As of mid-2025, AI is drastically changing how we interact online. How we search for information, the news headlines we see, the content of many articles we read—they are all being affected by AI, whether we like it or not.
At Funding for Good, we are not AI experts and don’t claim to be. But we have helped consultants grapple with questions about AI through online consultant meet-ups, in our online networking community, and by bringing in expert perspectives at our conferences for nonprofit consultants.
Because this is an important and evolving conversation, we wanted to share a bit what our team is learning about AI in the context of building and updating websites for nonprofits and businesses.
AI for Writing Websites: The Promise You Might Be Seeing
Imagine creating a whole branded website from scratch in minutes. That’s the promise that some AI tools are making. Yes, it can be tempting to let AI tools like ChatGPT write your website. Some website builder platforms even provide integrated AI functions.
In some cases, an AI-written and AI-built website may be enough for what you need. But in most cases, the research says it isn’t.
The Data on What Doesn’t Work When Using AI for Your Website (and Why It Matters)
If you expect your website to be part of an engagement or marketing strategy—such as by converting visitors to donors, volunteers, or clients—then it’s worth being cautious in your use of AI.
As reported in Search Engine Journal, research shows that:
- People can spot AI-generated content surprisingly often—up to 88% of the time for text and 70% of the time for images.
- When people detect your AI content, 40% of them are likely to view your brand less favorably. People aged 45-65 are the most critical.
These stats are especially important for nonprofits and nonprofit consultants. Those aged 45-65 right now are among your top target donors and decision-makers.
These are the folks who are starting to think about and make decisions about the long-term legacy they want to leave in the world. Research consistently shows that from 55-65 is where people start to make larger gifts (source), which continues as they age—all the way through planned giving.
These same people are also in major decision-making roles: CEOs, executive directors, department heads, and board members. They’re deciding which priorities to pursue and who they want to partner with.
When deciding whether to donate to your nonprofit or hire your business, these decision-makers are going to your website to learn more about what you do.
When they do that, they’re looking for authenticity and expertise. They want to know that you know how to make an impact. They want to know that your values align with theirs. If you use AI to write your website from scratch, this simply isn’t going to happen.
What Can Work When Using AI for Your Website: An Editing Partner
Editing and proofreading are where AI shines most as a writing partner for your website. Whether it’s through tools like Grammarly or ChatGPT, AI can help you catch errors, smooth awkward phrases, and make sure your writing is approachable for a wide audience (while still sounding like you).
The truth is that not all of us feel confident as writers. Having someone give our writing a “fresh set of eyes” or a professional proofread can help us put our best foot forward.
The key, though, is making sure you have already decided WHAT you want to say and have WRITTEN a draft.
Then, you can use AI tools as tools—rather than as replacements for sharing your expertise and engaging with your audience.
Website Basics That Matter Even More in the World of AI
Designing and writing an effective website is not easy, whether you use AI or not. That’s because your website needs to be easy for your ideal audience (of human decision-makers) to navigate. People need to land on your site and quickly determine:
- What you do and why you do it
- That you are an expert at what you do (and not a business or nonprofit run by chatbots)
- Whether your values align
This means getting the basics right for your website matters more than ever.
1) Use every tool on your website to communicate what you
Too many websites bury information about what the organization does and why in the small print. People make judgment calls about whether to stay on a website very quickly. So be sure your purpose and value-add are reflected consistently across your headlines, tagline, navigation menu, graphics, and headers throughout each page. To test this out ask someone who doesn’t know much about your business to go to your homepage and, without scrolling, describe what you do and why.
If you’re not yet sure how to efficiently communicate what you do, we help nonprofits and businesses do this through our strategic planning services and work with nonprofit consultants through our business coaching programs.
2) Make your website easy to navigate
If someone lands on your website, can they quickly and easily find what they need? Is it easy for them to take actions like making a donation, attending an event you’re organizing, inquiring about your services, or becoming a volunteer with your nonprofit? If not, go back and rethink your site structure (using all the tools like taglines, headlines, navigation menus, etc.).
3) Make your website pages skimmable
Even before AI, people skimmed websites. In fact, 81% of folks skim online content. Which means many of you reading this article do the same! Think about it: when you land on a webpage, do you a) read every word from top to bottom or b) read the title and first couple of sentences, then skim the page to see if it’s worth investing more time reading closely? Write for the skimmers and the readers, and your site will have more engagement.
4) Demonstrate firsthand expertise with real examples throughout your website
Unless you are selling widgets, when someone arrives on your website to learn about your organization or business, they want to come away thinking that you are the expert in what you do. You can stand out from the crowd by always including real-life examples (they can be anonymized) that show your work and expertise in action. Don’t limit this to your home page or about page. On every page, think about how you can share relevant stories about the problems your organization has helped solve and statistics about your unique impact.
A Personal Note: Why We Wrote This Article About AI and Websites
In full transparency, Funding For Good writes all content in-house, and we do not use AI for our content creation. We rely on our decades of experience and expertise to craft the content we share on our site and in our emails. But we acknowledge that AI is of interest and use to most of the world, and our online community, so our resident SEO strategist, Camellia, has learned a TON on this subject, and we decided to share this compilation with our community as we all work to navigate the ever-evolving world of technology. We hope it helps as you work to grow for good.
