Hub ONE

The quiet things that don't make it into the grant call.

Funders carry constraints they didn't design. Nonprofit leaders carry workarounds they didn't choose. Both rooms know it. The conversation rarely makes it across the hallway. What gets named out loud is what the system can begin to fix.

Hub ONE holds the door open between the two rooms.

Right now, in a lot of grant calls and convenings, someone asks: "what's your AI strategy?"

And the room gets quiet.

Funders are asking because their boards are asking. Nonprofit leaders are quiet because the honest answer is usually some version of "we're still figuring it out."

That's where this book is useful.

The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in an Automated World by Kanter and Fine is a working frame for how nonprofits can adopt smart tech without losing the part of the work that has to stay human.

Kanter and Fine make the case that automation should give people back time to think, plan, and stay in real relationships with the communities they serve. They also write plainly about what smart tech does badly: screening applicants, identifying donors, and paying historic patterns of bias forward into automated decisions.

The book is also relevant for funders. The questions Kanter and Fine ask of nonprofit leaders are the same ones funders need to be asking inside their own institutions.