This case study is funded in part by generous support from Microsoft.
Some of the most common challenges for nonprofits include difficulty in finding funding, not having enough staff (which can result in staff burnout), and inefficient office administration. To address these challenges, nonprofits are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot as part of their digital transformation journeys.
Around 74 percent of nonprofits surveyed are already using AI in multiple ways as a transformative tool to address operational and mission-driven challenges.
AI technologies like Microsoft 365 Copilot are already transforming nonprofit work in a quantifiable way. A recent study shows the transformative impact of Microsoft 365 Copilot for nonprofits, which includes improving operational efficiency by up to 25 percent and decreasing technology costs by at least 50 percent.
The case study below outlines how three TechSoup members are leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot in a variety of different ways: automating administrative tasks, deploying AI to help write grant applications, and optimizing communication. These use case examples may help and inspire other nonprofits that are looking to use and incorporate AI solutions.
Learn more about how Community Rebuilders, Steel Hearts, and Community Counseling Solutions are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to reshape efficiency, productivity, and digital resilience within their organizations.
TechSoup members can access Microsoft 365 Copilot via the TechSoup catalog.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI tool used by nonprofits to accelerate digital transformation and build digital resilience. Its ability to automate tasks, enhance communications, assist in writing grant applications, and streamline workflows is helping nonprofits boost productivity and operational efficiency. This in turn helps nonprofit staff free up time so they can focus on achieving their missions.
Many organizations choose Microsoft 365 Copilot as their AI solution because it fully integrates with Microsoft applications like Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. In addition, its enterprise-grade data protection and privacy and security protections can assist organizations to meet compliance requirements and ethical AI use goals.
In this case study, three nonprofit organizations share how they’re using Microsoft 365 Copilot, the impact it’s having on their organizations, and how they hope to use it in the future to achieve their missions.
These nonprofits are leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot to draft emails, transcribe meetings, generate reports, apply for funding, search through emails, and more — saving time, streamlining their operations, and powering impact.
In addition to Microsoft 365 Copilot, nonprofit organizations can also leverage Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, which is a secure AI chat for work (free with an eligible Microsoft 365 or Office 365 license), and Microsoft Copilot Studio, which is a low-code platform for building AI-powered custom plug-ins and workflows.
Copilot’s ability to assist staff at nonprofits to perform tasks more efficiently helps them to be more productive and impactful. This is one of the main reasons all three of these nonprofits choose to use Microsoft 365 Copilot.
Angela Gillisse, chief of data and technology at Community Rebuilders, uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to draft emails, transcribe meetings, apply for funding, prepare PowerPoint presentations, and more. She says Copilot helps her save lots of time each week: “I would say at least 15 hours.”
Steel Hearts obtained licenses through TechSoup in early 2025 and has been using it primarily to locate important data in Outlook, including members’ email addresses or phone numbers. Microsoft 365 Copilot is integrated within Microsoft Outlook, which means that nonprofits can use it to search for information contained in emails that may have been sent or received months or even years ago.
Joseph Wiseman, co-founder and executive director of Steel Hearts, uses Copilot to assist him in performing routine tasks like searching through emails.
“Having the ability to search through those is pretty huge” and “tremendously helpful,” he says.
Community Counseling Solutions, which provides behavioral health services in Oregon, is a relatively large nonprofit with around 450 full-time employees. One of their main reasons for using Copilot is to help staff members reclaim hours of time on tasks that can be done much more quickly using AI.
Their IT administrator, Mike Snyder, says, “Everybody's too busy.” As a mental health organization, they place value in a healthy work-life balance, which inspired Snyder to explore the adoption of Microsoft 365 Copilot for their busy staff.
It “saves me a lot of time doing evaluations,” he says — just one example of how he’s using Copilot to speed up and enhance the work he’s involved in.
Copilot can help nonprofits boost operational efficiency by automating and speeding up routine tasks and streamlining workflows — enabling staff to spend more time fulfilling their organizational missions.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is being used at Community Rebuilders to assist staff with a range of tasks, including drafting emails, writing reports, creating presentations, and writing grant proposals. Staff members are also using Copilot to transcribe summaries of meetings in minutes. Where previously a staff member needed to sit in on meetings to take minutes, Copilot is now being leveraged to do that — freeing up time and capacity.
Community Counseling Solutions also uses Microsoft 365 Copilot to boost operational efficiency — helping their busy staff save time. “We started slow with five licenses and we have 15 now,” explains IT administrator Mike Snyder, who has spearheaded the use of Copilot within their organization.
From writing a personalized speech to customizing Excel spreadsheets and helping staff with mundane and routine tasks, it’s changing the way things are done. “It's a powerful business tool,” explains Snyder as he talks about how Copilot can be leveraged by nonprofits in a variety of different ways.
AI’s ability to perform multiple tasks quickly and simultaneously means that nonprofits can leverage tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot to communicate with more supporters or members, find and apply for more grants, and free up time for staff to focus on achieving accelerated impact.
For Community Rebuilders, which operates in a HIPAA-compliant environment, great care has to be taken to protect privacy rights related to data that they handle. Chief of data and technology Angela Gillisse explains that her organization has to be “really cautious with our usage of AI, ensuring that we are maintaining compliance.”
Community Rebuilders has opted to use Microsoft 365 Copilot for this reason, rather than other AI tools, using tagging in Copilot to ensure that data is handled appropriately. They’re also developing an AI Use Policy to help guide staff in using AI correctly, and they have plans to provide staff training on AI and HIPAA compliance as a precursor to more staff receiving Copilot licenses.
Using AI to assist with report writing can pose challenges in a HIPAA-compliant environment, explains Gillisse . Community Rebuilders has been exploring how to remain compliant while using Copilot for writing reports and has developed a methodological approach. By using Copilot’s tagging capabilities — and by using Copilot to write and format reports before adding any personally identifiable information — they’re managing to leverage AI responsibly.
Another impactful way that AI is helping to transform nonprofit work is by assisting with grant writing and funding opportunities. According to the OneCause 2025 Fundraising Outlook Report, 71 percent of nonprofits are using or planning to use AI for fundraising and event planning in 2025. Nonprofits that are using AI for fundraising are seeing quantifiable results: a recent study found that Microsoft 365 Copilot increased fundraising output for nonprofits by up to 20 percent in three years.
There are several ways that nonprofits can use AI to optimize fundraising. AI can help nonprofits draft and automate grant applications, improve donor outreach and communications, analyze which fundraising applications will be most successful, and more.
Community Rebuilders is using Microsoft 365 Copilot to enhance its fundraising efforts. “I use it to write grant proposals for either grant applications or presentations,” says Angela Gillisse from Community Rebuilders. This can be done, for example, using Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word and providing prompts (which can reference grant guidelines documents) to generate a grant application or by using it in PowerPoint or Excel to create charts and data visualizations.
Mike Snyder from Community Counseling Solutions says his organization is excited to start leveraging Microsoft 365 Copilot for grant writing. He acknowledges that there are lots of available grants, but that staff members don’t always have time to apply for them because they are so busy with other tasks. By using Copilot to automate tasks and streamline workflows, he’s hoping they will have more time to dedicate to applying for grants in the future.
Nonprofits are increasingly adopting and using AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot to power their digital transformation, helping them save time, be more productive, and deliver greater impact.
The recently published The State of AI in Nonprofits: Benchmark Report on Adoption, Impact, and Trends (2025) recognizes the transformative power of AI for nonprofit organizations, showcasing its multiple use cases. From grant writing, communications, and automating tasks to assisting with data analysis, there are a growing number of ways that AI tools like Copilot can assist nonprofits in the work they do.
Nonprofits like Community Counseling Solutions, Steel Hearts, and Community Rebuilders are leveraging AI tools like Microsoft 365 Copilot to help them overcome challenges and fulfill their missions. They are also learning to adapt to challenges associated with using AI and are working on strategies for expanding the use of AI within their organizations.
Is your nonprofit interested in getting started with Microsoft 365 Copilot? Here are some practical tips for how to begin exploring and testing the use of Microsoft 365 Copilot:
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