The Non-Profit's Prompting Playbook: A Guide to Writing Effective AI Prompts

Author

Romanos Boraine

Resource Hub

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Date

15 Jul 2025

The universal truth of all generative AI tools is simple: "Garbage In, Garbage Out." The transformative power of platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude doesn't come from the tool itself, but from the quality of the instructions you provide.

Many NPO leaders experiment with AI, asking it to "write a funding proposal," only to become frustrated with the generic, uninspired, and often inaccurate responses. They need a way to get specific, high-quality outputs that understand the unique context of the social sector, the nuances of fundraising, and the demands of impact reporting.

This playbook is the solution. It is designed to teach you exactly how to write AI prompts for non-profits. This is not a technical skill; it is a strategic one. Mastering the art of the prompt transforms generative AI from a novelty into a powerful co-pilot, a force multiplier for your mission. We'll explore the best tools for the job and provide a library of copy-and-paste prompts, grounded in real-world NPO AI Use Cases, to help you save hundreds of hours, amplify your message, and focus on what matters most: your mission.

Key Takeaways
Master the 4-Part Prompt Framework: Every effective prompt should contain four elements: Role (assign an expert persona), Task (state a clear objective), Context (provide background information), and Format (specify the output structure).
Provide Detailed Context: To avoid generic results, you must give the AI background information on your audience, goals, project details, and desired tone. The more relevant context you provide, the less generic the output will be.
Choose the Right Tool for the Job: Select the best AI for your specific NPO task. Use ChatGPT for creative narratives , Gemini for real-time information , Claude for summarising long documents , and Perplexity AI for finding verifiable, cited statistics.
Trust, but Verify: Treat AI like a capable intern, not an infallible expert. It is your responsibility to fact-check any data the AI provides and to review its output to ensure it matches your organisation's authentic voice.
Localise for Relevance: To get outputs that are useful in a South African setting, your prompts must include local context. Specify the need for South African English, financial figures in ZAR, and a tone appropriate for a diverse local audience.
Think Beyond Content Creation: Use AI as a powerful analytical engine, not just a writing tool. It can deconstruct complex information, such as summarising a dense academic report or identifying recurring themes from beneficiary feedback.

Choosing Your AI Co-Pilot: A Comparison for NPO Leaders

Before you write a prompt, you need to choose the right tool for the task. While many models can perform similar functions, each has unique strengths that make it better suited for specific non-profit activities. Think of this as choosing the right specialist for your team.

The All-Rounders: Gemini and ChatGPT

These are the versatile workhorses of the generative AI world, capable of handling a wide range of tasks from creative writing to data analysis. They are your general-purpose programme coordinators.

ChatGPT (OpenAI): This model is best known for its creative flair and its ability to generate compelling, human-like narratives. Its strength lies in its conversational and writing capabilities, making it ideal for drafting the first version of a fundraising appeal, brainstorming social media campaigns, or developing the initial, emotionally resonant narrative for a grant proposal. When you need to tell a story, start with ChatGPT.
Gemini (Google): Gemini's key advantage is its deep, real-time integration with the Google ecosystem and search index. This makes it exceptionally powerful for tasks that require up-to-the-minute information. Use it for researching current social trends for a needs assessment, finding the latest statistics to support a policy brief, or asking it to summarise recent news articles about a specific funder's priorities.

The Specialist Tools: Claude and Perplexity

These tools are designed for more specific, high-value tasks that are common in the NPO world, particularly around research, analysis, and document processing. They are your specialist M&E officer and research assistant.

Claude (Anthropic): Claude's standout feature is its ability to process and summarise extremely long documents. It has a much larger "context window" (the amount of information it can remember at one time) than many other models. This means you can upload a lengthy annual report, a dense 50-page academic study, or a complex piece of legislation and ask for a concise summary of the key points. This makes it invaluable for summarising research papers for grant proposals or analysing detailed impact reports from partners.
Perplexity AI: This tool functions as a powerful, AI-native research engine. When you ask a question, it doesn't just give you an answer; it provides the answer along with direct, numbered citations and links to the source material. For NPO leaders who need to find and reference verifiable statistics to bolster their case for support in a grant application or report, Perplexity is an essential tool for ensuring accuracy and credibility.

Choosing Your AI Co-Pilot: A Comparison for NPO Leaders by Romanos Boraine

The Anatomy of an Expert Prompt: A 4-Part Framework

A great prompt isn't long or complicated; it's just clear. The difference between a useless response and a brilliant one is almost always the quality of the instructions. Using a simple, structured framework ensures you give the AI the precise instructions it needs to deliver a high-quality, relevant response. For best results, every prompt you write should contain these four elements: Role, Task, Context, and Format.

1. The Role (or Persona)

Never talk to a generic chatbot. Start by assigning the AI a specific, expert role. This frames the entire response, telling the model what kind of expertise, tone, and perspective to adopt. The more specific the role, the better the result.

Instead of: "Write a fundraising email."
Try: "Act as an expert fundraising copywriter for a South African animal welfare NPO with 15 years of experience..."

Here are some powerful roles to assign for NPO tasks:

An expert M&E (Monitoring and Evaluation) specialist for a USAID-funded programme.
A compassionate social worker counselling at-risk youth.
A seasoned financial manager for a small NPO.
A creative social media manager for an environmental advocacy group.

2. The Task (or Objective)

This is the verb of your prompt. State your objective clearly, concisely, and with an action-oriented verb. The AI needs to know exactly what you want it to do.

Instead of: "Tell me about our project."
Try: "Write a compelling executive summary for a new grant proposal."

3. The Context (or Background)

This is the most critical part of any prompt and the one most often overlooked. The AI knows nothing about your organisation, your project, or your goals. You must provide the essential background information, constraints, and data it needs to complete the task effectively. The more relevant context you provide, the less generic the output will be.

A checklist for providing good context:

Who is the audience?	(e.g., "This is for a corporate funder's board," "This is for our public Instagram followers," "This is for our internal staff.")
What is the goal?	(e.g., "The goal is to secure a R500,000 grant," "The goal is to raise awareness," "The goal is to explain a new policy.")
What are the key details?	(e.g., "Our project focuses on providing digital literacy skills to 500 unemployed youth in the Diepsloot area of Johannesburg.")
What is the desired tone?	(e.g., "The tone should be professional and compelling," "The tone should be urgent and empathetic," "The tone should be formal and academic.")
Are there any constraints?	(e.g., "The word count must be under 250 words," "Avoid using jargon.")

4. The Format (or Output)

Don't leave the structure of the response to chance. Tell the AI exactly how you want the information presented. This saves you significant editing time.

Instead of: "List the key points."
Try: "The summary must be formatted as three distinct paragraphs. The output should be a bulleted list. Please present the information in a table with three columns: 'Action Item', 'Owner', and 'Deadline'."

Advanced Prompting Techniques: Lessons from an NPO Workflow

The framework above provides the science of a good prompt. The following section provides the art, drawing on the real-world experience of NPO professionals who use these tools daily. Integrating AI into your workflow allows you to research topics quickly, write SEO-optimised content, analyse data, and ultimately take on more responsibilities because you have access to a new suite of skills. These lessons will help you move from basic prompting to expert-level execution.

The Iterative Mindset: Your First Prompt is a First Draft

A common misconception is that you need to write the "perfect prompt" on the first try. The reality is that prompting is an iterative conversation. Your first prompt is a first draft. The AI's initial response gives you something to react to. You can then refine your request: "That's a good start, but make the tone more empathetic," or "Can you expand on the second point and provide a specific example?" It often takes a few back-and-forth exchanges to get the ideal result. Embrace this process of refinement.

The Co-Worker Analogy: Clarity is Kindness

Think of the AI not as a search engine, but as a new, very literal-minded co-worker or intern. You wouldn't walk up to a new team member and say, "Do the report." You would provide clear instructions, background context, examples of past reports, and the desired outcome. The same applies to AI. The more research, guidance, and clear instructions you provide, the better the result will be. Your prompt is an extension of your own work and thinking.

From Global Knowledge to Local Context

AI models are trained on a global knowledge pool, which means their default perspective is often generic and US-centric. To get relevant outputs, you must provide specific local context. Always specify that you are a South African NPO and that the output should reflect this. This includes:

Language: "Please write this in South African English."
Currency: "All financial figures should be in ZAR (South African Rand)."
Cultural Nuance: "The tone should be appropriate for a diverse South African audience."

The Intern Principle: Trust, but Verify

An AI is an incredibly powerful assistant, but it should be treated like a very capable intern, not a seasoned expert who can be trusted blindly. It can make mistakes, "hallucinate" facts, or misinterpret nuances. It is your responsibility to check its work.

Fact-Check Data: If the AI provides a statistic, ask for the source or use a tool like Perplexity to verify it. Never use AI-generated data in a grant proposal or report without independent verification.
Review for Tone and Style: Read the output carefully to ensure it doesn't have a robotic or "AI-sounding" sentence structure. Edit the text to match your organisation's authentic voice.

Beyond Content Creation: AI as an Analytical Engine

While many NPOs start by using AI for writing tasks, one of its most powerful capabilities is in analysis. AI excels at deconstructing complex information. You can paste in a dense, 50-page academic report and ask it to "extract the key statistics relevant to youth unemployment in Gauteng." You can upload a spreadsheet of survey data and ask it to "identify the top three concerns expressed by our beneficiaries." This ability to quickly synthesise complex information archives is a superpower for time-strapped NPO leaders.

Building Your Specialist Team: The Power of Custom GPTs

For NPOs that find themselves performing the same specialised tasks repeatedly, designing Custom GPTs is a game-changing strategy. A Custom GPT is a version of ChatGPT that you can train on your own data and internal Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This allows you to build a team of specialist AI assistants.

The Researcher: A Custom GPT fed with all your past research reports and links to credible data sources.
The Grant Writer: A Custom GPT trained on every successful grant application your organisation has ever written.
The Social Media Manager: A Custom GPT that knows your brand voice, target audience, and content pillars inside and out.

The key to a successful Custom GPT is a robust knowledge base. It will only perform optimally if it is backed up with good, clean, well-structured data and clear instructions on how to perform its specific role.

The Ultimate NPO Prompt Library: Examples for Every Function

The following examples are grounded in the real-world use cases of South African NPOs. Use them as templates for your own work, replacing the bracketed information with your own details.

Prompts for Fundraising & Donor Communications

Goal: Drafting a targeted fundraising appeal email.
Prompt: `Act as a professional fundraising copywriter for a South African animal welfare organisation. Your task is to write a 150-word email to our donor list appealing for funds for our winter kennel drive.
Context: Our goal is to raise R50,000 to ensure every one of our 75 rescued dogs has a warm, dry shelter during the coldest months in Gauteng. The target audience is our existing list of mid-level donors who have given before. The tone should be urgent but hopeful and deeply empathetic.
Format: The email should have a strong subject line, a short, impactful body, and a clear, bold call to action: 'Donate Today to Give a Dog a Warm Bed'.`

Goal: Creating a brief for a major donor meeting.
Prompt: `Act as a development director for a major university. I am meeting with a potential major donor who is the CEO of a tech company and has shown interest in our youth entrepreneurship programme.
Task: Create a one-page briefing document for me ahead of the meeting.
Context: Our programme is called 'The Spark Initiative' and it provides mentorship and seed funding to student startups. The donor is interested in innovation, technology, and measurable social ROI.
Format: The document should be structured with the following H2 headings: 'Meeting Objective', 'Key Talking Points', 'Potential Questions from the Donor', and 'The Specific Ask' (which is a 3-year, R1.5 million funding request).`

Prompts for Grant Writing & Research

Goal: Summarising a research paper for a grant proposal.
Prompt: `Act as a research assistant for a major non-profit foundation. I am providing the full text of a 20-page research paper on early childhood development (ECD) outcomes in the Eastern Cape.
Task: Please summarise the key findings, most impactful statistics, and primary conclusions.
Context: This summary will be used in the 'Needs Statement' section of a grant proposal to the FirstRand Foundation. It needs to be clear, concise, and evidence-based.
Format: The output should be under 500 words and formatted as a series of bullet points for absolute clarity.`

Goal: Brainstorming a project aligned with a funder's goals.
Prompt: `Act as a strategic programme designer for a South African NPO focused on food security. I am pasting the official funding guidelines for the Nedbank Foundation's new 'Green Economy' grant.
Task: Based on these guidelines and our organisation's mission, brainstorm three distinct, innovative project ideas that would be a strong fit for this funding opportunity.
Format: For each project idea, provide a project title, a one-paragraph summary, the key objective, and a sentence explaining how it directly aligns with the funder's stated priorities.`

Prompts for Marketing & Social Media

Goal: Generating a social media content calendar.
Prompt: `Act as a social media manager for a South African NPO focused on environmental conservation and fighting plastic pollution.
Task: Generate a content calendar for one week on Instagram. Create five engaging post ideas to raise awareness about the impact of plastic on our oceans, timed for the week leading up to World Oceans Day.
Format: For each day, provide the visual concept (e.g., 'striking photo of a turtle entangled in plastic'), the full caption, and 3-5 relevant hashtags like #ProtectOurOceans, #PlasticFreeSA, and #Conservation.`

Prompts for M&E and Impact Reporting

Goal: Analysing qualitative feedback from beneficiaries.
Prompt: `Act as an expert M&E analyst with experience in qualitative data, similar to the work done by Khulisa Social Solutions. I am pasting the anonymised transcripts from five focus group discussions with teenage girls in our after-school programme.
Task: Read through all the transcripts and identify the top 3-5 recurring themes or challenges these girls are facing.
Context: We want to understand their lived experiences better to improve our programme. Look for themes related to safety, school pressure, and hopes for the future.
Format: Present your findings as a bulleted list. For each theme, provide a brief description and 2-3 direct, powerful (but anonymised) quotes from the transcripts that illustrate that theme.`

Prompts for Administration & Operations

Goal: Automating meeting notes and summaries.
Prompt: `Act as an expert executive assistant. I am pasting the raw, unedited transcript from a 1-hour project kickoff meeting for our new community food garden project. Please perform the following tasks: Provide a brief, one-paragraph executive summary of the meeting's purpose and key outcomes. Identify and list all key decisions that were made. Create a clear list of all action items. For each action item, assign it to the correct team member mentioned in the transcript and suggest a potential deadline based on the conversation.`

Goal: Automating meeting notes and summaries.

Prompt: `Act as an expert executive assistant. I am pasting the raw, unedited transcript from a 1-hour project kickoff meeting for our new community food garden project. Please perform the following tasks:

Provide a brief, one-paragraph executive summary of the meeting's purpose and key outcomes.
Identify and list all key decisions that were made.
Create a clear list of all action items. For each action item, assign it to the correct team member mentioned in the transcript and suggest a potential deadline based on the conversation.`

Conclusion: Better Prompts, Bigger Impact

The ability to write a great prompt is more than just a technical trick; it is a core skill for the modern NPO leader. It transforms generative AI from a fun toy into a powerful strategic partner that can help you write more compelling appeals, secure more funding, and streamline your operations. Mastering this skill directly translates into time saved and a greater capacity to focus on your mission. Mastering prompts is a key part of a successful AI strategy. To learn how this fits into the bigger picture of technology adoption, read our complete guide on AI for nonprofits South Africa.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Writing AI Prompts for Non-Profits

What is the most important part of writing an effective AI prompt?

The most critical part of an effective AI prompt is providing sufficient Context. While assigning a Role, defining the Task, and specifying the Format are all important, context is what prevents generic and useless responses. You must provide the AI with the necessary background information, such as the target audience, the specific goal of the task, key project details, desired tone, and any constraints like word count. The more relevant context you provide, the higher the quality of the output.

Which AI tool is best for summarising long research papers for a grant proposal?

For summarising long documents like research papers or dense reports, Claude is the recommended tool. Its main advantage is a very large "context window," which means it can process and remember the information from extremely long texts. This makes it invaluable for NPO leaders who need to quickly extract key findings and statistics from lengthy source materials for grant proposals or reports.

Can I trust the statistics an AI gives me for a report or proposal?

No, you should not trust AI-generated statistics without independent verification. The guide recommends treating AI like a capable intern, not an infallible expert, under the "Trust, but Verify" principle. It is your responsibility to fact-check any data the AI provides. You can do this by asking the AI for its source or by using a research-focused tool like Perplexity AI, which provides answers with direct citations and links.

How do I get AI-generated content that is specific to South Africa?