Every year, nonprofits are asked to do more with less. The people who came to serve their communities and build relationships spend their days on email, Slack, spreadsheets, and the busywork of keeping things running. The mission work, the human work, gets whatever time is left.
That’s where I think AI can be a genuinely useful tool. Used thoughtfully, it can take on a lot of that mechanical load, which means more of your team’s time and attention going back to the relationships and the mission.
I also believe this technology is too important to leave in the hands of technologists alone. The social sector shouldn’t just adapt to AI as it arrives. It should help decide what AI is for, where its guardrails belong, and whose interests it serves. That only happens when mission-driven people engage with it directly, shaping the technology even as it shapes their work.
I’m a maker at heart, with a background in writing, art, film, and video game production. I’ve also spent close to a decade as a researcher and strategist working with cultural and mission-driven organizations across the country, which gave me a real understanding of how nonprofits run: their workflows, their bottlenecks, the dynamics that shape what’s possible. Here’s more on my background.
Now I put all of it to work for mission-driven organizations. Here’s what that looks like.
I work with individual organizations, and with foundations and service organizations supporting whole cohorts of them. Most engagements take one of three shapes. I also still take on the audience research and strategy work I did for close to a decade, for organizations that need it.
Most teams are in several places with AI at once: a few people experimenting on their own, others steering clear, and no shared picture of what it’s good for. My workshops get everyone working with these tools on tasks from your own organization, so the conversation moves from opinions to experience.
This tier draws directly on the decade I spent in audience research and strategy. Not every task should go to AI, and not every organization is ready for the same things. I work with your team to map where the mechanical work is eating staff time, where AI can genuinely help, and where it doesn’t belong. You end up with a plan you can act on at your own pace.
A general-purpose chatbot gives general-purpose answers. The tools I build start from your organization’s own knowledge, its documents, playbooks, and ways of working, so the answers fit your context. And I build alongside your team rather than just for it, so what we make is something you can run and extend yourselves.
“Cory was a fantastic and thoughtful partner on our audience research project, asking critical questions and sharing vital information to ensure that our research efforts would be useful and actionable.”
“Cory is not only a friend but also a mentor and an advocate for good, useful, and relevant data to support the work of our museums and cultural spaces now and in the future.”
“Working with Cory for almost a decade, I’ve learned so much from his ability to parse complexities, connect disparate ideas, and empathize with all the other humans involved — including those who aren’t at the table or in positions of power.”
“He was a trusted consultant to our clients — combining strategic insight with exceptional writing and communication skills — and was equally respected by his peers.”
“I took to calling him ‘the anchor’ — because in the middle of shifting priorities or uncertain moments, he kept us grounded, focused, and moving forward with purpose.”
“Cory played a big role in improving Slover Linett’s marketing workflow, increasing our output and smoothing out operational roadblocks.”
“Cory is not only an exceptional thought partner to collaborate with — both as a colleague and with clients — but also a generous mentor.”
A clear Theory of Change usually takes weeks of facilitated consulting, time and budget many nonprofits don’t have. I built Throughlines to do that work as a conversation instead: it asks the right questions and turns a leader’s answers into visual frameworks and narratives they can put to use right away.
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Contingency planning is the work most nonprofits mean to get to and rarely do, until something goes wrong. Catastrofixing walks a team through it: name the scenario that worries you most, think through the consequences, and build a concrete response plan, with board policies, operational procedures, and exportable playbooks at the end.
Try it
AI for English Majors is my Substack newsletter, written for non-technical readers from the perspective of someone who came to AI through the arts and humanities. It’s where I think through what this technology means, and what it means to be human alongside it.
Read it
Made By Us runs Wish Walls, collaborative art projects across the country that invite people to answer “What’s your wish for the U.S.?” Their small team couldn’t field every host’s setup question by hand, so we turned their playbooks and field experience into a conversational bot that walks organizations through hosting their own wall and helps them work through challenges as they come up. Built in partnership with Devon VanHouten Maldonado, it’s one example of the custom assistants we build that turn FAQs into real-time conversations.
See Wish WallsA lot of my work starts in a room full of people figuring out what AI means for their organization. Two recent sessions:
A free training for leaders from nonprofits across Chicago. We separated the myths about AI from the real risks, then worked through concrete examples so each organization could start spotting use cases of its own. Co-led with Devon VanHouten Maldonado.
Read the recapA webinar for communicators on putting AI to work day to day: why every organization needs an AI policy and what belongs in it, the myths worth setting aside, and practical uses grounded in real examples.
Whether you need a workshop for your team, want to understand where AI fits your organization, or are ready to build something, I’d like to hear from you. No pitch, no pressure. Just a conversation.
