Do you tell clients when you use AI?
AI disclosure with clients, and what happened at our white paper kickoff meetings
Hi everyone,
I’ve got two topics for you today. First, a little about using Generative AI as an independent consultant. Second, a really cool update about the white paper for nonprofits we’re creating and an opportunity to pitch in.
Then Thursday (November 20), Susannah and I are back with the third installment in the Strategic Ability Reboot series, which will include new tools and tests. I hope you’re finding value in this new series so far. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments or via email (sam@chorusai.co).
Should You Tell Your Clients You Use AI (If You Do)?
I host a live virtual monthly meet-up for independent consultants the second Tuesday of each month. (Drop me a line if you’d like an invitation!) One topic that has come up multiple times is how to handle when your clients ask if you use Generative AI tools in your work. These tools would be Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Anthropic’s Claude.
Many folks in our community meet-up were debating whether to disclose this information, and how to handle client concerns about GenAI. Have you been in a situation like this?
I could see the clients’ concerns coming from a few different places. First might be a need-to-know from a security standpoint. If you’re handling confidential or sensitive information, then your client will likely want to understand how it’s being stored, transmitted, and used. GenAI tools are a third party that represent potential security risks, and it would be prudent for your client to audit your tech stack and security procedures.
In this case, I would make sure I understood my full tech stack in detail, not just the GenAI I am using. Where do I store client data? How do I safeguard access to it? And if I’m using a third party to work with it, what are the Terms of Service I have with that third party?
To take just OpenAI (which provides ChatGPT) as an example, they offer tiers of service. In some, your data is not used for any foundational model training, meaning it is highly unlikely to leak out. Whereas if you’re using their free tier, then your chats and data are going to be used for training and thus are not being kept fully separate.
For me when it comes to security, I would align my technology and tools with the client’s policies. Especially if I am handling sensitive information, I would review each of my software platforms and verify they meet a high standard of security.
The second type of concern could manifest in a few ways:
The client doesn’t permit their own staff to use AI tools and doesn’t want you to.
The client hasn’t crafted an AI usage policy and is hesitant about new tool adoption.
The client expresses misgivings about the impacts of using GenAI, whether those be rooted in concerts about the economic shockwaves, environmental consequences, or something else.
I would group these together as ethical concerns about using GenAI. During our consultant community meet-ups, in conversations with my own clients, and just in my own reading, I’ve heard or expressed many of them myself! And I am torn over how to handle them.
On the one hand, I want to encourage the nonprofit sector to interrogate these questions. In a big sense, this is why nonprofits exist. They are meant to hold society to a higher standard and push us not to just accept big changes without trying to ensure they benefit people and planet.
On the other hand, the data centers are being built and GenAI is out there whether we all use it or not. My background is in environmental policy, so I’ve long wrestled with a heartfelt desire to go off-grid or stop eating meat, contrasted with the knowledge of how my personal choices won’t change anything about the USA’s electricity or meat consumption. (For the record, I am vegetarian, and for a whole winter in college I refused to heat my dorm room.) But we can change things by engaging in how they are built, operated, and used, which is a significant role for nonprofits to take on.
Finally, on the third hand, there is my role as an independent consultant. What matters is my work product, not how I did it. Beyond that, when I engage a new client, a pretty standard term in the contract is something like this, “Consultant will determine and control how the work is performed, e.g., dictating the tools used to perform the work.”
I’ve never had a client ask me what type of computer I am using, or whether I am writing in Word or Google Docs, or if I use a TI-89 or an abacus. But if they did, I would probably tell them: It’s none of your business! Because it can’t be – if you want to control the tools I use, then make me a full-time employee. If I am an independent consultant, then one of the major tests used by the government to make sure I’m classified properly as a 1099 and not a W2 is that I have to use my own equipment.
In reality, I would never tell a client it’s not their business. I would want to understand why they are asking, and then I would thoughtfully discuss it with them. Beyond that, I don’t know how I’d handle an ethical concern about GenAI. It would probably depend on what it is and how it would impact my work. All of these things are going through my head, and I don’t know exactly where we should all land.
If you have thoughts on this, I hope you’ll share them. We could all use a little more discussion together.
Our Vision: Building a Better Consulting Ecosystem for Nonprofits
You’ve hopefully read in this newsletter about the white paper we’re writing together addressing how nonprofits can work with independent consultants. More than a dozen incredible folks have already signed up to help create it. Over the last week, we held two kickoff meetings where we met up, discussed our vision and goals, and went over a project plan and outline of topics we’ll cover. By the end of the month, we’ll have finalized our overall outline and the writers for each section. We’ll put pen to paper and start drafting in December.
There is still time to sign up! You can do that here, and I will follow up with our project plan and outline.
But if you’re unsure, let me share some notes I made from our kickoff meetings. I’ve synthesized what I heard from my amazing collaborators about what they hope this can be. I think it’s inspiring and makes me so grateful to be part of it.
What I heard in our kickoff meetings
We are a collective of independent consultants who have come together to address a fundamental gap in the nonprofit sector. While our sector is uniquely reliant on independent expertise to advance critical missions, we lack the professional infrastructure that exists in other industries. Unlike the corporate world with its McKinseys and BCGs, we work as independents and small practices, which is both our strength and our challenge. We bring specialized expertise, flexibility, and deep commitment to mission-driven work, yet we operate without the research firms, industry benchmarks, and standardized practices that could help both consultants and nonprofits work together more effectively.
Through this white paper and the resources we are creating together, we aim to professionalize the relationship between nonprofits and consultants in a way that serves everyone better. We envision a future where small and mid-sized nonprofits can confidently engage consultants, knowing how to scope projects, set budgets, establish clear expectations, and maximize the value of these partnerships. We imagine a consulting community where practitioners, especially those new to independent work and particularly women and people of color who often undervalue their expertise, have access to industry standards, pricing benchmarks, and proven frameworks for delivering excellent service.
Our work is driven by urgency and love for this sector. We have witnessed too many engagements where nonprofits spend limited resources on poorly scoped projects, where consultants spend weeks navigating unclear expectations, and where both parties emerge frustrated despite good intentions. We have seen talented people leave stable employment to build consulting practices, only to struggle with basics like contract language, payment terms, and client boundaries. We recognize that every hour wasted on confusion or misalignment is an hour not spent advancing the environmental justice, democracy, education, health, and equity work that our sector exists to achieve.
This resource speaks directly to the realities we navigate daily. It acknowledges that nonprofit is a tax designation encompassing everything from volunteer-run soup kitchens to established institutions, and that consulting engagements must be calibrated accordingly. It recognizes that consultants range from solo practitioners to small collaborative teams, all seeking to deliver specialized value without the apparatus of large firms. It centers equity, understanding that both hiring practices and consulting fee structures can either perpetuate or disrupt existing inequities in our field.
We are creating something practical and living. This is not a theoretical framework but a collection of templates, checklists, decision trees, conversation guides, and hard-won wisdom from practitioners who do this work every day. We envision it as a resource that will evolve, updated regularly as our field changes and as we collectively learn what works. Each section carries the voice and expertise of its author, creating a tapestry of perspectives unified by shared commitment to raising standards across the board.
We are building this together because we believe the nonprofit consulting community is at its best when we collaborate, share knowledge, and lift each other up. We are creating the resource we wish had existed when we started our practices and the resource our clients deserve access to right now. This is our contribution to an ecosystem that has given us purpose, challenge, growth, and the privilege of supporting organizations working toward a more just and equitable world.
Join us
If this moved you, then please help us create this resource. Sign up here and I’ll fill you in on next steps.