The Department of One Kit: AI tools for small nonprofit fundraising
For the one person who raises all the money.
You find the grants, write the applications, ask local businesses to sponsor, plan the dinner and write the thank-you letters. The Department of One Kit is five ready-made tools for Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT that draft each of those jobs. You check every draft before it goes anywhere.
What’s included
Five jobs. One tool for each.
Each tool is a skill: a set of written instructions you add to your AI assistant. It tells the assistant how to do one job and what to ask you. The tools use the open Agent Skills format.
Finding grants
/finding-grants
Searches for grants that fit your work and checks each one on the funder’s own website. No grants from memory, and nothing that charges a fee to apply.
Grant applications
/writing-grant-applications
Answers the funder’s questions from your own facts, within its word limits, and flags any goal you couldn’t measure or meet.
Sponsors and partners
/finding-sponsors-and-partners
Finds local businesses that fit, suggests sponsor levels and drafts the ask, the follow-up and the thank-you.
Event planning
/planning-the-event
A timeline back from your date, a budget, how many tickets you need to sell to break even and the permits to check.
Donor thank-you letters
/thanking-donors
A warm, specific letter for each donor, with the U.S. or Canadian receipt wording each gift needs.
Samples
What you type and what you get back
These are illustrative samples for a made-up reading program, using the practice data that comes with the kit. The funders, businesses and donors are made up too. Your results depend on what you tell your AI assistant.
Sample grant search
You type
/finding-grants We’re Maple Street Readers, a small after-school reading program for children 6 to 11 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We’re a 501(c)(3) with a yearly budget of about $180,000. We need $15,000 to run our summer reading camp in June 2027.
You get back
- Shortlist: Hollin Brook Foundation, Youth Learning Fund. $5,000 to $20,000 for 501(c)(3)s in Lancaster County. Deadline: Friday, January 15, 2027. Checked on the funder’s own website.
- Ruled out: a literacy grant open only to school districts. Maple Street can’t apply.
This week: read the Youth Learning Fund’s guidelines and check that summer programs count.
Every grant on the list links to the funder’s own page, so you can check the deadline and amount yourself. Nothing on it charges a fee to apply.
Sample grant application
You type
/writing-grant-applications Write our application to the Hollin Brook Foundation. Our notes, our budget and the funder’s seven questions are below.
You get back
Seven answers in the funder’s order, each with its word count, then a goals table and a budget table.
- Goal you can meet: 40 children enrolled, and at least 3 in 4 of those who finish keep or improve their reading level. Last summer it was 25 of 31.
- Left out: 60 children, and “every child will improve.” Last summer’s results don’t support either, and a funder may hold you to them.
Budget: indirect costs of $1,800 are over the funder’s limit of 10% of $15,000, which is $1,500. Charge $1,500 to this grant and $300 to other money? Also check Monday, July 5, 2027: it’s a camp day and the observed Independence Day holiday.
Sample sponsor levels
You type
/finding-sponsors-and-partners Our Storybook Supper is Saturday, April 17, 2027, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We expect 120 guests, our email list has 1,400 people and we have 900 Instagram followers. We’d like $6,000 from local sponsors, plus a bakery to donate desserts. Suggest sponsor levels and draft the first email to a local bookstore.
You get back
| Level | Amount | Sponsor gets |
|---|---|---|
| Chapter | $2,500 | Logo on the banner and program, thanks from the stage |
| Page | $1,000 | Name in the program, one Instagram post |
| Bookmark | $500 | Name in the program |
| Dessert partner | Desserts for 120 | Name in the program, thanks from the stage |
One Chapter, two Page and three Bookmark sponsors make $6,000. Also drafted: a short first email to a local bookstore, with a reply-by date.
The amounts and benefits are suggestions for you to confirm. Keep sponsor recognition to a thank-you: no prices, discounts or “best in town” claims, which can make it taxable advertising. Don’t promise sponsors a tax deduction.
Sample event plan
You type
/planning-the-event Plan our Storybook Supper, a sit-down dinner for 120 guests on Saturday, April 17, 2027. Tickets are $75 and dinner costs $28 a person. Hall $900, insurance $250, decorations and printing $400. We want to raise $8,000 after costs, and we’d like a raffle too.
You get back
- Each ticket brings in $47 after dinner ($75 − $28).
- Break even: 33 tickets cover the $1,550 in other costs.
- Your goal: $8,000 after costs needs 204 tickets, more than your 120 guests.
With 120 guests: $4,090 after costs, $3,910 short of the goal. Ideas to close the gap: sponsors, an appeal at the dinner and the raffle. Also drafted: a timeline back from April 17 and a day-of schedule.
Before you sell raffle tickets, check Pennsylvania’s rules for a license or permit. Raffle tickets aren’t tax-deductible. Guests may be able to deduct $47 of each ticket, not $75.
Sample donor thank-you letter
You type
/thanking-donors Write thank-you letters for October’s gifts. The list is below.
You get back
Dear Dev,
Thank you for your gift of $500 for our summer reading camp. At $150 a week, that’s enough for three weeks of camp for a child, with $50 to spare. Come and see a camp morning this summer. We’d love to show you around.
Grace Kim, Executive Director
Acknowledgment: Maple Street Readers received your gift of $500 on October 27, 2026. No goods or services were provided in exchange for this contribution.
Also in this batch: Priya Nair’s $150 dinner ticket. Her letter says only $95 may be deductible ($150 − $55 dinner). Confirm that $55 is what the dinner was worth to a guest, not only what it cost you.
Setup
How to add the tools to your AI assistant
Download the tools
After you pay, you get a download link by email. It holds five .zip files, one for each tool, setup steps and made-up practice data to try them on. The link stops working 24 hours after your first download, so save the file.
Upload them to your AI assistant
Open the Skills area in Gemini, Claude or ChatGPT and upload each tool. Steps for each one come with the kit.
Call a tool in any chat
Pick the tool in a chat and tell it what you need.
Check these before you buy
- Skills depend on your provider and plan, and the rules change. Check yours before you buy: Gemini, Claude or ChatGPT.
- What you paste goes to your AI provider, so check its privacy settings. On Gemini, skills need Keep Activity turned on. Google can then use your chats to improve its services, and people may review some of them. Google says not to enter confidential information. Read Google’s Gemini privacy notice.
- Remove donors’ contact details, account numbers and anything else private from what you paste.
- Finding grants and finding sponsors need web search to name real funders and businesses. Without it, they say so and name none.
- On a work account, check with your administrator that you can use skills.
Limits
What these tools won’t do
This is a low-cost tool for five specific jobs, and it can make mistakes.
They won’t send, submit or apply for anything.
You review each draft and send it yourself.
They won’t invent a funder, a number or a story.
Anything they don’t know goes in square brackets for you to fill in. Read every draft anyway.
They won’t give professional advice.
They aren’t legal, tax or accounting advice. Take receipt and tax questions to your accountant.
They can’t protect what you paste.
What you paste goes to your AI provider, so remove private details first.
Questions
Questions about the kit
Is this a subscription?
No. You pay $8 once and keep all five tools.
Can I get a refund?
No. It’s a digital download, so all sales are final. Please check what your AI assistant needs before you buy.
Do I need to know anything about AI?
If you can upload a file and send an email, you can use these. Each tool asks for what it needs.
Will it know our organization?
Only what you tell it. Each tool has an “Organization’s details” section where you can save things like your legal status, your town and who signs your letters, so you don’t have to retype them.
Does it work outside the U.S.?
The thank-you letters include receipt wording for U.S. 501(c)(3)s and registered charities in Canada. Anywhere else, they leave tax wording out. The sponsor tool covers U.S. and Canadian sponsorship rules and suggests checking with an accountant elsewhere.
Which AI assistants do they work with?
They’re built for Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT, using the open Agent Skills format. Another assistant may be able to follow the same instructions if you paste them into a chat, but those three are the ones we support.
Can I change them?
Yes. You can add your own tone, details and examples, or ask your assistant to change a tool for you. Use them in your own organization, but please don’t resell or share them.
How is this different from The After-Hours Kit?
The After-Hours Kit is for small business paperwork, such as late invoices, quotes and review replies. The Department of One Kit is for raising money at a small nonprofit. Both work the same way: the tools draft, and you check everything.
Why is a company with “Schools” in its name behind this?
Shifting Schools is Jeff Utecht and Tricia Friedman. Our day job is helping schools work out where AI helps and where it doesn’t. These tools apply the same caution to nonprofit fundraising.