How can we harness AI to shape our narratives without losing the human essence that gives our story its authenticity and uniqueness?
Question submitted by: Modupe Shodeinde, Director of Strategic Communications and Storytelling, Dora and Florence Children’s Foundation, Nigeria
I use AI in fundraising and communications, but I would never compromise on one rule: AI can help you tell your story. It should not invent your story.
Imagine an NGO in Nigeria has just completed a livelihoods project. The team has field notes, photographs, monitoring data and interviews with participants. I would not ask AI: “Write me an emotional story about these women.”
Instead, I would give the tool the verified information and ask it to organise the material, identify themes, shorten it for LinkedIn, or turn the evidence into a case study.
Then the human returns.
Because AI doesn’t know what it felt like when that woman harvested her first successful crop. It doesn’t know the meaning of a particular expression in that community. It doesn’t understand the relationship between a beneficiary and a field officer in the same way the people involved do. The human voice provides those insights.
The same approach works in Liberia, Ghana, Ethiopia or Côte d’Ivoire. Start with real people, real quotations, real data and real experiences. Let AI help with structure, editing, translation, audience adaptation and speed.
Also, please don’t upload sensitive beneficiary information simply because the tool makes writing easier. Safeguarding, privacy and informed consent still matter.
Another trap is making every story sound AI-written. You know the language – “transforming lives,” “empowering communities,” “creating sustainable impact.” After dozens of proposals, donors see those phrases everywhere.
Sometimes the most powerful sentence is much simpler:
“Before the project, Mariam walked two hours to collect water. Today, the water point is 300 metres from her home.”
That is human.
A French expression says: « Chassez le naturel, il revient au galop » – roughly translated, try to suppress what is natural, and it comes rushing back. For me, it reminds me that authentic voices eventually matter more than polished language.
My preferred workflow is simple: From real experience to verified evidence, to human interpretation, to AI assistance and to human editing.
(This answer was provided by Julius Gamy, a Liberian NGO fundraising strategist and proposal development specialist)
