Best Of
Re: Fund Holder Identification
It sounds scammy to me. He'll pay by check and it'll clear but then be clawed back by the bank.
AI Generated Responses from Applicants
My organization uses Foundant for Grant, Scholarship, and Assistantship applications. We recently received two applications that were generated by AI (ChatGPT). The prompt to the essay was copied, pasted, and entered into ChatGPT and the response generated was submitted directly to the scholarship application as the applicant's work. We tested it, and it came back nearly identical.
I am curious if anyone has implemented an AI policy, or verbiage on applications regarding the use of AI on applications. Our Board is meeting for their annual meeting in a few weeks and this is a topic of discussion on our agenda, I would like to bring suggestions and examples of other nonprofit organizations to help aid in their discussion.
Thank you in advance for your response.
Re: AI Generated Responses from Applicants
We have just introduced an AI Policy. However, it addresses staff use of AI tools and essentially allows for the use of AI but all generated work must be reviewed by humans before being launched publicly.
I tested a response to one of our scholarship questions into a website called Copyleaks. I very quickly used up my free option, but I know there are other trackers if you Google them. Of the six I tested, only one came back as AI generated. As this is the first year we are even thinking about AI I'm not sure if this is a huge issue for us at this point.
I recently attended a webinar hosted by the Technology Association of Grantmakers (TAG) where they shared a couple of IT policy templates, including one for AI. I'm attaching it in case it helps.
Michelle Collins
Oakville Community Foundation
Re: Scholarships are in, now what
We have added required admin only questions within the application for us to validate eligibility. We have to check Yes before we can mark it complete so we don't mistakenly let anything through that hasn't been verified. (We list all of the required elements in the prompt as we have 72 scholarships and all are different eligibility.) This is our second year of doing this and it has dramatically improved our screening process before assigning for review.
If the app doesn't qualify, we notify the applicant and then mark it denied.
I only mark abandoned for drafts that aren't submitted by the deadline.
Re: Cryptocurrency Donations
No - we are just thinking about it at the moment. Our policy is to liquidate gifts right away, so I believe if we did, we'd end up selling it asap…similar to a stock.
Re: Cryptocurrency Donations
We have been taking Crypto for about 2 years. We have only received two gifts, and both were from the same person. (The donor is a board member and pushed for accepting Crypto during his presidency.)
We were told to enter it in our system as a Public Securities. It did not pose a problem with our auditors, as far as I am aware.
We use The Giving Block, and they process through Gemini Trust.
Re: Scholarships -- Determining Financial Need
I don't think you're going to be able to count on the SAI if you want the information for all students. For our two college girls, we received one SAI and never received the other, and now the report rescinded the number we had and we have none. I don't anticipate seeing either of them before Friday.
Re: Chart of Accounts
One principle that helped us - regarding account numbering for expenses - was being aware of the IRS categorization of non-profit expenses. (I apologize if this has already been discussed here).
1) Program Service Expenses (we used 6000 to 6999 for quick identification)
2) Management and General Expenses (we used 7000 to 7999)
3) Fundraising Expenses (we used 8000 to 8999)
Hope that might help.