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ARTICLE | August 29, 2024

AI will impact the nonprofit workforce too

With the right employee reskilling, nonprofits can use AI to do greater good for more people 
By Paul von Zielbauer, Workflow contributor

For the U.S. nonprofit sector, the overall job forecast is decidedly encouraging: Emerging technologies such as machine learning and AI will end up creating more jobs than they eliminate over the next five years, according to new research by ServiceNow and workforce data experts Pearson.

But not all nonprofit jobs, which account for almost 10% of the U.S. workforce, will benefit equally in the AI era. Similar to their for-profit counterparts, nonprofit roles built around rote, manual tasks are likely to decline precipitously, the new research shows. 

Nonprofit business leaders are facing an unprecedented opportunity to reskill large swaths of their nonspecialized workforces that, despite the disruption posed by AI and other technologies, represent a wealth of domain-specific skills, institutional knowledge, and productive relationships within their organizations.  

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“We have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remake nonprofit work,” says Beth Kanter, author of numerous books and research papers on nonprofit organization management and technology. Her most recent book, The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in an Automated World, examines the impact of AI on nonprofit organizations. “It’s not about replacing people with machines, or doing more work faster, but about getting back to being human-centric and serving our communities better. 

“Nonprofits are a purpose industry, our jobs still give us a lot of meaning,” Kanter added in an interview to discuss the new research. “So how do we retain that in this whole reskilling, transformation, moving to more automation?”

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Overall, the research found that, by 2028, the nonprofit workforce of roughly 12.5 million in the United States will grow by about 142,000, representing a modest increase of 1.1%. The new jobs growth will benefit tech workers and, to a lesser degree, those in business operations functions.


The nonprofit industry job projections are based on exclusive research that tapped U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data to examine the impact that AI and other emerging technologies will have on thousands of jobs held by employees of the 88 largest IRS-registered 501(c)(3) organizations in the U.S. The research factored in an annual GDP growth rate of 2%. 

While the results showed that some nonprofit jobs can be accomplished by fewer workers through either automation or greater efficiencies created by emerging technologies such as AI, they also indicated that the overall nonprofit headcount would rise because of overall economic growth and the need to build on and manage these leading-edge technologies.

“Nonprofit professionals are the most dedicated individuals I know,” says Vanessa Smith, president of ServiceNow.org. “With the right digital tools and training, they can take their passion and make a bigger impact than ever before.”

We have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to remake nonprofit work,” says Beth Kanter, author of numerous books and research papers on nonprofit organization management and technology.

With the exception of registered nurses, whose jobs will be in the greatest demand out of all nonprofit roles in the years ahead, nonprofit tech workers are among the most well positioned to thrive from the adoption of new technologies such as AI, accounting for about 100,000—or more than two-thirds—of the overall net gain in jobs, the research showed. 

The hourly equivalent of about 38,000 nonprofit tech-specific jobs will be either automated or augmented by AI and other technologies. But these efficiency gains will be outweighed by the additional job generation that new technology adoption will bring. In fact, the most significant driver of nonprofit tech job growth is the need to implement and maintain those emerging technologies.

Only three nonprofit tech roles—document management specialists, cybersecurity analysts and reporting analysts—will experience a net reduction in jobs in the next four years.

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So, what should nonprofit CEOs and other top executives do to handle their looming workforce disruptions? Begin developing strategies now, says Kanter, the author and nonprofit thought leader, that are focused on reskilling the talent on hand and making AI and its companion technologies a humanizing force.


If AI can reduce the drudge work in a nonprofit’s operations, that can offer people who will be most impacted the chance to move into roles that require uniquely human skills, such as collaboration and critical thinking. 

“How do we do this in a human-centered way?” Kanter asks rhetorically. “How do we retain our ability to interact with each other and maintain relationships at work, which is the elixir of getting things done and having impact? Purpose is a piece of it. Learning is a piece of it.”

Large nonprofit organizations should build out their HR and professional development departments, adding “learning professionals” who can participate in long-term programs that go well beyond skills training. “You’re shadowing them, internally mentoring them,” Kanter says, “so that people always have the ability to move into another area and do a new skill as part of their job.”

Just as AI and other technologies will disrupt nonprofit jobs throughout the organization, they will also alter the traditional notion of a job ladder. As some jobs end and others begin, Kanter says, “instead of a ladder, it’s a lattice.”

Nonprofit leaders are facing an unprecedented opportunity to reskill their non-specialized workforces that, despite the disruption posed by AI, represent a wealth of domain-specific skills, institutional knowledge, and productive relationships. 

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Author

Paul von Zielbauer
Paul von Zielbauer is an award-winning former New York Times journalist and the founder of fkbs.ai, an AI-accelerated content agency, and the nonprofit Aging with Strength Foundation.
Articles by Paul von Zielbauer