When equity guides AI adoption, better outcomes follow.
AI is influencing how work gets done in the social sector. The challenge is not whether to engage with AI, but how to do so responsibly, safely, equitably, and in service of mission.
This one-day virtual convening brings organizations together to explore what equitable AI adoption looks like in real-world practice.
Centered on Project Evident’s new Equitable AI Adoption framework – developed in partnership with 34 nonprofit practitioners, district leaders, and subject matter experts – this virtual convening will showcase how organizations are navigating governance, supporting staff, and measuring impact as they integrate AI into their work.
Attendees will leave with practical guidance, shared language, and concrete starting points to help their organizations build AI practices that lead to outcomes and are trustworthy, sustainable, and grounded in equity.
From Principles to Practice: The Equitable AI Adoption Framework
10:00 A.M. - 10:30 A.M. ET | STAGES 1 & 2
Join the opening session of the convening for an overview of the day with Kelly Fitzsimmons, Founder & CEO and a guided introduction to Project Evident’s Equitable AI Adoption Framework, presented by Sarah Kelley, Director of OutcomesAI.
The framework – developed in partnership with technology and program leaders from 34 nonprofit practitioners, district leaders, and subject matter experts – is grounded in how field leaders are approaching AI adoption in service of mission and outcomes. The framework provides practical guidance for equitably, safely, and responsibly using AI, from training staff to implementation and data collection.
Sarah will provide an overview of the framework, including:
- Safe and Fair Practice
- Design for Outcomes
- Stakeholder Engagement
- Data
- Data Governance and Risk
- Culture of Learning and Managing Change
- Technology Implementation
- Monitor and Assess
Together, these categories provide a holistic view of what equitable AI adoption requires at an organizational level.
Join us in establishing a foundation for convening and understanding your own next steps as you navigate responsible AI adoption in practice.
Featured Speakers:
- Kelly Fitzsimmons, Founder & CEO, Project Evident
- Sarah Kelley, Director, Outcomes AI, Project Evident
Culture of Learning and Managing Change: Shared Learning, Managing Change and Embracing Continuous Learning
10:30 A.M. – 11:15 A.M. ET | STAGE 1
How does your organization manage change and is AI change any different? Responsible AI adoption requires organizations to learn together, align leadership, clarify expectations, and support staff through shifts in workflows and responsibilities. Explore change management approaches to guide successful AI implementation.
Featured Speakers:
- Summer Jackson, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School
- Lorne Rodriguez, Manager of Enterprise Generative AI, Chicago Public Schools
- Sarah Di Troia, Chief Innovation Officer & Managing Director, Outcomes AI, Project Evident (Moderator)
Design for Outcomes: AI for Evaluation and Insights from Models to Drive Program Improvement
12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 1
Do you want to move away from episodic evidence generation? Explore how AI can enable a more R&D-like approach to program evaluation and improvement. Learn about how AI can supplement traditional approaches to evaluation and generate data and insights that can be used for program model improvement.
Featured Speakers:
- Dr. Eve Shapiro, Chief Knowledge Officer, Beyond 12
- Gabriel Rhoads, Senior Advisor, Project Evident
Safe and Fair Practice
1:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 1
Do you feel like AI is transforming the nonprofit sector faster than your organization’s current policies and guidelines can keep up? Uncover proven strategies to develop legal policies and best practice guidelines to ensure AI implementations are safe, equitable, and effective. Learn how to root your AI policies and guidelines in your organization’s existing principles and commitments. Discover how nonprofit practitioners are choosing between policies or guidelines and addressing environmental impacts.
Featured Speakers:
- Anna Lerner, Chief Executive Officer, Climate Collective
- Rakesh Verma, VP Product & Tech, Catalyst Exchange
- Roy Austin, Director, Howard Law AI Initiative
- Afua Bruce, Chief Executive Officer, ANB Advisory Group
- Kevin Barenblat, Co-Founder & President, Fast Forward (Moderator)
Technology Implementation Getting Started with Customization
2:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 1
Learn how to kickstart AI implementation in low-risk environments and uncover how teams just getting started can thoughtfully customize AI systems to fit their specific context, values, and operational realities. Learn how to address common early-stage pitfalls and how to create a roadmap that assesses readiness, clarifies intended use cases, and sets appropriate boundaries before implementation drawing on lessons from organizations further up the AI adoption curve.
Featured Speakers:
- Mike Yates, Senior Managing Director of AI, Teach for America
- Eduardo Hernandez, Executive Vice President, AI Technology Solutions
- Karl Rectanus, Chief Executive Officer, Really Great Reading
- Stephen Rockwell, Founder, HumanServices.AI (Moderator)
Culture of Learning and Managing Change: Ongoing AI Training
3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 1
Equitable AI adoption depends on more than initial AI licenses or tool rollout plans — it requires sustained investment in upskilling people. Explore strategies to equip staff at all levels with the knowledge to use AI responsibly and effectively. Discover how expert trainers engage people in AI professional development and how to design ongoing learning.
Featured Speakers:
- Rich Leimsider, Director, AI for Nonprofits Sprint
- Albert Chen, Co-Founder & CEO, Anago.AI
- Tristan Penn, Director of Equity & Accountability, NTEN (Moderator)
Stakeholder Engagement
4:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 1
Equitable AI adoption requires meaningful engagement with the people and communities most affected by these systems. From concept to oversight, examine how organizations can embed stakeholder engagement throughout the AI lifecycle. Learn how to create structured opportunities for input and how to ensure community insight shapes decisions about AI use over time. Discover how nonprofit practitioners are going beyond one-off engagements to transparent, ongoing feedback loops that guide safe and equitable AI projects.
Featured Speakers:
- Sarah Gripshover, PhD, Director of Research, PERTS
- Stephanie Kaufman, Head of Product, TalkingPoints
- Meme Styles, Founder & President, Measure
- Ariam Mogos, Emerging Tech + Ed Lead, Stanford D School (Moderator)
Data Governance and Risk: Privacy and Data Governance
11:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
Strong data governance is essential to safe, responsible, and equitable AI adoption. Learn how organizations can establish clear oversight structures, decision rights, and accountability mechanisms for safe data use throughout every stage of AI use. Explore strategies to identify and mitigate AI risks through data governance aligned with equity commitments, legal obligations, and organizational values.
Featured Speakers:
- Margaret Meagher, Chief Impact Officer, Crisis Text Line
- Erin Mote, Chief Executive Officer, InnovateEDU
- Var Shankar, Executive Director, Council on AI Governance
- Kelly Fitzsimmons, Founder & CEO, Project Evident (Moderator)
Design for Outcomes: Is it an AI Shaped Opportunity?
12:00 P.M. – 1:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
Where is the best place to apply a general-purpose AI tool across your organization’s work? This session will distill patterns of AI use from hundreds of nonprofit practitioners who participated in AI accelerators led by Project Evident and Decoded Futures, and will also share research on AI augmentation within program models from NGOs across the globe. Learn how other nonprofit practitioners are using AI to augment both administrative workflows and program elements.
Featured Speakers:
- Simon Morfit, Senior Director, OutcomesAI, Project Evident
- Jake Porway, Entrepreneur in Residence, Decoded Futures, Tech:NYC
- Sarah Di Troia, Chief Innovation Officer and Managing Director, Project Evident (Moderator)
Data: Information and Data Quality
1:00 P.M. – 2:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
Data is the backbone of any AI system. Explore how organizations can define, manage, and steward data in ways that safely advance equity, protect communities, and strengthen trust. Examine how clearly defining data inputs and system boundaries enhances safety, reduces risk and strengthens accountability.
Featured Speakers:
- Dr. Erika Van Buren, Founder & CEO, Line of Sight Consulting
- Pete York, Chief Data Scientist, Project Evident
- Yeshimabeit Milner, Founder & CEO, Data for Black Lives
- Farhana Hossain, Senior Evidence Advisor, Project Evident (Moderator)
Data Governance and Risk: Bias Mitigation and Centering Humans in High-Risk Scenarios
2:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
How can nonprofits ensure human oversight when AI systems are deployed in high-stakes and client-facing contexts? From mitigating bias to preserving human judgment, explore how to mitigate potential harm and prevent overreliance on automated outputs, ensuring that systems reflect organizational values and community commitment. Learn how to identify and reduce bias in data, models, and outcomes, including structured testing and ongoing monitoring.
Featured Speakers:
- Heather Krause, PSAT, Founder, We All Count
- Dr. Gemma Galdón-Clavell, Founder & CEO, Eticas.AI
- Dr. Shauna Knox, Founder & CEO, The Emancipation Group
- Kait Sweetman, Vice President, Technology and Data, OneGoal (Moderator)
Design for Outcomes: Logic Model for Effective AI Projects
3:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
Successful AI strategies for nonprofit organizations must be clear on both the outcomes you are trying to achieve and the steps necessary to produce them. Learn how a strong logic model ensures that AI projects are tied to mission-related outcomes and helps guide decision-making about where AI can drive the most value. Discover what having a technology roadmap in sync with your program logic model looks like from a nonprofit practitioner’s point of view. If AI is the engine to drive impact, then a clear logic model is the GPS system that guides your organization.
Featured Speakers:
- Scott Del Rossi, Vice President, College & Career Success, College Possible
- Sam Azar, Founder & CEO, Ascend Impact Investors
- Matt Hillard, Senior Director, Evidence For Outcomes, Project Evident
- Tamar Bauer, Senior Advisor, Strategy & Policy, Project Evident (Moderator)
Monitor and Assess
4:00 P.M. – 5:00 P.M. ET | STAGE 2
Launching an AI system is only the beginning. How do you track outcomes that are critical to measuring success? Long-term implementation must evaluate whether AI tools are advancing organizational goals over time and explore practical approaches to defining success metrics, establishing review cycles, and documenting findings. Delve into both technical performance and real-world impact, including how to gather user feedback and detect disparities in outcomes and consider how monitoring processes should adapt as systems scale or as risks change.
Featured Speakers:
- Laila Brenner, Head of Philanthropy, TalkingPoints
- Peter Gault, Founder & Executive Director, Quill.org
- Pete York, Chief Data Scientist, Project Evident
- Sarah Kelley, Director, OutcomesAI, Project Evident (Moderator)
Strengthening and Troubleshooting AI in Nonprofits (Option 1)
11:15 A.M. - 12:45 P.M. ET | LOUNGE
Already using AI — but want to make sure it is driving real impact?
This interactive virtual workshop is designed for practitioners that are starting to implement AI in their work. Grounded in the Equitable AI Adoption framework, participants will work through guided exercises, discussions and group activities to assess what’s working, identify gaps, and determine where adjustments are needed.
Participants are encouraged to come with a real AI use case from their organization. By the end of the session, you will leave with a clearer understanding of your system’s strengths and vulnerabilities and concrete next steps to strengthen performance, equity, safety, and accountability.
Featuring:
- Sarah Kelley, Director, Outcomes AI, Project Evident
Strengthening and Troubleshooting AI in Nonprofits (Option 2)
1:45 P.M. - 3:15 P.M. ET | LOUNGE
Already using AI — but want to make sure it is driving real impact?
This interactive virtual workshop is designed for practitioners that are starting to implement AI in their work. Grounded in the Equitable AI Adoption framework, participants will work through guided exercises, discussions and group activities to assess what’s working, identify gaps, and determine where adjustments are needed.
Participants are encouraged to come with a real AI use case from their organization. By the end of the session, you will leave with a clearer understanding of your system’s strengths and vulnerabilities and concrete next steps to strengthen performance, equity, safety, and accountability.
Featuring:
- Sarah Kelley, Director, Outcomes AI, Project Evident
