AI is becoming part of everyday work across civil society organizations. From drafting communications and summarizing documents to brainstorming campaign ideas and analyzing information, AI tools offer new opportunities to save time and increase impact. But they also introduce new challenges. AI can be helpful, but it can also be biased, inaccurate, or confidently wrong.
Build AI Confidence Without Losing Critical Judgment
AI Literacy Foundations is designed as a 6-hour interactive training that guides participants through a practical learning journey, from understanding what AI is and how it works, to applying it responsibly in real-world nonprofit contexts. The curriculum combines presentations, hands-on activities, discussion prompts, exercises, and take-home resources that help learners build confidence through practice.
Rather than focusing on AI tools alone, the curriculum helps participants develop the skills needed to use AI thoughtfully and responsibly. Learners explore both the opportunities and limitations of generative AI, practice effective prompting techniques, and learn how to evaluate outputs critically before applying them to their work.
Designed for Civil Society
The curriculum was created for nonprofit professionals, trainers, educators, facilitators, and civil society staff who are new to AI or have some initial experience and want to build practical confidence. It is appropriate for mixed-experience groups and can be delivered either online or in person.
Participants learn:
How generative AI works and why its outputs can sometimes be inaccurate or misleading.
Practical prompting skills using the CRAFT framework (Context, Role, Action, Format, Target).
How to identify and manage risks related to hallucinations, bias, privacy, and data security.
Methods for applying AI to common civil society tasks such as research, summarization, translation, audience engagement, and content development.
Responsible-use practices that keep human judgment at the center of decision-making.
More Than a Slide Deck
AI Literacy Foundations includes a complete ecosystem of materials that support both trainers and learners. The package contains:
A detailed curriculum and facilitator's guide.
Presentation slides and teaching assets for activities and demonstrations.
Learner worksheets, prompt templates, reference cards, and practice resources.
Additional learning materials for those who want to explore responsible AI, generative AI concepts, and data security in greater depth.
The curriculum is structured in such a way so that even trainers who are relatively new to the topic can confidently deliver the session using the provided guidance and materials.
Practical and Adaptable
Civil society organizations operate in diverse contexts, and AI Literacy Foundations was built with flexibility in mind. Trainers are encouraged to adapt examples, discussions, and activities to local languages, cultures, and organizational realities while maintaining the curriculum's core learning objectives and frameworks.
The curriculum emphasizes real-world application, helping participants move beyond AI experimentation toward meaningful and responsible use in their daily work. Through practical exercises and reflection activities, learners develop habits that support both effectiveness and accountability.
The curriculum is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, allowing organizations to adapt and reuse the materials while retaining attribution.
Whether you're planning a workshop for nonprofit staff, introducing AI concepts to a community group, or building organizational AI skills from the ground up, AI Literacy Foundations provides a structured, practical starting point.
Register Here:
Access the free AI Literacy Foundations curriculum and start building AI confidence with critical judgment at the center.
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Disclaimers
This piece of resource has been created as part of the AI for Social Change project within TechSoup's Digital Activism Program, with support from Google.org.
AI tools are evolving rapidly, and while we do our best to ensure the validity of the content we provide, sometimes some elements may no longer be up to date. If you notice that a piece of information is outdated, please let us know at content@techsoup.org.
The content was created, reviewed, and edited by TechSoup's Digital Activism Program team with AI assistance