📨 AI for Social Impact Newsletter

👋 From the Editor

Hi! I’m Joanna. I’m on a mission to help folks in the social impact sector understand, experiment with, and responsibly adopt AI. We don’t have time to waste, but we also can’t get left behind.

Let’s move the sector forward together. 💫

🧠 EDUCATION

• Google’s Gemini 3: In November, Google released Gemini 3, a major upgrade from their previous 2.5 version. Free users are granted basic access with a restricted daily cap (∼5 reasoning prompts and 2 images), while paid subscriptions (AI Pro and Ultra tiers) allow higher daily allowances (up to ∼100−500 prompts and ∼1,000 images) and access to features like Deep Think and Scheduled Actions. Key new features of Gemini 3 include:

  • Deep Reasoning: The core upgrade, allowing the model to trace complex logical steps, debug code, and analyze dense, multi-step problems with higher accuracy than previous versions.

  • Enhanced Multimodality: A major improvement in handling and understanding mixed-media content, enabling the model to analyze videos, interpret audio streams in real-time, and process complex documents (like PDFs with charts and tables) more effectively.

  • Nano Banana Pro: The new, highly capable image generation and editing model offers better text-in-image handling, consistent character design across images, and studio-grade control.

  • Agentic Workflows: The ability to plan and execute complex, multi-step tasks over time, such as automatically generating a presentation deck from a simple text prompt.

• Anthropic for Nonprofits: On Giving Tuesday, Anthropic launched Claude for Nonprofits, offering discounts of 70-75% on Claude's Team and Enterprise plans. The program includes discounted access to Claude Sonnet 4.5, free training through an AI Fluency for Nonprofits course, and integrations with Candid (for data on nonprofits and funders), Benevity (for accessing 2.4 million validated nonprofits), and Blackbaud (for CRM and fundraising tools).

✨ INSPIRATION

• Round-the-Clock Support: The Epilepsy Foundation launched Sage, an AI Assistant powered by Claude, providing 24/7 support to 3.4 million Americans living with epilepsy. Sage is trained on over 25,000 curated pages of epilepsy information and the lived experiences of the epilepsy community, and can answer questions in multiple languages including English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German. The system is designed to be emotionally aware, providing compassionate guidance while understanding context and tracking conversations over time.

• Claude’s Making Nonprofit Moves: The International Rescue Committee is using Claude to communicate with local partners and analyze field data faster in time-sensitive humanitarian settings. IDinsight, a research organization supporting global development leaders, reports working up to 16x faster with Claude. SkillUp and Robin Hood also use Claude for coding and administrative work that would otherwise require significantly more resources.

🚀 ACTIVATION

• Getting Started with Claude for Nonprofits

  Here's your action plan:

  1. Verify Your Eligibility: Visit Claude for Nonprofits and fill out the short verification form through Goodstack to confirm your nonprofit status.

  2. Take the Free Course: Enroll in AI Fluency for Nonprofits through Anthropic Academy. The course is designed specifically for our sector and requires zero technical background. If you don’t want to do a full course, check out these modules for various roles.

  3. Start Small, Think Big: Pick one time-consuming task—maybe drafting donor thank-you letters or summarizing program data for your board. Use Claude to tackle it. Refine the output with your personal touch.

• Try Gemini 3 for Your Next Project: Start by tackling a complex problem you've been putting off: analyzing multi-year program data, debugging a stubborn spreadsheet formula, or mapping out a multi-step strategy. Or try the enhanced image capabilities with Nano Banana Pro. Asking Gemini 3 to create an infographic for your next presentation or use it as a photo editor!

🤖 What I Asked AI This Week

How do we maintain human connection in an ever-digitized world?

What seems to matter most is presence - whether we're actually paying attention to the person in front of us, screen-mediated or not. A video call where you're fully engaged can feel more connected than sitting across from someone while both scrolling phones. The medium matters less than the quality of attention we bring.

🏢 New! Office Hours

AI is overwhelming: the speed of change, existential dread about our future, where to start… the list goes on. That’s why I’m introducing office hours once a month. Dedicated time for you to figure out how to get a jump start, ask where you can plug AI into your workflow, or just express your AI fears, excitement, and everything in between.

To find some time to connect 1:1, sign up here.

💬 What Do You Think?

This newsletter is meant for you, so I’d love to hear what you think. 💌 Reply anytime!

👀 ICYMI

If you’re new here, welcome! You can check out the archive of past issues here.