Responsible AI Commitment

AI that works for fundraisers — not against donors.

We use AI only when it makes giving easier, fundraising smarter, and platforms safer. Donor data is protected, every use case is reviewed, and we take our footprint seriously. That's the only kind of AI worth building.

Applies to SmartChange · Level Wins infrastructure

Our Belief

Artificial intelligence should serve movements, campaigns, and causes — not replace the humans behind them.

Every AI feature we ship at SmartChange is built with care and grounded in our mission: to help nonprofits, nonpartisan campaigns, NIL collectives, and crisis fundraisers raise more money — faster, more transparently, and with more respect for the people who give.

The Three Principles

How We Hold Ourselves Accountable.

Three commitments guide every AI decision we make — from the smallest model choice to the largest feature launch.

Privacy & Security

Donor data is not currency. We defend it with bank-grade safeguards, encryption at every stage, and infrastructure built for financial-grade workloads. We never sell data. We never use customer or donor data to train general-purpose AI models.

Learn More →

Governance & Ethics

We don't deploy AI for AI's sake. Every use case is reviewed before launch against recognized standards and our own values. AI built on our platform is mission-driven, designed for fairness, transparent in operation, and always under human oversight.

Learn More →

Environmental Sustainability

Power without waste. We deploy AI efficiently — using inference instead of expensive retraining, choosing right-sized models for the job, and running on green cloud infrastructure. We review, improve, and evolve our practices as the technology matures.

Learn More →
Principle 01

Privacy & Security.

At SmartChange, we take a security-first approach grounded in strong operational controls and trusted industry practices. Protecting donor data isn't optional — it's the foundation of every fundraiser we power.

Our governance aligns with PCI-DSS (payment card data) and SOC 2 principles — ensuring systems are resilient, auditable, and continuously improving.

PCI-DSS · SOC 2

Strong safeguards

We protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability through continuous monitoring, encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access, multi-factor authentication that organizations can require, Stripe Radar fraud screening on card payments, and full audit logging.

Trusted infrastructure

Our AI features run on enterprise cloud infrastructure with secure workload isolation. Payments are processed through our banking partner Stripe, with PCI-DSS-aligned protections at every layer. Level Wins, our parent company, oversees compliance for SmartChange.

Data ownership & sensitive use

Clients always own their data — every donor record, every transaction, every report. You can export it anytime. We store only what's needed to run your fundraising and meet reporting requirements, and your data is never sold or used to train AI models. We apply heightened safeguards for sensitive cases including financial details.

AI data use

We never use client or donor data to train AI models. Every AI request is sent with zero-data-retention settings, so our AI providers don't keep your prompts or results. Your AI conversations are stored in your account so you can reopen them, private to you unless you share them with your team, and deleted when you delete the session.

Aligned with industry standards
PCI-DSS
SOC 2 Principles
Principle 02

Governance & Ethics.

Our use of AI is derived from our mission and our values — nothing else. We don't ship AI features because they're trendy. We ship them because they help organizations raise more, help donors give more easily, or help our platform stay safer.

Every AI use case is reviewed by our internal team before launch. We weigh the risks, the benefits, and the alternatives at every stage. Governance is built into the foundation — not bolted on after the fact.

Human oversight on every launch

Mission-driven design

We build AI only when it advances the missions of the people we serve — campaigns, nonprofits, NIL collectives, advocacy groups — not for the sake of "using AI." If a feature doesn't make fundraising better, it doesn't ship.

Fairness & inclusion

We proactively identify and reduce bias in outputs. AI features that influence donor experience, copy generation, or audience targeting are tested across audiences and contexts — because a tool that works well for some campaigns and poorly for others isn't a tool we'll ship.

Transparency

We tell you when and how AI is applied. AI-generated suggestions are labeled, and AI-assisted features are documented in our help desk. If something on your dashboard was generated or recommended by a model, you'll know.

Accountability

Human oversight on every high-stakes decision. AI helps draft, suggest, summarize, and analyze — but real humans approve campaigns, review escalations, and own outcomes. You're never talking to a bot when it matters.

Principle 03

Environmental Sustainability.

AI has a real environmental cost, and we take that seriously. We're committed to reducing it — through design choices, infrastructure choices, and weighing whether each feature is worth its footprint.

Sustainability isn't an afterthought at SmartChange. It's something we weigh as we build, and we'll keep raising the bar as we learn more.

Inference-first · Right-sized models · Green cloud

Efficient deployment

We focus on inference — applying existing models — rather than training massive new ones. Training consumes the most energy by far. Inference is dramatically lighter, which lets us deliver powerful features at a fraction of the footprint.

Right-sized models

We don't reach for the largest model when a smaller one will do. Drafting a thank-you note doesn't need the same horsepower as analyzing a year of donor behavior. Matching model size to task is one of the single biggest levers for reducing AI's environmental impact.

Green infrastructure

Our platform runs on Amazon Web Services. AWS reports that its data centers averaged a power usage effectiveness of 1.14 in 2025, meaning relatively little energy goes to overhead beyond the computing itself. Amazon also matches 100% of its annual electricity use with renewable energy, verified by an independent third party. As better options and better data become available, we'll keep choosing the more responsible path.

Continuous improvement

We'll keep adopting more efficient methods as they emerge. As research evolves, our practices evolve with it.

In Practice

Where We Use AI Across Our Platforms.

Concrete examples of AI features live in SmartChange today — each reviewed, scoped, and shipped against the principles above.

Fundraiser Tools

Smart Copy Suggestions

AI-assisted draft suggestions for fundraiser descriptions, thank-you notes, and donor outreach. You stay in control — every word is yours to edit, approve, or replace.

Donor Experience

Intelligent Insights

Pattern recognition across engagement, source attribution, and giving behavior — surfaced as recommendations, never as automatic decisions.

Platform Safety

Fraud & Risk Detection

Every card payment is screened by Stripe Radar, Stripe's machine-learning fraud detection, for suspicious patterns and unusual behavior. Bot protection at checkout keeps automated attacks out.

Support

Help Desk Search

Smart search across our help center surfaces relevant articles faster. When a question needs a human, a human gets it — fast.

Analytics

Trend Summaries

AI-generated summaries of dashboard analytics make it faster to understand what's working — written in plain language, with the raw numbers always one click away.

Hard Lines

What We Will and Won't Do.

Clear rules make trust possible. Here's what's on the table at SmartChange — and what's not.

✓ What We Do

  • Use AI to assist humans — drafts, summaries, suggestions, search.
  • Encrypt donor data at rest and in transit.
  • Review every AI feature before it ships.
  • Label AI-generated content where it appears.
  • Let clients export their full data, anytime.
  • Keep humans in the loop for every high-stakes decision.

× What We Won't Do

  • Train general-purpose models on client or donor data.
  • Sell donor data to advertisers or third parties.
  • Let AI auto-approve campaigns, refunds, or escalations.
  • Replace human support with a chatbot you can't escape.
  • Ship AI features without internal review.
  • Use AI for AI's sake when a simpler tool would do.
FAQ

Questions About AI at SmartChange.

The questions our clients, partners, and donors ask most often — answered plainly.

No. We never use client or donor data to train AI models. Every AI request is sent with zero-data-retention settings, so our AI providers don't keep your prompts or results. Your AI conversations are stored in your account so you can reopen them, and deleted when you delete the session. Uploaded attachments expire after 30 days.
Not unless you share them. An AI conversation is visible only to the person who started it, until they choose to share it with teammates. Your campaign data is visible only to the people you've added to your team, according to their roles.
We deploy AI responsibly and sustainably. We use foundation models only for inference, not training — which dramatically reduces energy consumption. We also match model size to each task, using a smaller, lighter model for routine work. And we run on AWS, whose data centers are more efficient than typical on-premises facilities and whose annual electricity use is matched with renewable energy.
Everything — it's the foundation of our platform. We encrypt data at rest and in transit, support multi-factor authentication and let organizations require it for their team, enforce role-based access, maintain full audit logging, and align with PCI-DSS and SOC 2. Payment processing runs through Stripe with bank-grade safeguards. Sensitive fields receive heightened protections.
AI features follow your team's existing role permissions. The AI can only see and do what that team member already can, and any change it proposes needs a person to confirm it. Account administrators manage roles from your campaign dashboard. See our help desk article Managing Team Roles & Permissions for step-by-step guidance.
No. AI assists our team with detection, flagging, and surfacing — but every high-stakes decision (campaign approval, refund processing, compliance escalation) is reviewed by a human. AI is a tool, not the decision-maker.
Email support@smartchange.app with a description of your concern. Our team reviews every report, and feedback on AI features goes directly to the team responsible for governance and product decisions.
Our Commitment

Built with trust in mind.

We use AI only when it moves the work forward. By protecting privacy with bank-grade rigor, embedding governance into design, and reducing environmental impact through efficiency and research-backed practices, we deliver AI that nonprofits, nonpartisan campaigns, NIL collectives, and crisis fundraisers can trust.

This work is never finished. Trusted AI is built in continuous partnership — with our clients, our integrators, our donors, and the broader community we serve. We refine through feedback, share responsibility for responsible use, and evolve as the missions we support evolve.

Our commitment is clear: AI must be ethical, secure, and sustainable. Anything less puts missions at risk.

Fundraising tools that help, not hassle.

See how SmartChange puts responsible AI to work for your nonprofit, campaign, or collective.