The AI enthusiasts want to move fast.
The skeptics want to slow down.
What’s a team to do?
"This is a thoughtful, clear, inspiring roadmap for organizations navigating AI’s promise and pitfalls. A valuable resource for mission oriented practitioners." - Paige Fullman, Host of "Current Affairs Unfiltered"
Are you caught in an AI tug-of-war?
Nonprofits, government agencies, and social impact companies are feeling tension over AI. On one side, enthusiasts pull toward rapid adoption, eager to harness productivity gains to do more good. On the other, skeptics and conscientious objectors pull back, fearing that the technology will undermine values central to their mission.
When they see this tug of war in their teams, many leaders drop the rope, resulting either in a total ban that no one follows or a policy-free free-for-all that leaves the organization vulnerable to reputational, legal, and ethical risks.
Amplify Good Work is a judgment-free, practical guide to ending the tug-of-war. Drawing on over a decade of experience in mission-driven sectors and AI ethics research, you’ll get a framework to build your own, durable philosophy about AI use that supports, rather than undermines you values.
Releases March 20, 2026
What changes after you read this book
You’ll be clear on AI’s strengths and weaknesses. Amplify Good Work explains how the technology works in plain language so you can evaluate tools and claims yourself instead of relying on your most tech-savvy staff member or a vendor's sales pitch.
You’ll know where to draw the line. Privacy, equity, sustainability, job displacement, accessibility, governance, and much more are implicated by AI use in mission-driven work. Amplify Good Work walks through each value not as an abstract principle but as a specific decision: Should we use this AI tool for this task, with this population, under these conditions? You'll learn a framework to help you make values-centered, context-dependent AI decisions consistently.
You walk into the board meeting with a plan. From selecting and piloting your first AI implementations to training your team, managing the values conflicts, and communicating with your community, you'll build an implementation strategy that fits your mission-driven work.
Who this book is for
Amplify Good Work is for nonprofit, government, and social impact workers who want to use AI confidently and, just as confidently, identify and defend human-only tasks. It’s for leaders who are trying to bridge the gap between enthusiasts and skeptics on their teams. And it’s for orgs who feel paralyzed trying to write policies, develop practices, and pick a vendor and need a concrete action plan.
"But…"
"I'm not a tech person." Neither are most of my clients and trainees. This book includes no code, no jargon, no assumed background. If you can follow a board report, you can follow this book.
"We're a small org. We don't have the budget or staff for an AI strategy." The book’s recommendations scale well and includes options for organizations without a dedicated IT team, let alone a Chief Technology Officer. The framework starts with free tools and small experiments: things a two-person shop can do this month. You don't need a budget line for AI to make a plan, write a policy, and develop safer AI practices.
What people say about Karen's approach
"Your ability to explain concepts like machine learning and large language models in plain English was truly impressive and kept everyone fully engaged." — Event organizer
"This session has encouraged me to start using AI. I have been very hesitant, because it didn't feel like my own work, but you've shown me that there are a lot of ways to use it and how to make it my own." — Workshop participant
"Took a huge, overwhelming topic and really distilled it down." — Anonymous feedback
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The ebook is available for pre-order on Amazon and releases March 20, 2026 in ebook, paperback, and audiobook.
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The Mission-First AI Starter Kit includes a simple AI use policy template, a safe-start prompt pack, a vendor evaluation checklist, and email templates for communicating about AI with your staff, board, and community.