Industries / Nonprofit Leaders
Blake Mycoskie brought ENOUGH's Giving Chain to the table. Executive directors, a foundation trustee, and a safety council CEO brought theirs. Donor letters that landed. Weeks that got shorter. No donor data went into an AI tool.
Four live sessions with Tom Lambotte and Steve French. Built for people whose time is the scarcest thing the mission has, and who answer to a board about how they spend it.
Nonprofit & mission leaders
The founder of TOMS and ENOUGH, executive directors, a foundation trustee, a nonprofit safety council CEO, a nonprofit consultant, and the founders of a veteran fundraising initiative.
Founders
Founders and owners across 18 industries who have completed the AI Sprint for Founders.
Industries
Your donors, board members, and partners work in these industries. Over half are regulated.
Blake went through the Sprint first. His words about it are on our homepage: "Two sessions in the Sprint changed everything. What felt robotic suddenly made sense, and even fun. Now I'm creating more, stressing less, and using AI more effectively than 95% of the people around me. Not because I'm special but because Tom, Steve and Christine made it simple."
Then he brought us a mission problem. ENOUGH sells bracelets in pairs. You keep one and send the other to someone with a message about why you chose them. They scan the bracelet, read the message, and send the next one. Every contribution in the chain goes to mental health organizations. Blake framed the challenge in one line: "In essence, we're trying to create the greatest chain letter of all time." And the constraint: "If we get the emotional hook correct, that's what's going to lead to them putting their credit card in."
In March 2026, Tom and Steve sat with Blake and Jill from the ENOUGH team and ran the Giving Chain through the Three Experts framework, with Robert Cialdini, Jonah Berger, and Dan Ariely as the panel. The session settled the emotional frame (gratitude over concern: "You made someone feel enough. Now they want you to know: you are too"), produced the card copy for the box ("Someone chose you. They left you a message. Scan to read it."), a 90-second script for starting chains from a stage in front of 5,000 people, and a contribution slider anchored at $10 instead of a fixed price.
All of it went back to the ENOUGH team as a handoff document the same day. No donor data went into an AI tool; what went in was the mechanic, the mission, and the question.
Karina introduced Huru International on the first call: "We work to make reusable sanitary pads and provide menstrual health and reproductive health information to girls so that they don't have to miss school every single month when they cannot afford disposables." Lorna, the executive director, was on the same call. So were their colleagues from Micato Safaris, the for-profit that funds the work.
Her Week 1 report: "I did what you said, Tom. Stop typing and start talking. Generated a great donor letter which was successful, so very appreciative."
Huru was piloting reusable pads in refugee camps and had to decide how to scale. In the hot seat they ran the AI Chess Board and the Parallel Universe Principle to lay out five possible paths, then brought in a panel of three experts in humanitarian innovation and program scaling to pressure-test them.
By Week 3 Karina had moved on to the email framework: "I just love this whole class. To be honest, I'm learning so much so fast." Lorna's line on the last call: "Tom, I have your book on my shelf in our office. It's mandatory reading."
They brought a group from the Micato team into the very next Teams cohort.
“I do a 60 minute Walk & Talk with my AI Sage. I've been creating a ton of articles and save myself 3 hours of editing AND my 60 minute walks last 90 minutes.”
Tony D'Angelo, The Collegiate Empowerment Company
Tony runs a nonprofit educational production company serving higher education, with 15 licensees and 25 performers to manage. He built a voice assistant that writes like him and moved his article drafting outdoors.
“Have an email box now with 25 things in instead of 250. Very nice.”
Lane Ostrow, CEO and Founder, HonorOne
Lane runs a healthcare consulting firm alongside a fundraising initiative for veterans with PTSD and PTSI. Four people from HonorOne went through the same cohort. His Week 4 win: he used the Three Experts on a sophisticated tax law question and, in his words, defended the position against the opinion of several accountants.
“I was able to bounce from writing a press release for NASCAR to diabetes and Barbie to coins for courage, and veterans and PTSD support much more seamlessly and with really what feels like more authentic voices where it's still mine infused.”
Kelli Deferme, nonprofit consultant
Kelli helps nonprofits and social impact companies tell their story. She built one voice assistant per cause she writes for and used them all in a single day. Her words: managing even just those three in the same day without overload is so helpful.
“It's become a race to the bottom price-wise, and not about quality or value. They're now putting metrics in place that we cannot compete with. They're not comparing apples to apples.”
Kathy Trahan, CAE, President and CEO, Alliance Safety Council
Kathy runs a 65-year-old nonprofit safety training council in Baton Rouge. A major client's home office wanted to replace the satellite office she had just invested $150,000 in. In her Week 4 hot seat she used the Friction Eraser to reframe the dispute as misaligned buying criteria and drafted the executive briefing to the home office in the session. Her Week 3 hot seat tackled document silos across the organization.
“Feeling envious of Tom's wizardry and grateful for the coaching, but yeah, feel less anxious about this process now. So that was the goal.”
Sean O'Keefe, Founder, Career Launch
Career Launch provides career readiness curriculum and faculty training for colleges and nonprofits, and was moving into advisory work for the first time. Sean came into the hot seat, in his words, with a lot of nervousness and anxiety and doubt about the new space. He left with interview question sets for 14 campus audiences and a plan for the engagement. He then put team members through the Teams Sprint.
“When I ask the question about AI, most of the responses that I get are 'we're not sure about it,' 'it lacks authenticity.' When we're trying to communicate to our constituents in a real manner to generate donations, they're afraid the recipient is going to know that it's not really that human connection.”
Jim Smale, CEO, Redpath Consulting Group
Jim's firm does Salesforce work for community foundations, hospital foundations, and higher education, many of them facing government funding cuts. His Week 3 hot seat produced a one-page AI Readiness point of view for community-based foundations and an inversion analysis of what would guarantee it fails. That donor-authenticity fear is the one this page exists to answer.
“Brainstorm AI for nonprofit use case. Not interested in an Enterprise solution, want nonprofits to own the data and workflow.”
Ray Zeng, Aureva Innovation Corp
That was Ray's answer, before her first call with Tom, to what would make it an 11 out of 10. Her energy drains coming in: turning meeting notes into follow-ups, inconsistent follow-up after in-person meetings, and administrative paperwork. Her highest-value work: community building through mission-aligned relationships. She referred Lane Ostrow into the Sprint.
“Oh, a D minus! I approve!”
Diane Y. Petersen, Trustee, Tri Delta Foundation
Diane, a retired head and neck surgeon who now writes a newsletter for the foundation, volunteered one of her earlier LinkedIn posts for a live audit in front of the room. It did not grade well. Her reaction was the line everyone remembered, and her verdict on the work: it seems worth the investment of time.
“I created my Doug Bot, and now have 5 LinkedIn posts I'm about to launch that were done in 30 seconds, which was pretty incredible, in my voice.”
Doug Duenkel, Kairos Data Communications
Doug's hot seat was a board-level fundraising decision: hire a fundraiser or build a small-donor base. He ran both paths through the Parallel Universe Principle to see six months out, then used the Friction Eraser to find the hesitation and design a small test before committing.
Who has already done this
13 nonprofit and mission-driven leaders, and the people who serve them. Every one checked against their own website.
The founder of TOMS Shoes and co-founder of a bracelet nonprofit for mental health. A nonprofit that makes reusable sanitary pads and teaches menstrual health so girls in East Africa do not miss school, led by its executive director and COO. A 65-year-old nonprofit safety training council serving industrial employers. A nonprofit educational production company serving higher education with orientation, leadership, and student success programming. Career readiness curriculum and faculty training for colleges, high schools, and nonprofits. A national women's fraternity foundation trustee. A social impact innovation firm focused on cross-sector partnerships. A healthcare consulting firm running a fundraising initiative for veterans with PTSD, four people strong.
Alongside them: a consultant who helps nonprofits and social impact companies tell their story. A Salesforce consultancy for community foundations, hospital foundations, and higher education. A machinery dealer planning a strategy workshop for an international girls' education foundation. A telecom consultant who sits on a board and brought its fundraising decision to the hot seat.
If you run a mission, someone who carries what you carry has already done this.
Six things come up again and again, in their own words.
The question your board will ask. Is market-rate training a defensible use of donor money? It is the right question, and it has an honest answer. An executive director's hours are the most expensive thing the mission owns, and the least replaceable. Lane Ostrow went from 250 emails in the inbox to 25. Tony D'Angelo saves three hours of editing per batch of articles. Kathy Trahan drafted an executive briefing to protect a $150,000 investment in one session. Every one of those is time or money that went back to the mission. If you need to show your board, show them this page.
The fear that donors will know. Jim Smale hears it from the foundations he works with: they are afraid the recipient will know it is not a human connection. Karina Chen dictated a donor letter in Week 1 and reported it as successful. Kelli Deferme writes for several causes in voices that are, in her words, still hers infused. The Sprint starts with your voice for exactly this reason. Nothing goes out that does not sound like you, because it is trained on you.
Grant writing, reports, and the follow-up that never happens. Ray Zeng's energy drains coming in were meeting notes that never became follow-ups and administrative paperwork. Her highest-value work was relationships. The Sprint exists to move hours from the first list to the second.
The decision you have been circling for a year. Doug Duenkel's board question was hire a fundraiser or build a small-donor base. He ran both six months out and designed a small test instead of a bet. Karina and Lorna ran their refugee camp pilot through the same tools. Sean O'Keefe walked into his first advisory engagement anxious and walked out with a plan.
Starting from zero. Debbie Vitale joined HonorOne after many years out of the workforce and built two voice assistants in Week 1. Kathy Trahan came in asking how to bring more AI support into a 65-year-old organization. Sean O'Keefe said out loud that doubt was not a feeling he was comfortable with. All three finished.
The team. Karina and Lorna brought a group from Micato into the next Teams cohort. Sean put his team through. HonorOne sent four people to one cohort. An executive director and an associate director going through together is the most common pattern we see.
What these people put in was their own writing, thinking, and decisions, never a donor record, a grant application under review, or a beneficiary's information.
Four live sessions. You bring your own work. You leave with systems that run.
Get the Nonprofit AI Report: what nonprofit leaders did with AI in four weeks, what it gave back to the mission, and what they kept out of it.
Send me the reportIt is the right question to ask, and the answer is in the hours. An executive director's time is the most expensive resource the mission has, and the one a board cannot buy more of. The people on this page got back 10 hours a week, protected a six-figure relationship, and wrote donor communications that worked, in four weeks. If your board wants to see it before you enroll, send them this page. If you want to bring your associate director or operations lead through alongside you, the AI Sprint for Teams runs on the same schedule; ask us about it.
That fear is the most common one we hear from nonprofits, and it is the reason the Sprint starts with your voice. Everything you produce is trained on how you write and talk. Karina Chen dictated a donor letter in Week 1 and reported it as successful. Kelli Deferme writes for several causes and describes the output as authentic voices with hers still infused. If it does not sound like you, it does not go out.
Nothing in the Sprint puts donor records, beneficiary information, or a grant under review into an AI tool, and we teach you exactly where that line is. The work nonprofit leaders do in the Sprint is about their own communication, processes, and decisions. That is where the hours are.
Several of the people on this page started exactly there. Debbie Vitale was re-entering the workforce after many years and built two voice assistants in Week 1. Sean O'Keefe said out loud in his hot seat that doubt was not a feeling he was comfortable with, and left less anxious with a plan. The Sprint is voice-first. You talk, it writes, you approve. Christine runs weekly office hours for anyone who wants extra hands.
Any of them. We work in Claude, and everything transfers to Gemini, Copilot, or whatever your organization has approved. Jim Smale runs his inside Google and a second copy in another tool to compare. You learn how to think with AI. The frameworks work in any AI tool.
Four live 90-minute sessions over four weeks, plus the time you spend applying it to your own work between sessions. We record every session. Most leaders report the time back within the first two weeks.
Tom Lambotte and Steve French, co-founders of AI Simplifier. Tom has been in Strategic Coach for over 10 years, which is where many of the nonprofit leaders on this page first heard about the Sprint. Christine Rivett runs office hours and works one on one with anyone who needs it.
Next Sprint begins November 3, 2026
The Show Your Work promise: do the weekly actions, show up to office hours, and if you are not saving 10 or more hours a week by day 21, we keep working with you free until you are. 225 founders in, not a single person has asked for their money back.
Executive directors have done this and given the hours back to the mission. You already know what you would do with 10 of them.
Join The AI Sprint for FoundersNot your industry? See the full list of industries, with the counts and what each one does.
Four live sessions with Tom and Steve. Bring your own work. Leave with systems that run.
The same four weeks, built for the people who run the programs day to day. An ED and an associate director going through together is the most common pattern.
An organization-wide rollout when you want every desk running on the same systems, with the data line drawn once.
