Episode Details

Most nonprofits are using AI — but only 7% are seeing real strategic benefit from it. Nathan Chappell, Chief AI Officer at Virtuous and founder of Fundraising AI, has spent years studying what separates the organizations that thrive with AI from those that stall. In this episode, he shares the six-step framework drawn from the 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report — and it's more practical than you might expect.

Key Takeaways

The 7% aren't spending more — they're doing things differently. Out of 346 nonprofits surveyed in Virtuous's 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report, 92% are using AI, but only 7% are seeing major strategic benefit. The difference comes down to six specific, disciplined steps — none of which require a large budget.

AI governance isn't a legal document — it's a values document. Nathan makes the case that a lightweight, one-page governance policy is the foundation on which everything else is built. It doesn't constrain your team — it actually frees them to experiment with confidence, knowing where the guardrails are.

The human-first framework isn't optional for ministries. Nathan draws a sharp distinction between the "AI first" posture of the private sector (like Shopify) and why that model doesn't work for mission-driven organizations operating in the currency of trust and generosity. Humanity must always be greater than utility.

"Human at the helm" replaces "human in the loop." As agentic AI moves autonomously by design, the traditional idea of human review at every step is no longer realistic. Nathan reframes accountability: someone must always be at the helm — responsible for what the AI is doing, even if they aren't approving each action.

The biggest mistake leaders are making right now? Treating AI as a line-item tool expense rather than a horizontal enabling layer that reshapes how the entire organization operates. Nathan draws a compelling parallel to the early days of the internet — and where that thinking eventually leads.

The AI Olympics experiment at Virtuous. Nathan shares how Virtuous challenged every single employee — not just the engineering team — to build an agentic workflow that would meaningfully improve their job or a customer's. The results? The top submission came from the podcast and marketing team, who automated a full day's worth of post-production work. The lesson: transformation often comes from the most unexpected places.

As AI accelerates, the church's moment is coming. As everything becomes faster and more synthetic, Nathan believes people will increasingly ask the deepest human questions — Who am I? Why am I here? What happens when I die? He sees this as a profound opportunity for the church to be exactly what it was built to be: a community rooted in truth.

Ready to Move from Experimenting to Thriving?

If your ministry is still in the "experimenting with tools" phase of AI, this conversation is your permission — and your roadmap — to go further. Nathan's framework is practical, proven, and built for organizations that lead with mission, not margin. Listen to the full episode and start asking what it would look like to move from experimentation to transformation.

RESOURCES

Nathan Chappell on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanchappell/

Nath