How-to
Turn meeting notes into action items
AI note-takers can turn a meeting into a summary, decisions, and action items. Use them to capture the call, then check the details before sharing the notes as the record.
Operations
Intake, scheduling, data hygiene, and the workflows that keep orgs running.
How-tos for operations
Prompts for operations
Prompt
Board Report Drafter
A board meeting is approaching and you need to turn scattered program updates and metrics into a coherent report.
Prompt
Meeting Minutes From Raw Notes
You have messy notes or a transcript from a meeting and need clean minutes with decisions, action items, and owners.
Case Studies for operations
Case study
Building a public resource library link monitor with AI assistance
Vegan Hacktivists worked with a small team to design and build a Google Apps Script monitor for its public resource hub. AI helped assess the problem and write the code; the finished script checks links with deterministic rules and leaves decisions to staff.
Case study
Applicant intake research with a human decision
A capacity-building services program uses an n8n workflow to research each new applicant, compile a source-linked brief, and post a summary to Slack — so the team starts every review with consistent context.
Case study
A support inbox assistant that drafts replies from a regularly updated FAQ
A program team answering a high-volume support inbox designed a service that matches incoming questions to its FAQ and drafts replies in its voice — as Gmail drafts for staff to review. Currently at the concept stage.
Case study
A first-pass research assistant for conference speaker review
A team that runs a recurring conference piloted an n8n workflow that researches speaker applications with AI and web search, then assembles a source-linked workbook and per-submission summaries for organizers to review.
Case study
Event email draft builder: from spreadsheet row to Gmail draft
A communications team running recurring events uses Make.com and an AI drafting step to turn event details into ready-to-review Gmail drafts, complete with calendar links. Nothing ever sends automatically.
Guides for operations
Guide
How to find smart, low-cost AI models
A short method for choosing API models by capability, total task cost, provider terms, and performance on your organization’s real work.
Guide
Should you worry about law enforcement accessing your AI conversations?
Major AI vendors and meeting recorders will hand over conversation content when compelled by valid legal process, and both OpenAI and Anthropic report doing exactly that — but most reported cases so far involve a phone or laptop seized from a suspect, not chat data pulled from the vendor.
Guide
How to pick the right AI tools for your team
How to divide an AI budget across a team: a paid assistant seat for everyone plus a meeting recorder, specialist tools for specialist roles, the AI features already inside your existing software, and heavier plans for the few people who will use them.
Guide
Create your organization's AI policy
A section-by-section worksheet for writing an AI policy your staff will use, with starter questions for each section and a skeleton outline you can copy.
Guide
Set up Claude for your organization
A practical walkthrough of setting up a Claude Team account for a nonprofit: verification and discounts, admin choices, connectors and shared skills, privacy settings, and recommended defaults for advocacy orgs.
Guide
Data security and privacy basics for AI tools
A simple four-tier model for deciding what data can go into AI tools, what to check before you trust a vendor, and practical defaults a small organization can adopt this week.
Tool Overviews for operations
Tool overview
ChatGPT
OpenAI's general AI assistant for drafting, summarizing, analyzing files, and multi-step research. The most widely recognized tool of its kind, and often the one your staff have already tried.
Tool overview
Gemini
Google's general AI assistant, built into Gmail, Docs, and Drive. Eligible nonprofits get the premium features at no cost through Google Workspace for Nonprofits, which makes it the cheapest serious starting point for most teams.
Tool overview
Claude
A general AI assistant from Anthropic for drafting, summarizing, analyzing files, and thinking through problems. For most staff, this is the right first tool to learn.
FAQs for operations
FAQ
How do we choose between n8n, Make, Apps Script, and custom code?
Use n8n for flexible AI-heavy multi-step workflows, Make for fast visual connections across familiar SaaS tools, Apps Script for lightweight Google Workspace tasks, and custom code when logic outgrows no-code.
FAQ
What do other organizations' AI policies look like?
Four organizations serving the animal advocacy movement publish full AI policies covering values, tools, and day-to-day rules. One is notably more permissive than the rest. Compare their choices, then adapt the parts that fit your organization.
FAQ
What does AI actually cost for a small organization?
Nonprofit plans can reduce the bill sharply. Standard paid seats usually cost tens of dollars per person each month; automation platforms can be inexpensive at small scale; APIs charge separately by usage.
FAQ
Is our data used to train AI models?
It depends on the vendor, plan, and settings — business and API tiers usually do not train on your data by default, consumer plans vary, and policies change, so check and document your settings.
Want help putting this to work?
Vegan Hacktivists offers free AI and automation support to animal protection organizations — from a first conversation to a full build.
