What determines GenAI Adoption? 

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Wanzhu Shi1 and Lauren Azevedo2

1University of North Florida, Jacksonville, USA, 2University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a type of AI that can create new content. Common types of GenAI include ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. GenAI tools aren’t going anywhere, even for organizations like nonprofits who fulfill their missions in various ways and in all types of communities. Nonprofits can use GenAI tools for many organizational tasks, such as in fundraising and donor engagement, marketing and operations, and program delivery and impact. The potential for this technology is immense.  

However, nonprofits don’t always have the resources to invest in new technology and these tools come with some significant ethical concerns for organizations already serving vulnerable groups. Reports of biases due to tools that draw on historical data have disproportionately flagged some groups, raising concerns about GenAI use in working with at risk groups. So how do nonprofits decide to use this technology? What determines GenAI use in nonprofits? And how important are these concerns for ethics and privacy?  

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What Do Volunteers Need to Thrive? Psychological Needs Behind Volunteer Well-Being and Ill-Being 

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Olivér Lubics1,2, Tímea Magyaródi2, and Henriett Nagy2

1Doctoral School of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, 2Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

What does a volunteer need to experience their work as meaningful, feel satisfied, and stay engaged without burning out or leaving the organization? Many volunteer coordinators have probably asked themselves similar questions when facing the challenge of maintaining long-term volunteer engagement. There are many ways to approach this issue, but as a psychologist, I have always been especially interested in the underlying motivational factors: What are the fundamental needs of volunteers that, when satisfied, help them thrive and remain engaged, but when frustrated, contribute to distress and withdrawal? 

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How North Carolina’s Nonprofits Respond to the DEI Pendulum 

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Jennifer Beightley1 and Lauren Azevedo1

1University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Much like North Carolina is a political microcosm of the United States, our nonprofit sector within the state may be a microcosm of the American nonprofit landscape. North Carolina is a compelling paradox of study because not only does it consist of large hospital networks, competitive universities, and vital rural human services, it also operates within a unique purple tension. The space between a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature means politics, and currently diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ride a pendulum between the two. This pendulum space creates a distinctive environment where policy shifts have immediate, tangible effects on those dependent on government funding. Studying how North Carolina nonprofits adapt to this volatility around them at varying levels offer state-level understanding, but it may also offer broader insight into how the nonprofit sector across the country responds to a swinging political environment.  

The DEI political pendulum swung left in the second half of 2020, propelled by movements and events such as Black Lives Matter, the murder of George Floyd, and #MeToo. It stayed left as President Joseph R. Biden took office in January 2021. Biden’s administration placed heavy emphasis on advancing DEI initiatives within the federal government, issuing 11 DEI-related Executive Orders in his first year in office. The DEI pendulum then began its swing to the right in the summer of 2024 when companies like John Deere and Harley Davidson announced they were discontinuing their DEI programs and DEI had become a pejorative term applied by some legislators to Kamala Harris, the first Black, Asian American, and female Vice President. And, the North Carolina higher education system had recently been affected by the Supreme Court decision in the Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard College, having been ordered to no longer use race in admissions. The timing of our study of North Carolina’s nonprofits and their commitment to DEI landed here, and provided unmistakable political and social context.  

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The Hidden Gaps: Rethinking Racial Disparities in Nonprofit Funding 

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Shuyi Deng

Indiana University, Bloomington, USA

When people talk about racial equity in philanthropy, the conversation often centers on one divide: White communities versus Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. Accordingly, most racial equity initiatives in philanthropy have adopted a broad, dichotomous view of inequity, assuming that if funding for BIPOC communities increases, racial inequities will be reduced. As important as this approach is, it can also hide another layer of inequity. BIPOC communities are not a single, uniform group. When diverse communities are bundled together under one label, important differences in access to funding can disappear from view.  

My recent study in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly examines this less visible side of nonprofit funding inequity: disparities within BIPOC communities themselves. While previous research has documented the funding gap between White and BIPOC communities, I ask a different question: what if inequity also exists among the very communities that racial equity initiatives are intended to support? 

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