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Imagine sitting in front of your computer, distracted by social media.

Procrastination sits on your shoulders. It’s heavy.

You know this isn’t what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re stumped. Fresh out of ideas on what to write next for your weekly content.

You’re busy, but you know how important communicating with your community is.

Then you remember this new tool called AI can help inspire you.

AI tools like ChatGPT can help provide ideas, writing frameworks, outlines, and even a schedule for social media.

Embracing the use of this tool is one of the most essential skills you’ll learn. Just under a year ago, I shared the power of AI -so much growth since then.

All that to say, it’s our responsibility to keep the humans involved. Better to stay ahead of it.

In this week’s edition of the Social Profit Stack, we’ll explore the power of using prompts in AI tools like ChatGPT. It can help enhance productivity, share great fundraising appeals, and help you write great content while you support your community.

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What is a ChatGPT (LLM) AI prompt?

Prompts are inputs or queries that help LLM (large language models), like ChatGPT, produce a response.

You can craft prompts in many ways, including single sentences, whole paragraphs, or multiple examples.

In one query, you can follow on from an initial response to ask it to rewrite items, dig deeper for answers, and ask for further clarity or feedback on specific content areas.

You can even ask it to write in certain tones of voice, styles, and languages.

Generally, the more detailed a prompt is, the better the response. Develop Your Prompting Skills

I’ve been prompting ChatGPT since the launch, and let’s say there have been exciting and not-so-great responses.

Since learning ways to improve my prompts in ChatGPT, I have continued to grow my skill set to get better responses.

Christopher Penn, co-founder of Trust Insights and pro prompt master, suggests following these elements in your prompts to receive more detailed responses from ChatGPT:

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✨Give Your Prompt A Role: Your prompt tells ChatGPT what role it needs to play. Consider setting the scene for what you want ChatGPT to do. Use keywords and phrases, be specific, add keywords, and tell ChatGPT what it should be.

Act as if you’re a nonprofit writing professional with expertise in writing for websites. You specialize in creating great content that shares stories with web traffic. You specialize in SEO.

✨What Action Do You Want It To Take?: You tell ChatGPT precisely what you want it to do, like writing, summarizing, or answering questions. Use clear and direct verbs to make your instructions straightforward.

Please write a short and engaging email to our audience sharing our upcoming event, [event name]. Please share where and when, and add the most [relevant URL].

✨Give It Context: Context provides more details or guidelines to ensure ChatGPT stays on track and doesn’t make things up. You can list items or give examples to make your expectations apparent. Use “do” and “don’t”.

Create an appeal by sharing a story to send to my monthly donors. Please include visit our donation page on our website. Do not include “once upon a time” in the story.

✨Execution: Execution is helpful for longer requests. It reminds ChatGPT what you’ve asked it to do and can include how you want the information presented. Use an example of how you write helps ChatGPT, and then ask it to write like that shares a reference point to create similar work.

Here’s an example of how I write. [example] Please write in a similar format, tone, and style.

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When you write a prompt, remember the acronym “RACE” – role, action, context, and execute – to guide ChatGPT in giving you the response you’re looking for.

Keep This In Mind

As this technology grows, remember that ChatGPT is still in its infancy. It gets the answers wrong. Use it as an assistant for your work to help you stay ahead of this tool.

AI has become a necessity for organizations to thrive in the digital world. Knowing its pros, cons, and everything in between will support you with this tool.

Ready to get started using AI for your fundraising appeals? Let's connect and see how ChatGPT can help you increase engagement.

Link Love

Have you joined the best nonprofit community yet? I had a blast promoting The Nonprofit Hive last week. I encourage you to join. Best part? You can choose when you want to chat.

Speaking of communities, if you're a consultant who helps nonprofits, join us in this amazing consultants community. A supportive and engaging Slack community built for nonprofit consultants. (affiliate)

Want more ideas to create better prompts? Anne Murphy shares a guide to empower you when starting in AI.

Thanks for reading this far ✌🏼