I help organizations learn AI, use it well, and keep their people protected.
I’m Allen Blackwell. I ran a nonprofit with no executive team, and AI is how I got the work done. I vetted the tools, set the rules, and kept the personal information of the people I served out of them. Now I teach other organizations how to do the same thing.
Get short, practical notes from me by email.
Why this matters
AI is going to change how almost everything works. I believe that. What worries me is who gets left behind. Systems like this can be used against people who haven’t had the chance to learn how they work, and those are often the communities I care about most.
You don’t need to become an engineer. You do need correct information, a few good habits, and a clear line on what never goes into a tool. That is what I teach.
What I’ve actually done
I started using ChatGPT when it launched in November 2022, before most people had heard of it. Since then I’ve worked with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, and we later built our own internal systems that used those models. I was also the person who vetted every service we used and made sure it met our requirements. That’s how I learned AI governance: by being responsible for it.
Grants are a good example. Writing one used to mean at least ten rounds of revisions and weeks of waiting on people’s input at different times. I changed the order. Get all the input up front, do the thinking up front, then fill in the pieces with systems I’d built. In my own work, what took weeks took days.
Some people were uneasy about my using AI. My answer was always the same: here is how it’s used, here is what stays out, and here is who checks the work.
I also train community representatives with Operation HOPE on what AI is and how it can help them. Operation HOPE is a separate organization, and its name is used here only to describe my participation.
What I offer
- AI readiness assessment. I find out what AI your organization already uses, where the risks are, and what to fix first. Most people should start here.
- Workshops. Hands-on sessions for staff, volunteers or a board.
- Policy help. A short AI policy your people will follow.
- Ongoing advice. A person to call when a new tool or question comes up.
Free templates
Start with something you can fill in today. Try the AI readiness checklist, the AI use log, the vendor review checklist, or the staff guide on what to put into public AI tools. If you fill one out and want feedback, send it to me. Please leave out names and details about any person you serve.
Join the community
Sign up for short notes from me. Tell me what you’re running into. This works better when people compare notes.
Want help getting started?
General education, not legal advice. Jackson Allen LLC is not a law firm.
