Before You Use AI Again, Read This

David Oaks SGNN Board Chair

Friday, February 27

11:30 a.m.

Stop. 

Before you ask ChatGPT to write another grant.

Before you use AI to draft another donor email.

Before you use AI again, read this. 🚨 When the head of U.S. cybersecurity uploaded sensitive documents to ChatGPT, it made national headlines. If he can make this mistake, what about nonprofit leaders? Learn how to use AI wisely, ethically, and safely at SGNN's March 12 conference

Before you upload one more document to an AI platform. 

You need to know what you’re risking.

I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to protect you—and the people you serve. 

In 2025, Madhu Gottumukkala—the acting head of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency—uploaded sensitive government documents into the public version of ChatGPT.

Read that again.

The person responsible for protecting America’s cybersecurity infrastructure didn’t understand that uploading documents to public AI tools could expose them.

He used ChatGPT to analyze contracting documents marked “for official use only.”

His “for official use” information ended up printed in Politico and The New York Times.

If the head of U.S. cybersecurity can make this mistake, what about the rest of us?

Here’s what most nonprofit leaders don’t realize: anything you type into public AI platforms can be stored by the provider, used to train their models, or potentially exposed to other users.

What you think is a private conversation with AI could effectively become public (like printed in your local newspaper!). 

Client data. Financial information. Confidential case notes. Grant strategies. Board documents.

All at risk. Right now.

Right now, nonprofits across the country are using AI without policies, without training, without understanding what’s happening behind the screen.

That ends on March 12.

At our Connect • Learn • Lead Conference, you’ll meet Sayge Medlinfrom the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development and Dr. Rebecca Nesbit from UGA’s Institute for Nonprofit Organizations.

They won’t tell you to avoid AI—they’ll show you how to use it wisely, ethically, and powerfully.

You’ll learn:

✓ How AI actually works—and what it’s doing with your data

✓ Real examples of nonprofits using AI creatively and safely

✓ The governance framework you need to protect your mission

✓ Hands-on practice drafting grants, emails, slides, and press releases with AI

✓ How to align every tool you use with your organizational values

This isn’t optional anymore. It’s essential.

And while you’re there, you’ll also get:

• A legislative update that could impact your funding

• Audit and financial insights from Carr, Riggs & Ingram

• Social media strategies that actually work

• A panel on the biggest challenges facing nonprofits today

• Networking over breakfast and Chick-fil-A lunch

• A behind-the-scenes tour of Second Harvest of South Georgia

All for $25. One day. 100 seats. That’s it.

When: Thursday, March 12, 2026 | 7:45 am–3:00 pm

Where: Second Harvest of South Georgia, 1836 Piedmont Place, Valdosta, GA 31601

Cost: $25 (includes SGNN membership)

Register Now Before Seats Fill →

The nonprofits that thrive in the next decade won’t be the ones that avoid AI. They’ll be the ones that use it with intention, wisdom, and integrity.

Will yours be one of them?

I’ll see you on March 12.

David Oaks

Board Chair

South Georgia Nonprofit Network

P.S. – If you’ve already used AI in your work, this session is even more urgent. Come learn what you need to know to do it right. Questions? Contact Eva Freeman at efreeman@hljrfoundation.com or 229-219-2358.