Practical answers to real AI questions.
Straight answers to the questions charities, hospices and SMEs ask before adopting AI. Written by Sarah Amin.
Can charities use ChatGPT safely?
Yes, but only with clear boundaries, a written policy and trained staff. Public AI tools like ChatGPT should never receive safeguarding-sensitive data, personal records or confidential donor information.
What should a charity AI policy include?
A charity AI policy should cover permitted and prohibited tools, data handling rules, staff responsibilities, output review and a review schedule, written in plain English so staff can actually follow it.
How much does an AI audit cost?
A fixed-fee AI operations audit from SAO Consultancy costs £1,500 and is delivered in two weeks. There are no hidden fees, no add-ons and no retainers. You get a clear report and a roadmap.
AI governance for charities explained
AI governance for charities means having a policy, a risk register, trained staff and a review cycle, not just a document. It is the framework that keeps AI adoption safe and accountable.
CRM for charities: what to look for
The right CRM for a charity depends on your size, budget and workflows, not the brand name. Salesforce suits larger organisations, HubSpot is more user-friendly, and Capsule works for very small teams.
Before you cut your budget, review your operations
When money is tight the instinct is to cut a service. But most charities and SMEs are already losing hours a week to duplicated data entry, a CRM nobody trusts and manual reporting. An operations review finds that time before you cut anything.
What does an operations consultant actually do?
An operations consultant looks at how work actually gets done, finds where it is slow, duplicated or unaccountable, and gives you a plan to fix it. Not strategy in the abstract, but the Monday-morning reality of who does what, in which system.
Your funder is asking about AI. Here is what to tell them.
Funders and trustees have started asking charities what their AI policy is. They are managing their own risk. A good answer needs four things, and it does not need to be a 40-page document.