IndraAI: Using AI to Save the World
My experiment to bridge the gap between AI innovation and nonprofit impact
I've been working on something that combines my legal training, creative background, and growing obsession with AI experimentation. Meet IndraAI - an AI-powered tool designed specifically for the nonprofit sector.
Why It's Called IndraAI
Honestly? It's called IndraAI because Indra is basically India's version of Thor. And Thor is cool.
That's it. That's the whole explanation.
Plus, have you seen the Marvel movies? Thor gets things done. Indra gets things done. IndraAI helps nonprofits get things done.
The Obama Foundation Leaders Program: A Crash Course in Nonprofit Reality
But before I dive into what this app does and why I built it, let me tell you about the experience that shaped my understanding of what nonprofits actually need from technology.
Back in 2024, I got selected for the Obama Foundation Leaders Program. Talk about a life changing experience! Being surrounded by changemakers from around the world made me realize that while the nonprofit sector faces unique challenges, most tech solutions are built by people who don't understand what those challenges actually are.
Here's what blew my mind:
Resource constraints aren't just about money - they're about time, expertise, and bandwidth. The most brilliant social entrepreneurs I met were drowning in administrative tasks. Get this: nearly three out of four (74%) nonprofits have job vacancies, which means the people who are there are juggling way more than they should be.
One-size-fits-all solutions are a joke - Every nonprofit has different needs, different capacities, and different definitions of success. We're talking about incredible diversity here, from grassroots community organizations to massive international NGOs. The United States has more than 1.8 million nonprofit organizations - that's a lot of different problems to solve.
Trust is absolutely everything - Nonprofits need to be able to explain their tools to board members, donors, and beneficiaries. Black-box solutions, no matter how effective, create transparency problems. And when you're dealing with donors' money and community trust, transparency isn't optional.
Impact measurement is stupidly complex - Unlike businesses that can focus on revenue metrics, nonprofits often struggle to quantify and communicate their impact in ways that actually resonate with stakeholders. It's not as simple as "we made X dollars." I mean, how do you put a number on "community strengthened"? A homeless shelter might house 200 people in a year, but what they're really doing is rebuilding lives, reuniting families, breaking cycles of poverty. An environmental nonprofit plants 1,000 trees - cool, but their actual impact is about carbon absorbed, ecosystems restored, future generations protected.
Good luck fitting that into a neat little dashboard.
And here's the really fun part: everyone wants to hear about this impact completely differently. Board members want hard data and measurable outcomes. Individual donors want heartstring-pulling stories about real people whose lives were changed. Foundation funders want evidence-based results that fit their specific theory of change. Government agencies want compliance metrics and demographic breakdowns.
So nonprofits end up burning through hours trying to slice and dice the same impact story into a million different formats.
Cool your jets, I haven’t solved for all those problems here, (let’s be real). But I do think that there are some use cases in which AI could help, really. If we ask it nicely. And correctly.
IndraAI: AI Prompting for Non-Profits
With these insights in mind, I started experimenting with AI tools that could address real nonprofit pain points. IndraAI is my attempt to create something that's (hopefully) actually useful.
At first, I thought I'd just create some grant templates and call it a day. But then I realized I'd have to create a bazillion different examples because a homeless shelter needs completely different content than an environmental nonprofit or an arts organization. The problem isn't that people don't know how to format a grant proposal. It's that they don't know what story to tell or how to frame their impact in ways that resonate with funders or donors.
Here's what IndraAI does: it helps changemakers save the world using AI by generating custom AI prompts for three critical nonprofit functions:
Grant Writing - Tailored prompts to help structure proposals, articulate impact, and address funder requirements
Fundraising - Strategic prompts for campaign messaging, donor segmentation, and appeal development
Donor Relations - Communication templates for stewardship, updates, and relationship building
Based on my conversations with people who do this work, these three areas are where nonprofits spend most of their time but often lack specialized expertise: securing funding, raising money, and maintaining donor relationships.
AI Tool Agnostic
This isn't a black-box solution that spits out finished grant proposals. Instead, IndraAI generates custom prompts that users can then use with their preferred AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.). This approach gives nonprofits control over their content while providing the strategic framework they need.
IndraAI acts as a prompt engineering service helping nonprofits get better results from AI tools they may already be using. It's the difference between buying a whole new kitchen and getting a really good recipe book.
Lessons Learned
Nonprofits need better prompts, not just better AI - Most organizations are already experimenting with ChatGPT or similar tools, but they're not getting great results because they don't know how to ask the right questions.
The three pillars of nonprofit sustainability are interconnected - Grant writing, fundraising, and donor relations aren't separate functions; they're part of one ecosystem. A good prompt for one area often informs the others.
The Experiment Continues
IndraAI is still very much an experiment - a testing ground for ideas about how AI can better serve social impact organizations. I'm sharing it now because I believe in building in public and getting feedback early.
If you work in the nonprofit sector, I'd love to hear your thoughts. What problems are you facing that technology could help solve? What concerns do you have about AI adoption in your organization?
For my fellow AI experimenters: What interests you most about sector-specific AI applications? Are there other underserved communities that could benefit from more thoughtful AI tool development?
Try IndraAI at indraai.replit.app and let me know what you think. Also know that you don’t have to input confidential data into the app to get a good prompt. Give it broad information to start and then use the AI prompt with your chosen and trusted AI tool (and you can add in details later).
Building this has been eating through my Replit credits faster than I expected. If you find value in these experiments, a paid subscription would help me keep building and testing new ideas. I promise your $5 will go towards supporting more experiments like this one.