Where AI could realistically help
Based on your size, your data, and the friction your team is feeling. Specific to mission-driven work, not generic SaaS playbooks.
Free · 2 minutes · Built for nonprofits
How ready is your nonprofit for AI?
Seven questions, answered honestly, will tell you more about your AI readiness than any vendor pitch deck. The 2-Minute AI Opportunity Scorecard is built for nonprofit Executive Directors, board members, and operations leads who want a real read on what AI could do, where to start, and where most teams in your situation stall.
Used by leaders at organizations from $1M to $50M in budget. No sales call, no spam.
What the scorecard reveals
Three honest reads, sized to your organization.
The scorecard isn't a quiz. It's a structured way to see your situation through the eyes of someone who has done this work for nonprofits like yours.
The most likely first move
A concrete, sized-to-you starting point. Not a 12-month roadmap. Something your team could pilot in the next 90 days.
Where most teams in your situation stall
The patterns we see again and again across nonprofit AI engagements. Knowing them in advance is half the battle.
How it works
Three steps. Two minutes. No deck.
Answer seven questions
About your size, your data, your team, and what you've tried with AI so far. One question per page. Honest answers get honest results.
Get your scorecard by email
A personalized read shows up in your inbox within a few minutes. Plain language, sized to your organization, written so you could share it with your board on the same day.
Use it however you want
Take it to your next leadership meeting. Use it to brief your board. Or just save it for the next time someone asks "have we figured out AI yet?" No follow-up call required.
Why this scorecard exists
Nonprofit AI work fails for predictable reasons.
We built the scorecard around the patterns we see most often when nonprofits try to put AI to work. Each question maps to one of these patterns. Knowing the trap is most of the way to avoiding it.
Trying AI before the data is ready
Most nonprofit data lives across several systems that rarely talk: a donor CRM, a program tracker, a grants management tool, a few spreadsheets. AI tools layered on top of fragmented data produce confident-sounding nonsense. The scorecard surfaces this gap early, so you don't spend pilot budget on a model trained on data your team doesn't trust.
Buying tools instead of solving problems
Vendors love selling nonprofits AI features bundled into platforms you already pay for. Some of those features are genuinely useful. Many are demoware that won't survive contact with your team's actual workflow. The scorecard helps you separate "AI feature in our existing tool" from "AI use case worth investing staff time in."
Adopting AI without a board-ready policy
Staff are using ChatGPT and similar tools whether or not your organization has formally adopted them. That's the truth at most nonprofits today. The scorecard checks whether you have a written AI policy, and if not, points you to a starting template you can adapt and take to your board this quarter.
Picking the wrong first use case
The worst first AI projects at nonprofits are often the most exciting-sounding ones. The best first projects are usually the most boring ones: automating manual reporting, summarizing program intake, helping the development team draft donor communications. The scorecard surfaces what your team is actually struggling with, so the first move targets real pain.
Confusing pilot success with adoption
A successful demo at a leadership meeting is not the same as a tool your program staff use every Tuesday. Most nonprofit AI pilots that "succeed" never make the leap to actual adoption. The scorecard asks about your past results honestly, so the recommendation accounts for what's already worked and what hasn't.
Hiring a consultant who never leaves
The traditional consulting model for nonprofits is built around long retainers and slow handoffs. That works for the consultant. It doesn't work for you. The scorecard recommendation will always include what your team can do without us, alongside what you might want outside help on.
Who built this
From senior data leaders who do this work for nonprofits.
The scorecard was built by Balboa Insights, a boutique data and AI consulting firm in San Diego. We work exclusively with nonprofits and high-growth SMBs. Senior-led. Fixed-scope. Built to hand off, so engagements end and your team owns the work.
One of our recent nonprofit engagements reduced a regional organization's manual reporting time by 60%. That work started with a conversation that looked a lot like the one this scorecard is meant to begin.
Want to go deeper?
The scorecard is the free, 2-minute version. If you want a full diagnostic with a data inventory, a board-ready AI policy, and a prioritized use-case roadmap, look at our AI Readiness Audit, a fixed-fee, four-to-six week engagement.
See all nonprofit offerings →Find out where AI could help. In two minutes.
Seven questions. A real scorecard. No follow-up call required.