Your staff already use AI. Now your trustees can govern it.
Most charities now use AI routinely, often on personal accounts with no policy behind it. Noviform helps charities put sensible rules in place, get staff using AI safely on their real work, and take hours of admin off people whose time belongs with your beneficiaries, with simple automation where a rule does the job, and AI where it genuinely helps.
Every hour of admin we remove is an hour back into the work your charity exists to do.
The problem
AI arrived in your charity before your policy did.
Source: Charity Digital Skills Report 2026. Boards are rated weakest of all on AI skills. Charity Digital Skills Report 2026
That gap shows up in familiar ways:
Staff using free tools on personal accounts
Some of them learn from whatever is pasted in, including donor and beneficiary details.
Trustees asked to approve things they cannot assess
AI does not behave like other software. The same question can get a different answer, and a wrong answer looks exactly like a right one.
Funders and regulators starting to ask
How do you protect beneficiary data? Who checks what the AI wrote in that grant report?
Admin that still eats the week
Grant bids, funder reports, enquiry triage and rotas take time that should go to your beneficiaries.
The answer is not to ban AI, or to buy a platform. It is a clear set of rules your trustees own, staff who know how to use AI safely, and help with the repetitive work, whether that needs AI or a simple rule.
Cost saved is service delivered. Every hour of admin we take away goes back to the people you exist to serve.
How we help
A pathway built for the way charities work.
Take the modules in any order. Many charities start with the trustees or the MOT. The only dependency is that AI 102 follows AI 101.
AI for Leaders and Trustees
Half a daySenior leaders and trustees learn why AI is unlike anything they have governed, see it work on your own published material, and make the decisions only they can make.
An agreed green-light test every AI proposal has to pass. Policy and risk register templates filled in with what you decided. Named owners for data and safeguarding. A decision on which AI tools you pay for.
AI 101, the foundations day
One day, up to 15 peopleYour whole team using AI safely on real charity work: grant bids, donor communications, rotas and reports. Everyone leaves with their privacy settings set correctly. Free tiers are fine; nothing needs buying.
Your own prompt pack, a quick-wins list in your team's words, an acceptable-use policy starter and a trustee-readable risk matrix.
AI 102, role deep dives
Half a day per teamOne team at a time rebuilds its week around AI: fundraising and income, service delivery, finance and operations, or communications.
A working assistant set up on your tools, a role playbook, honest before-and-after timings and a shortlist of steps better suited to simple automation.
The Organisational AI MOT
2 weeks, fixed scopeTests your charity against our 12-point framework across six areas: service delivery, fundraising, finance, communications, data and systems, people and governance.
A scored report, a costed shortlist of fixes framed as service delivered, and a clear go or no-go on each. We only recommend what pays for itself within twelve months.
AI Assurance
Sized to your charityChecks each AI tool before you switch it on, including AI added to systems you already use, such as your CRM or finance software.
A simple route for approving tools, sized to your charity, and a register your own staff can keep up to date.
Automation build
When you are readyThe repetitive work taken off desks: thank-you letters, Gift Aid checks, grant deadline reminders, volunteer and enquiry intake. Simple rules first; AI only where it genuinely helps.
Automations live, adopted and owned by your team.
Not everything needs AI. Where a simple rule does the job better, we say so.
Controls are design inputs
Safeguarding and data protection come first, not last.
Experience
Built for charities, by people who have done this in regulated organisations.
Our charity pathway was designed from the ground up for the sector, with exercises built on grant bids, donor communications, rotas and reports, not adapted from a corporate course. It is led by Ahmed Sheikh, who has spent 25 years delivering change where controls matter.
Automation that frees people, not jobs
Ahmed led the deployment of software robots across operations, taking manual chasing and checking off people's desks. All of the capacity released was redeployed to other work rather than removed.
Charities FAQ
Questions charities ask us.
Do we need to buy AI tools first?
No. AI 101 runs on what you already have, and free tiers are fine. Many charities already have Microsoft Copilot Chat through their Microsoft 365 account, which keeps your data protected when staff sign in with a work login. AI 102 is different: a team assistant needs a paid licence, and we will tell you plainly whether it is worth it.
Our staff use AI already. What would a Noviform session add?
Direction and rules. Most charity AI use is individual and unplanned: useful for the person, invisible to the charity. The sessions turn that into agreed uses, safe settings, and a few routines the whole team runs, with the hours saved counted.
Will you write our AI policy for us?
No, and that is deliberate. Your trustees should own it. We bring a template with the key decisions already laid out, your leaders and trustees make each decision in the room, and you leave with it filled in and ready to finish and adopt.
Is our data safe during the training?
Yes. The leaders session runs on material you have already published, such as your annual report. Training exercises use tasks you choose to share, anonymised where needed. We never ask for access to your systems.
We are a small charity. Is this for us?
Yes. Smaller charities are the least likely to have an AI policy and the most stretched for time, so the gains are often largest. The modules work on their own, so you can start with one.
What about AI's environmental impact?
It is a fair question and we cover it honestly in the trustees session, so your board can decide what level of use is proportionate.
Where does strategy fit in the AI MOT?
Across all six areas, rather than as a box of its own. The MOT finishes with a roadmap that ties your scores to what you do first, next and later.
What if a task does not need AI at all?
Then we say so. Plenty of charity admin is better handled by a simple automated rule, which is cheaper and more predictable than AI.
Start with your trustees, or start with one team.
Thirty minutes with the person who would run your sessions. Tell us where AI is already being used and what worries your board. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.