Canadian nonprofits are already working smarter; yet many organizations report increasingly feeling stretched thin. The demands for services that nonprofit organizations provide keep growing exponentially. In this time of economic headwinds, societal safety nets are fraying. Food bank visits have reached two million monthly; the highest in Canadian history. Crisis line demand has surged. Homelessness, mental health needs and newcomer and health services are nearing breaking points.
Yet fewer than five per cent of Canadian nonprofits use AI. While AI transforms every other sector, our organizations are being left behind just when Canadians need us most.
Canada's nonprofit sector represents 8.2 per cent of GDP and employs 2.5 million people across 170,000 organizations. When nonprofits have capacity, society's most vulnerable can count on better support. When we're stretched too thin, the gaps in service delivery can turn into crises.
How fierce collaboration can help build collective resilience
Across Canada, something is shifting. Nonprofits are realizing that building capacity is a collective endeavour, and we can all play an active role to get ourselves across the AI adoption chasm.
The Responsible AI Adoption for Social Impact (RAISE) pilot program is Canada’s first national initiative to help nonprofit organizations to adopt AI responsibly and effectively. RAISE combines a sector-wide adoption playbook and framework; an AI Adoption accelerator for several large nonprofit organizations, and targeted training for 500 nonprofit professionals in roles from fundraising to service delivery. RAISE aims to equip nonprofit leaders and workers with the tools, skills, and deep understanding they need to adopt AI responsibly – a unique opportunity to amplify their missions nationwide.
Organizations like Kids Help Phone, Furniture Bank, CanadaHelps, Canadian Cancer Society, Achev, and others demonstrate that AI can empower staff, improve service delivery, augment expertise, freeing professionals for work requiring empathy, judgment and lived experience.
Community networks, such as Nonprofit Hive connect practitioners when peer support is most needed. On the advocacy front, Community Foundations of Canada is working to shape national AI strategy, advocating for inclusion and deeper consultations. When it comes to learning, The Canadian Centre for Nonprofit Digital Resilience (CCNDR) and Imagine Canada launched the Nonprofit AI Impact Hub, a living library of more than 600 resources, designed to support nonprofits and help raise the bar on AI literacy.
There is a need for more nonprofit organizations to create case studies, playbooks, and best practices on how they can put AI to work for their clients and stakeholders, and amplify their missions. Together, we can ensure that Canada leads with empathy and includes the nonprofit sector in the AI revolution.
The opportunity cost of waiting
The next generation will grow up with AI as “just another technology”. We've adapted before— we’ve built websites, databases, learned about social media and SEO, but we were often slow adopters.
This time, the stakes are higher. If nonprofit professionals don't become sophisticated AI users, we lose our ability to shape how technology develops and gets deployed in communities. We can’t afford to sit on the sidelines, waiting for the regulators and policy makers to catch up with the pace of technological change. We must lead in using AI to serve our clients and communities, and improve our processes. Our collective voices will be needed to shape and define ethical standards, influence policy, and demonstrate responsible technology in practice.
Responsible, thoughtful, human-centered AI adoption is our fiduciary duty to the communities we serve.
Nonprofit organizations already make a difference in people’s lives where and when it truly matters. Now we have a chance to figure out how we can better collaborate, what we can do with AI in our organizations, learn from each other, and raise the bar on our collective AI literacy, to put AI to work for society in ways only nonprofits can.
Responsible AI Use for Nonprofit Workers is a virtual, hands-on course is designed for anyone in the nonprofit sector looking to ethically leverage AI. Register now for the next cohort starting November 19, 2025.
