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Issue 1 · October 3, 2026 · 3-minute read More Good Tested tools and simple ideas that give your team time back for the work that matters. |
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The AI habit that catches mistakes before you hit send |
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In 30 seconds | 1 | A free AI check that catches what your reader would notice. Copy the prompt below. | | 2 | A three-line list that shows where your team's hours go. | | 3 | Giving Tuesday is eight weeks out. Two decisions now make it calm. |
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The number 7% of nonprofits say AI has made a major difference to what they can do. 92% use it. Most use it one person at a time, with nothing shared. Source: Virtuous and Fundraising.AI, 2026 Nonprofit AI Adoption Report: 346 nonprofits, surveyed December 2025 |
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01 Tried and tested Ask AI to read it before anyone else doesBefore an email, a flyer or a plan goes out, have an AI assistant read it as the person receiving it. It finds the sentence they would stumble on, while you can still fix it. | Cost: FreeWorks in: ChatGPT, Claude or GeminiSetup: None |
It is one of five AI habits that give our founder back 10 to 15 hours a week, and the one to start with. Copy this, then paste your draft under it Read this as [a new volunteer coming to their first shift on Saturday]. Tell me what's unclear, what might be wrong and what's missing. Don't rewrite it. |
Swap the bracket for whoever will read it: a program officer, a board member, a parent signing up their child. The test We tried it on a sample welcome email for new volunteers, the kind a busy week produces: Hi! Thanks for signing up to volunteer at Harbor Table. Please arrive early on Saturday and check in with the coordinator. Wear appropriate clothing. We're so excited to have you on the team! Let us know if you have any questions. |
What the AI flagged, reading as that volunteer: | 1 | "Arrive early" doesn't say how early, or what time the shift starts. | | 2 | There's no address, and no word on which door to use or where to park. | | 3 | "Appropriate clothing" leaves me guessing. Closed-toe shoes for a kitchen? | | 4 | "The coordinator" has no name, so I don't know who to look for. |
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Keep a person in charge. Paste only text that's safe to share, with no names, contact details or anything private. Keep donor information out of AI tools altogether. |
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02 The one-minute move Find the hours hiding in your weekWrite down the three tasks you repeat most that feel like a chore. Next to each, how often and how long. Then multiply. | Task (example) | Per week | Minutes | Hours | | Answering the same volunteer question | 8 | 10 | 1.3 | | The weekly report | 1 | 90 | 1.5 | | Meeting notes | 3 | 30 | 1.5 | | Total | | | 4.3 |
In this example that's about 225 hours a year. More than five work weeks, gone to three small chores. Yours will be different. Do the math anyway. Do it with your whole team in one meeting |
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03 Worth your time Is your mission guiding your work, or are your grants?“In the last 12 months, did you skip a grant because the work did not fit your mission?” |
That's one of eight questions in our new free mission drift check. Two minutes, no account, and one clear next step at the end. Take the mission drift check |
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Coming up | Form 990 due For fiscal years that ended June 30. The 15th falls on a Sunday this year, so the deadline moves to Monday. Check your deadline | | Giving Tuesday Eight weeks out. Decide now if you're in, and pick one number to raise and one picture to show. The rest fits in four weeks. The four-week plan |
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One question for you Which task would you most like to get time back from? Email hello@donewithember.org. We read every answer, and the most common one becomes a future test. |
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What’s new in Ember. Coming soon: ask Claude or ChatGPT to add a task to Ember. It lands on the right person's list, with a due date. |
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More time to do more good,
The Ember team |
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