and Google what they know about your organization. If the answer is wrong, thin or missing, fix it at the source. Make sure your website clearly says who you serve, what changed because of your work, and how to give. If you are eligible for a Google Ad Grant, keep it active so you still show up at the top.

Boards and budgets make the difference

The clearest finding this year came from Momentive's 2026 Nonprofit Trends Report. Where boards strongly support AI, 59% of nonprofits use it extensively. Where boards support it with restrictions, only 14% do.

Money follows the same pattern. Most nonprofit executives have no AI budget, and only 12% have received a grant for an AI project. Even among nonprofits built around AI, 45% call rising tool costs the biggest threat they face.

Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index found that organizational factors, like training and leadership support, explain two-thirds of the measured difference in AI's impact. In plain terms, the tool matters less than the team around it.

What to do: Give your board a 20-minute briefing. Cover where you use AI, the guardrails you have in place, and the time it saves. Then put AI in your 2027 budget as its own line for tools, training and policy upkeep, and name it in your grant requests.

A year-end plan you can actually finish

You don't need a big AI initiative before December. You need five things done in order:

• By October 31: Run a quick anonymous survey of which AI tools your team uses and how.
• By November 14: Write or update your AI policy. Cover approved tools, data rules, human review and disclosure.
• By November 24: Publish your AI statement on your website before GivingTuesday appeals go out on December 1.
• By December 5: Brief your board on where you use AI, your guardrails and what it saves.
• By December 19: Build AI into your 2027 budget, and add it to your grant requests.

Where AI fits

AI won't fix a fuzzy message or an unclear goal. It will just help you produce more of it, faster. The nonprofits getting real value from AI decided what they were trying to accomplish first, then picked the places where AI saves their team time.

That's how we approach it at P Three Consulting. Strategy comes first, and AI is one of the tools that helps you carry it out.

We meet nonprofits where they are. Some teams need a ready-to-use AI policy they can adopt right away. Others want an approach built around how their organization actually works, which can include:

• Discovery: finding where AI already shows up in your work and where it could help
• Tool recommendations: choosing tools that fit your team, your budget and your data
• Policy development: a custom AI policy and a public disclosure statement
• Training: helping your staff use approved tools well, with examples from your own work
• Ongoing updates: keeping your policy current as tools and laws change

Get the full reports

Everything above comes from our new Q3 2026 AI Insights Report, with comparisons from our Q2 report. Start with Q3 for the newest research, and use Q2 as your baseline. Each one has charts, Stop and Start moves for your team, and an action plan. Both are free.

• Download the Q2 and Q3 2026 AI Insights Reports
• Take the AI readiness quiz. It's six questions with an instant result.
• Start a conversation about your AI policy, team training or board briefing.

Sources

• NTEN and The Bridgespan Group, 2026 State of Nonprofit AI, September 2026
• Nonprofit Tech for Good, 2026 Nonprofit Tech for Good Report, June 2026
• Momentive Software, 2026 Nonprofit Trends Report, August 2026
• Fast Forward, 2026 AI for Humanity Report, September 2026
• Independent Sector, Trust in Nonprofits and Philanthropy 2026, July 2026
• Pew Research Center, Americans and AI 2026, June 2026
• Pew Research Center, Americans' views of AI, August 2026
• Gartner, consumer marketing survey, September 2026
• Ahrefs, AI Overviews click-through study, 2026
• M+R, 2026 M+R Benchmarks Study, April 2026
• Alphabet, Q2 2026 earnings remarks, July 2026
• Microsoft, 2026 Work Trend Index, May 2026
• Gallup, Q1 2026 workplace AI survey via TechRadar, April 2026
• Gallup, Q2 2026 workplace AI tracking via Semafor, July 2026
• BBB Wise Giving Alliance (Give.org), Donor Trust Report 2026, via The NonProfit Times, May 2026