Join us for a monthly online meetup exploring ways in which nonprofits can use AI effectively and responsibly. Each session features a short presentation by Ken Krugler on a specific AI topic relevant to nonprofit work, followed by open Q&A and discussion facilitated by Erika Kosina.
Whether you’re already using AI tools or just curious about getting started, these 1-hour Zoom sessions are a welcoming space to learn, ask questions, and hear how others in the nonprofit community are putting AI to work.
Upcoming Event
November 20th: 10am to 11am (Pacific): Is it the AI apocalypse?
Headlines warn of machines that will take over, jobs that vanish overnight, and risks that could spiral out of control. But how much of that is grounded in evidence, and how much is fear-mongering? In this meetup, Ken will separate the plausible concerns from the speculative ones, look at what can or should be done, and talk through what it means for nonprofits and the communities they serve. Bring your questions and your skepticism. Whether you’re worried, excited, or somewhere in between, you’ll leave with a clearer picture and practical ways to think about AI’s real-world impact.
Prerequisites and Notes
Open to everyone – no prior AI experience or course enrollment required.
Attendees must have a computer with a modern web browser, a recent version of Zoom, and a camera.
Recordings of our Meetups will now be posted two weeks after the event.
- October 23rd: Agents, agents, and more agents! Ken demoed connecting Claude to Gmail, Google Calendar, Trello (task management), QuickBooks, and Granola (note taking), showing what it looks like when you can ask “what did we agree to in yesterday’s board call, and is it on the Trello board yet?” and get a real answer.
- September 23rd: AI Slop or Not? And Do You Care? Can you tell if something was written by AI? Detectors say yes. They’re often wrong, and getting worse as people pick up AI’s vocabulary and rhythms. Ken and Erika walked through what these tools can and can’t do, and looked at fake images.
- August 20, 2026: Erika Kosina and Ken Krugler led a discussion and demonstrations on “Skills: Teaching AI to Work Your Way”. The meetup covered what skills are (reusable instructions your AI can activate automatically or on command), how they differ from projects, when to use which, and live demos — where attendees watched a skill get built and triggered in real time. The discussion also went over the real challenges: security and vetting, unwanted triggers, and stale data.
- July 22, 2026: Erika Kosina led a discussion on “hard conversations about AI.” Here, the group talked about the trickiest communication challenges in nonprofits right now and what is needed to mitigate uncertainty and fear, using real world examples as launching points for discussion.
- June 11, 2026: Ken Krugler talked about “super deep research”. What do you do if it’s critical that you get a complete and accurate report on an important topic? In this meetup Ken demonstrated the techniques he uses.
- May 28, 2026: Ken Krugler showed us how to use AI to easily and painlessly create a presentation. This included branding, writing the rough draft, outlining and PowerPoint deck creation using Claude.
- April 16, 2026: Ken Krugler showed us how to dip our toes into vibe-coding (building apps without traditional programming), with a demo showing how to vibe-code an interactive web site without being a programmer.
- March 12, 2026: Ken Krugler covered key issues in AI guidance, including why having company AI guidelines is a good idea, and the different types of guidance – red, yellow, and green light areas.
- February 12, 2026: We discussed using AI for funding evaluations and grant writing for nonprofits. Ken Krugler demonstrated how he uses Claude with Instrumentl to find, evaluate, and apply for grants.
- September 3, 2025: 5:30pm at Sierra Nevada Children’s Services office, located at 420 Sierra College Dr, Suite 100 in Grass Valley. A big thank you to SNCS for providing the space for our meeting! Course instructor Ken Krugler talked about the how/why/why not of enabling “agentic” support in the AI services. What does that actually mean? We discussed how to connect AIs to your mail/calendar/Canva, what useful things can be done with that integration, and why you might not want to give AI access to even more of your life.
Founder and lead instructor Ken Krugler is a software developer, startup founder and trainer with over 15 years of experience teaching technical classes. He previously worked at Apple on the original Macintosh and has been working with AI for more than nine years.
Erika Kosina uses AI to provide efficient and cost-effective content marketing planning, story-driven content creation, and campaign measurement and recommendations for nonprofits.