AI for Nonprofits: 5 Free Courses to Get Started
You’ve probably read about how generative AI is revolutionizing the world of work. But as a busy nonprofit professional, you may not have had the time or resources to explore all the possibilities that artificial intelligence may offer for your organization.
To help you get started with AI, LinkedIn has unlocked several LinkedIn Learning courses, which you can watch for free through July 1, 2024. These courses are broken down into short videos to suit any schedule and reveal some powerful use cases of AI for nonprofits, such as:
Efficiently creating content for campaigns, social media posts, and ads.
Developing personalized outreach to donors in seconds.
Overcoming language barriers in your messaging.
Quickly analyzing data for insights into donor behavior, preferences, and trends.
Automatically matching volunteers to relevant opportunities.
AI for Nonprofits: 5 Learning Courses to Inform Your Strategy
1. What is Generative AI? with Pinar Seyhan Demirdag
What you’ll learn: Gain an overview of the core concepts and applications of generative AI. Discover how this technology works and how you can start experimenting with it to help tackle your nonprofit’s unique challenges.
One takeaway: “The advent of generative AI can be likened to the invention of photography and celluloid film: a true creative revolution. We can now access concise information in just a matter of seconds, automatically generate text such as news articles or product descriptions, and even design custom products like shoes or furniture.”
2. Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Thinking Machines with Doug Rose
What you’ll learn: Explore the different approaches to AI used today, including machine learning and deep learning. Find out how each can be practically applied to modern professional challenges.
One takeaway: “Because we're humans, we don't think about certain tasks the same way that a computer would. So, if you're considering whether AI will have an impact on your organization, try to think about the things that computers are really good at.”
3. Prompt Engineering: How to Talk to the AIs with Xavier Amatriain
What you’ll learn: Learn the basics of prompt engineering, a key skill when working with generative AI tools. To get these tools to produce what you want them to, you have to tell them how to produce it correctly. This course shares examples of good and bad prompts and offers practical advice on how to improve your prompts.
One takeaway: “It is good to think of a prompt as being able to have any of the following. One: instructions. Two: a question. Three: input data. And lastly: examples."
4. How to Research and Write Using Generative AI Tools with Dave Birss
What you’ll learn: Learn more about how to engineer effective prompts and explore how AI can help you improve your daily writing and research by summarizing complex information, building user personas and strategic models, outlining ideas, and more.
One takeaway: “Think about the AI as a collaborator rather than as a servant. You need to give as well as take. If you don't like what you get, give feedback so that the AI knows exactly how to improve its response. If it gives you something you like, ask the AI to expand on that thinking. If you get an idea during the conversation, ask it to explore that concept. The results you get are defined as much by your input as by the AI's output.”
5. Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy with Anil Gupta and Haiyan Wang
What you’ll learn: Discover how to train different AI models to make them increasingly useful for strategic considerations, including brand differentiation and internal resource management. Develop a go-to framework for applying AI solutions to strategic nonprofit challenges.
One takeaway: “The cleaner, richer, and larger the dataset on which it is trained, the more accurate your AI model will be.”
These five options are just a small sampling of the AI courses available to you right now on LinkedIn Learning. You can find even more unlocked AI courses — and earn a Professional Certificate for free — by checking out the Career Essentials in Generative AI learning path from Microsoft and LinkedIn.
With almost half (47%) of professionals globally believing that AI will help them move their careers forward by providing faster access to knowledge and insights, now is a great time to get started building your AI skills with LinkedIn Learning. To give your team access to the full course library, which covers a wide variety of business, technology, and creative skills and topics, contact our team to get started with LinkedIn Learning today.
AI is even revolutionizing LinkedIn Learning itself. Some customers may already have access to the new built-in AI-powered coaching tool, which can provide deeply personalized learning advice and resources to your team in real time, based on what they want to learn and achieve. Find out more about LinkedIn Learning’s AI-powered coaching tool here.
