The Most Important Piece of Our AI Use Framework
When ABD Direct launched our Generative AI Use Framework one year ago, we joined many others in setting clear ethical and practical guidelines around how we were willing to use emerging AI tools. As with any new technology, we felt responsible for creating a framework that includes guidelines on data privacy, client protection, employee training, and a human-in-the-loop requirement for all AI-assisted work. You can’t have a serious AI framework without these fundamentals. They’re how we earn trust and reduce risk.
But what makes our framework particularly successful isn’t the rules. It’s the reasoning behind them. That’s why, one year later, we think the most important piece of our AI Use Framework is our generative AI values statement:
“AI can enhance and amplify the expertise and commitment that already makes ABD Direct’s services so valuable to its clients. That is only true when we continue to invest in staff, career development, and workplace relationships. We believe that any time saved through AI will provide further value to our clients by reinvesting that time in strategic and creative pursuits outside of the capabilities of AI systems.”
This values statement isn’t a footnote to our framework—it’s at the core of it. It’s what has allowed us to adopt AI not just responsibly, but enthusiastically and on our own terms.
We think of generative AI as innovative, and it is—but innovation is more than a buzzword for us. It requires real intention to operationalize something as transformative as generative AI.
All of this has helped us realize our agency value to shatter limitations, and to pursue the creative and strategic work that we thought generative AI could support all along.
At ABD Direct, AI hasn’t replaced a single job. It has, however, made our teams faster, more creative, and more collaborative. AI hasn’t isolated our work—it’s connected it in new ways. It’s given us back time—time that’s been reinvested in developing ideas, strengthening campaigns, and honing strategy.
Our team has found dozens of small but powerful ways to work smarter with AI. We’ve used it to:
- Refine writing quickly and creatively—whether we’re workshopping a sentence that doesn’t quite land, avoiding repetitive phrasing, or adapting our tone and style to match a specific region or style guide. AI is rarely the first and never the final author, but it’s often an insightful editor.
- Tackle HTML troubleshooting, giving our team the confidence and backup to take on more advanced web and email coding projects.
- Visualize data more effectively, by describing the insight we want to communicate and getting guidance on the most compelling chart or graphic approach.
- Research more efficiently, from deep dives into a nonprofit’s position in the ecosystem to sourcing relevant industry trends. Generative AI has even been a helpful additional (but not primary) check on facts when reviewing copy.
- Mock up creative concepts, including rough videos drafts or visual layouts, to help us communicate ideas more clearly before handing them off to designers and video editors, who create a far more polished product.
No single use case is revolutionary…yet. But collectively, these examples show how AI can act like an incredibly well-read intern with endless energy.
Perhaps the best signal that we’re doing something right is that our clients have not only welcomed our use of generative AI—they’ve asked us to use it in fundraising creative and asked us for guidance as they develop their own frameworks.
We remain vigilant about the harms AI can pose, particularly around bias and data privacy, and continue to ground our work in human review and transparency. But we’re also optimistic about the promise of these tools when used responsibly.
One year in, we have no regrets. Generative AI is here to stay. And at ABD Direct, it’s making our work stronger—not because it’s taken over, but because it’s been intentionally integrated into a workplace that puts people first.
We’d love to hear how you are experimenting with AI in your everyday tasks and work together to find solutions for responsible AI use to advance your organization’s mission.
Ben Deutsch is ABD Direct’s Vice President of Digital Marketing, and he led the development of ABD Direct’s AI Use Framework. A leader in helping ABD Direct operationalize innovation and explore emerging technologies, Ben has completed MIT’s Applied Generative AI for Digital Transformation course.
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