Written by: Ian McDonald, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada is an experienced executive, board leader, and strategic advisor who helps organizations navigate growth, innovation, and change while creating lasting community impact.
TL:DR The inherent nature of AI technology, where outcomes are probabilistic instead of deterministic, requires a proactive approach to AI governance. We have updated our AI policy to reflect a year of practical experience using AI, and our expected future use of autonomous agents and AI-aided solutions. The policy emphasizes human-in-the-lead accountability, responsible use of approved tools, and proactive lifecycle assurance for AI solutions. This policy is informed by our Nonprofit Framework for Responsible AI Adoption and Impact.
A year ago, Capacity Canada developed its first AI policy, and we shared that policy as an example to help other charities and nonprofits develop their own AI policies.
Due to the rapid advancement and change in the AI landscape, our AI policy is on a one-year review cycle, so we are sharing our revised policy and the learnings that shaped it.
Grounded in Capacity Canada’s mission, strategy and values, our updated AI policy reflects how we are currently using AI-chat and AI-agents and proactive governance for anticipated use of autonomous agents and the development of new AI-aided solutions.
Our policy also reflects how our understanding of AI risks has advanced, informed through a year of intentional AI experimentation and use. Applied internally, AI has delivered significant operational efficiencies allowing us to invest more resources supporting our nonprofit clients. In providing governance, leadership, strategy, and other nonprofit support services, we’ve been able to deliver more value to our clients than ever before.
These are a few of the new and refined sections of our policy, informed by our new Nonprofit Framework for Responsible AI Adoption and Impact that uses a systems approach to help nonprofit leaders and boards accelerate the safe and productive use of AI to advance their mission and strategic goals.
- AI Governance and Accountability emphasizes a human-in-the-lead approach (instead of the more common human-in-the-loop) to underline that all AI-informed decisions and actions remain the ultimate responsibility of human decision-makers.
- Organization licensed and authorized AI tool(s) prohibits use of unauthorized AI tools, as studies continue to show the alarming use of individual AI tools (“shadow IT”) that can put sensitive organizational knowledge and client information at risk. We believe AI’s accelerated commoditization means that most individual platform advantages will be short-lived (billions invested, good ideas easily copied), so we remain focused on the productive use of core tools to compound organizational returns over the long term.
- Autonomous Agents and AI-Aided Solutions establishes proactive governance and lifecycle assurance requirements for the development of internal and vendor-provided AI solutions that can autonomously act, make decisions, orchestrate workflows, or materially influence outcomes without direct human oversight.
Sharing our AI policy as a resource for other nonprofits advances our mission of “bringing together the ideas, people and resources that fuel social innovation.” No policy is perfect, or suited to every context, so it must be adapted to your needs and goals.
Written by:
Ian McDonald, Executive in Residence, Capacity Canada
Email: [email protected]
Ian McDonald (he/him) is a recognized expert in business and product strategy, marketing, partnerships, and emerging industries. He has extensive international experience developing emerging markets, commercializing products and services, and scaling business operations globally.
Formerly Chief Customer Officer at Communitech, a globally recognized innovation hub, Ian led advisory services for startups, scale-ups, and Fortune 500 organizations. Ian’s senior leadership experience includes strategic growth, change, and innovation roles at world-class companies including TD Bank Group, InFlight, Aeryon Labs, and BlackBerry.
Ian holds a Master of Business Administration and is a Chartered Professional Accountant. His recent executive education includes Modern Board Governance, Change Leadership, Coaching for Performance, and Organizational Leadership in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.
As an active community member, Ian is a Board Member of Habitat for Humanity Waterloo Region and supports community organizations focused on food security, housing, education, employment, newcomer assistance, and other family services.