A note from Amanda
I spent the beginning of this week in Miami with ~150 team members from across the Southeast JCC world and I’m more inspired than ever. I was invited to join SE PROCON to deliver a keynote on AI and humanity, as well as doing two training sessions for marketing and early childhood professionals. And as is often the case in these spaces, I walked away with even more knowledge and love than I arrived with.
The reason I choose to do AI training in the nonprofit sector is because your organizations are uniquely positioned to lead at this moment. You likely never have enough resources available to do all of the amazing work you would like to do and you also value your relationships with your community above all. This is the sweet spot for implementing AI in a way that gives us the resources we need without replacing the humanity that makes us, well, human.
My notes and follow-ups from the conference are extensive, but I want to call out a few key takeaways that may also be valuable to you.
- Taking time away from your offices to spend time with your teams offline and over meals and conversations is invaluable. Not just in disconnecting from our work and our screens, but in truly connecting with your colleagues. Even as a current solopreneur, I found immense value in sitting with others discussing BIG and little ideas and just being together. 100% recommend finding time every week for these moments.
- Every organization needs to use (or not use) AI in a way that works best for them. I spoke to people who refused to open ChatGPT and others that had vibe coded every new tool in their building. Regardless of what’s possible, AI adoption needs to be done in a way and at a pace that works for you and your teams.
- Abundance extends beyond a financial mindset. Our closing speaker was the fabulous Michelle Poler . Her energy was next level and she had one of the most engaging presentations I’ve ever seen, but her message was even more valuable: an abundance mindset creates stronger communities. It is so important that we recognize the value of others and the space that exists for us to all succeed together.
I’m sure I’ll have lots more to share in the coming days, but I wanted to share my initial thoughts and my extreme gratitude to the folks at MARJCC and the SE PROCON committee for inviting me to be a part of this experience.
In inspiration,
Amanda
For JCC professional leadership
Leading What’s Next
An AI Strategy Retreat for JCC Professional Leadership
December 15–17, 2026
Starts December 15 at 4 p.m.; ends December 17 at 2 p.m. (Eastern)
JCC Association’s Mercaz, New York City
If AI keeps landing on your leadership agenda but rarely gets the time and attention it needs, let’s make room for it.
WHAT WE’LL WORK ON
Join me and fellow JCC professionals this December to work through the questions behind the tools: Where can AI genuinely help? What guardrails do we need?
We’ll combine hands-on practice with peer conversation, exploring communications, program decisions, and more.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING HOME
You’ll have practical work to bring home: an AI policy template and leadership questions, a draft job description for your AI support system, and reusable skills to keep refining with your team.
Just getting started or already experimenting? Build from where you are, and bring a colleague if you can.
Open to JCC professionals only. Email amanda@puzzlesandprofits.com for the registration link.
Request the registration link
🧩 News that matters
People and learning
HARVARD
🧩 Who gets the opportunity to learn AI?
Harvard’s October 14 report found that 64% of employed women, versus 49% of employed men surveyed, reported receiving no workplace AI training.
Harvard researchers found consistent gender gaps in how Americans use AI, get support for it, understand it, and appear in coverage of it, drawing on a survey of 5,400+ adults, browsing data, and 78K news articles.
Why it matters
This is one of the broadest looks yet at how AI’s gender gaps are taking shape. Access looks nearly equal today, but the divide shows up in training, confidence, and who gets heard. As AI labs pitch superintelligence for everyone, these gaps show how far that promise still has to go.
For nonprofit leaders, the question is who gets paid practice time, relevant examples, and guidance across roles and schedules.
Read the Harvard report
Policies and judgment
AMAZON
🧩 When recording devices blend into everyday life
Amazon’s October 15 Bee wearable announcement makes recording policies especially timely. For organizations, the question is whether staff may capture member conversations or meetings with AI devices, and what happens with the transcripts afterward.
Read Amazon’s announcement
DELOITTE
🧩 When employees bring their own AI agents to work
Deloitte’s October 12 analysis examines the risks of staff connecting personal agents to organizational systems. For nonprofit leaders, this moves the policy question beyond “Which chatbot can we use?” to “What can it access or do on our behalf?”
Why it matters
Inventory the agents staff already use, assign a human owner, and require approval before connecting donor/member records or authorizing external messages and spending.
Read Deloitte’s analysis
META
🧩 Personal AI still needs organizational guardrails
Meta paused Muse’s chat-sharing feature after researchers found that links to shared conversations could be discovered through public DNS records, including chats containing sensitive business information.
Why it matters
Personal AI tools and new features need organizational vetting before they handle work information. Check who can access or share the data, what permissions the tool receives, and how information is retained. An approved platform’s new feature still needs review before it touches member, donor, or employee information.
Read The Verge’s report
OPENAI
🧩 ChatGPT adds a lock, with limits
OpenAI is gradually rolling out locked chats, which hide selected conversations from regular history and search and require an account PIN to open. The feature can help keep a chat out of view during screen sharing, but it does not add end-to-end encryption or change retention, training settings, or workspace policies.
Why it matters
A locked chat is a visibility control. Keep following your organization’s approved accounts and data rules before entering member, donor, or employee information.
Read about locked chats
Tools to try
OPENAI
🧩 Interactive tools inside ChatGPT
Calculators, charts, and forms could help staff explore scenarios, such as event break-even planning. Useful hands-on tools, with formulas independently checked.
Read the announcement
ANTHROPIC
🧩 Claude moves into the Google files your team already uses
Claude for Google Workspace is in public beta on paid Claude plans, with a sidebar in Docs, Sheets, and Slides for editing copy, working with formulas and charts, and building slides. Separate beta connectors let users create and edit Google files from Claude.
Why it matters
If you’re a Google organization, a program proposal, budget sheet, or board deck can be revised where your team already works. Start with “Ask before edits,” check the changes, and have your administrator review access before connecting organizational files.
Explore Claude for Google Workspace
ANTHROPIC
🧩 Claude Dashboards and Motion
Potential uses: board dashboards from aggregate program/fundraising data, and short impact animations. Paid-plan beta restrictions apply.
Explore Dashboards · Explore Motion
GOOGLE + TECHRADAR
🧩 Nano Banana 2.1: Another reason to test before you switch
Google says its Nano Banana 2.1 update improves image quality, text rendering, and consistency across edits. In TechRadar’s side-by-side test using identical prompts, Gemini and ChatGPT produced closely matched results, with different strengths and familiar mistakes.
Why it matters
Before switching your marketing team’s tools, try the same event-promotion brief in each approved platform. Compare wording, brand fit, consistency, and the edits needed to make the image usable.
Read Google’s model details
Read TechRadar’s comparison
🧩 Funding opportunities
🧩 Helping Cities Deliver More for Their Residents
Launched October 14, Cities Deliver: AI Solutions for Public Services is a $50 million initiative from OpenAI Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation. It offers $500,000–$2 million over 24 months for AI projects in public health, economic mobility, environmental resilience, and civic engagement.
Applicants need a committed city-government partner. This is funding for a defined project, rather than general operating support. Eligible organizations must work with their city partner on a public-service problem benefiting underserved communities or social welfare.
First-stage applications, including the eligibility screen and a short video, are due November 29, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.
Explore eligibility and apply
Work with me
AI training that meets your team where they are and builds towards where they want to go next
I offer customized AI policy creation and training for nonprofit teams. Whether your staff are building a foundation or ready to develop practical skills and workflows, we’ll shape the learning around their experience, goals, and everyday work. Email me to discuss your team’s needs.
Questions? Feedback? A good joke?
Just hit reply. I read and respond personally (me, not an AI agent ;))
Email Amanda