This summer, I embarked on a six-week Leadership-in-Action project with WONDER Foundation, exploring how AI could enhance organisational efficiency for this mission-driven charity. As someone passionate about leveraging technology for social impact, I was excited to bridge the gap between emerging AI capabilities and the practical needs of a small but ambitious organisation dedicated to improving educational outcomes of women and girls worldwide.
Project Overview and Objectives
My role centred on mapping the organisational structure at WONDER and identifying realistic AI tools that could enhance productivity across departments including fundraising, communications, programmes, and operations. The primary objective was to create a comprehensive AI opportunity assessment that respected the foundation's size, capacity, and values-driven approach while maximising potential impact.
Through a structured six-week programme, I conducted stakeholder interviews, researched sector-wide AI adoption patterns, developed departmental overviews, and ultimately delivered comprehensive strategic recommendations for AI integration. The project produced detailed deliverables including an AI benchmarking report, departmental overview document, and comprehensive AI tools matrix designed to inform data-driven decisions about technology adoption.
Stakeholders and Leadership Learnings
Working across multiple departments exposed me to diverse perspectives within the charity sector. Each team member brought unique challenges, from fundraising professionals seeking donor engagement tools to programme staff needing better monitoring and evaluation systems. This cross-functional collaboration taught me that effective leadership requires adapting to different priorities and use cases: while all teams were technically savvy, their AI application needs varied significantly, from donor stewardship automation to data analysis workflows.
One pivotal learning emerged from my goal to build confidence in influencing and engaging stakeholders across departments. I discovered that building rapport and engaging in trust-based conversations were essential prerequisites to meaningful consultation. Early interviews felt surface-level, but by refining my approach and asking more tailored questions, I could draw out deeper insights about genuine pain points and opportunities. This shift proved transformative, as team members began revealing specific operational bottlenecks they had initially hesitated to discuss. For instance, the Social Impact Manager revealed that email correspondence and report writing consumed significant time that could otherwise be spent on capacity building with partners. These deeper insights directly informed my tool recommendations and ensured the final AI matrix addressed real operational challenges rather than theoretical possibilities.
Navigating Remote Work Challenges
The largely remote working environment presented unexpected leadership challenges. Certain weeks were particularly difficult due to limited organisational engagement, leaving me feeling disconnected from the wider team. This taught me the critical importance of proactive communication and structured stakeholder involvement in tech implementation projects. I learnt to seek feedback earlier and more frequently, recognising that even excellent technical solutions require organisational buy-in to succeed.
This experience reinforced my understanding that leadership is not just about delivering outputs; instead, it is about maintaining relationships and ensuring alignment throughout the process, especially in distributed work environments.
Impact and Legacy
The project delivered tangible value through several key outputs. The departmental overview document provided WONDER's leadership with their first comprehensive mapping of staff roles, existing technology usage, and identified AI opportunities tailored to each team member's specific challenges. Moreover, the AI benchmarking report positioned WONDER’s current capabilities within sector context by analysing how peer organizations like CAMFED were leveraging AI for donor engagement, monitoring & evaluation, and fundraising optimization.
Most significantly, the comprehensive AI tools matrix equipped stakeholders with practical solutions. This detailed analysis evaluated tools ranging from basic productivity enhancers like Claude and ChatGPT to enterprise solutions like Salesforce Agentforce for Nonprofits, complete with implementation pathways, cost analyses, and contextual fit assessments. Each recommendation included specific use cases mapped to individual roles, from Momentum AI for donor stewardship to Beautiful.ai for presentation creation.
The sustained impact of this project lies in WONDER's enhanced capacity to make informed technology decisions. My research established frameworks for evaluating AI tools against their mission-driven criteria, creating a reusable methodology for future technology assessments. The detailed comparison tables I developed provide ongoing reference materials for tool selection, while the role-specific recommendations offer clear pathways for gradual AI adoption across departments.
Personal Growth and Unexpected Discoveries
This Leadership-in-Action project pushed me well beyond my comfort zone in several ways. Working primarily independently while maintaining stakeholder relationships demanded new levels of self-direction and initiative. I successfully achieved my SMART goals around stakeholder engagement and written communication, producing executive-level documents that translated complex technical concepts into accessible recommendations.
However, the experience also revealed personal preferences I previously hadn't fully recognised. I discovered I thrive in dynamic environments and found the largely independent research work less energising than expected. Moreover, the remote work nature of the project meant I never felt fully integrated into the team culture, reinforcing my understanding that I work best in collaborative, team-based work environments.
Perhaps most valuably, I learned that rigorous verification and diligence are non-negotiable in policy-oriented work. Every recommendation in my AI tools matrix needed robust evidence, multiple source validation, and clear acknowledgment of limitations. This standard will undoubtedly serve me well in future research and advisory roles. Moreover, the detailed comparative analyses I conducted taught me to balance technical capabilities with practical organizational constraints, ensuring recommendations were both innovative and implementable.
Looking Forward
Reflecting on this experience, I would approach similar projects with more structured stakeholder engagement protocols from the outset. Building regular check-ins and feedback loops into the project timeline would help maintain organisational connection and ensure recommendations remain grounded in user needs.
This Leadership-in-Action project demonstrated that effective technology integration requires more than technical expertise. It demands deep organisational understanding, stakeholder empathy, and the ability to communicate complex concepts clearly. As I continue developing my leadership capabilities, these insights about the human elements of technological change will prove invaluable.
To sum it up, this experience reinforced my commitment to using emerging technologies for social impact, while teaching me the patience and diligence required to bridge the gap between innovation and implementation in charitable organisations like the WONDER Foundation.