TL;DR
TL;DR is a trending acronym for “Too Long; Didn’t Read” … the quick-read version of the full article below
TMI (Or not?!)
TMI is a long-used acronym for “Too Much Information” … my heading for the full article, which often may indeed have too much information for some, but maybe has some useful nuggets for others!
Preface - Nonprofit Use-Case Tutorials
In the StrefaTECH series, I’ll craft some of the articles as tutorials or tech introductions based on a ‘user story’ — some fairly typical scenario that a nonprofit leader might be familiar with. These tutorials have two goals:
Help you to understand how some piece of technology works … and the best way to learn is through examples
Present some important underlying concepts related to adopting the technology more broadly
The user story will be setup using the following framework:
As a … role (WHO)
I want to … take this action (WHAT)
So that … I can achieve this outcome (WHY)
The user story is just the example to give some personality to the concepts in the tutorial. Hopefully it’ll be clear how the actual technology being used can be applied to many other needs, as you read the articles.
As always, please comment with critiques, suggestions, ideas, questions, and your own experiences!
The User Story - Writing an Email Announcing an Upcoming Event
Without further ado, let’s dive in…
Scenario:
As a … nonprofit organization Development staffer
I want to … get a lot of donors to come to our upcoming event
So that … our organization can deepen donor understanding of what we do, personalize donors to our staff, and ultimately increase donor revenues
The ChatGPT Dialogue
My prompt to ChatGPT 3.5:
As a nonprofit Development staffer I want to get a lot of donors to come to our upcoming event so that our organization can deepen donor understanding of what we do, personalize donors to our staff, and ultimately increase donor revenues. Acting as me, draft an email message that will fulfill this scenario. Suggest 5 catchy but professional email Subject lines that will encourage the recipients to open the email. Also draft the body of the email to fulfill our goals. I want a professional, friendly tone and a concise email.
ChatGPT’s response (excerpted):
Subject Lines:
"Join Us for an Exclusive Evening: Unveiling Our Mission and Impact"
"You're Invited! Discover Our Cause at Our Upcoming Donor Event"
"A Night to Remember: Connect with Our Team and Our Cause"
"Your VIP Invitation: Get to Know Us Better at Our Donor Event"
"Save the Date: An Evening of Insight, Connection, and Impact"
Dear [Donor's Name],
I hope this message finds you well. As a valued supporter of [Your Organization's Name], we are thrilled to extend a special invitation to our upcoming donor event. This evening promises to be an enlightening and memorable occasion, and we would be honored to have you join us.
Event Details: Date: [Date] Time: [Time] Location: [Venue] RSVP by: [RSVP Deadline]
At [Your Organization's Name], we are dedicated to making a meaningful impact…
… {more body content} …
Thank you for being a crucial part of our mission.
Warm regards,
[Your Name] [Your Title] [Your Organization's Name] [Your Contact Information]
My next prompt to ChatGPT:
I like the first subject line, particularly the active voice. Generate 5 more similar ones. Include the event title and its date and time. Keep them short.
ChatGPT’s response
Certainly, here are five more subject lines in active voice:
"Donor Event: Discover Our Mission - [Date] at [Time]"
"[Date] Donor Event: Unlocking Impact at [Time]"
"[Date & Time] Donor Event: Connect with Us"
"Join Us on [Date] at [Time]: Donor Event"
"Be Part of Change: [Date] at [Time] - Donor Event"
Then I typed:
The body text is pretty good. Could you make it slightly shorter, and change the closing to "Best regards,”
ChatGPT’s response was to cut out most of the text, but to its credit, it did change the closing.
I replied: That's way too short. Go back to the first draft and just shorten it slightly
ChatGPT responded with more or less the same very short text.
Takeaways — Using Generative AI Chatbots to Write
See this footnote for a bit more about how that image was generated!1
From this experience, I’ll share these observations:
The Good
It “gets it”! Reread my initial prompt. Somehow, it understood a lot about what I was asking for and generated some pretty darned good subject lines, as well as a solid email.
It’s fast! Each of those responses came back within 3-5 seconds
It really does remember the dialogue! My replies are verbatim, exactly what I typed. I didn’t have to reiterate what I had asked for previously; it remembered
It understands informal language! I’ve found that I can be very conversational, and it gets it.2
The Bad
Prompting matters: My prompts above are adequate, and I’m improving over time. Practice really is good — use these a lot, and you’ll find yourself thinking more and differently about how you phrase your prompts.3
Asking for refinements is hit-or-miss: Sometimes when I ask it to rephrase in a different way (e.g., shorter, more concise, more formal), I get a great response that’s what I want. Other times, as in this example, the response doesn’t address my request.
The Ugly
The greatest downside of using chatbots to help author information is their ‘hallucinations’ — i.e., generating plausible-sounding content that’s fiction. I have lots to say about this … in a future post!
ChatGPT and I as Coauthors
I’ve found ChatGPT (and the other Generative AI chatbots) to be great writing partners. I use ChatGPT many times a day to help me get started on something I want to write. What I’ve found is:
Momentum: It most definitely helps me get past “blank-page syndrome”
Better “why”: In writing the user story and applying that to my prompt, I frequently find myself reframing the message/content I create. I think that using the user-story approach gives half this benefit, but crafting the prompt is also very helpful
Overall better content: It’s like having someone review your drafts, suggest changes, and help you improve your writing … but it’s quick and you can do as little or as much as you want without fretting about offending someone! This helps me write better, I’m sure of it
Quicker to start, and sometimes quicker to finish: Using a chatbot definitely gives me early momentum, so I’m finding that I’m procrastinating less, and I feel more energized “getting going.” That said, my experience is that it’s a mix of getting done more quickly (particularly for emails or items of less importance/for smaller audiences) and probably taking longer, since it’s tempting to just keep polishing.
Call to Action!
If you aren’t using a chatbot yet, start now!
Go to https://chat.openai.com
Create an account
Paste this prompt: “Write a blog comment that tells the author …” (please fill in the rest with feedback for me and be honest!!)
Then copy the response and paste it in as a Comment to this post.
Please add your opinions, corrections, and questions in the Comments!
FWIW
My uses of AI Assistants to help in the creation of this article are described in the footnotes below. Please add Comments about your own experiences!
For the image, I typed into ChatGPT 4 (with DALL-E 3 mode): “chatgpt icon on laptop screen with a middle-aged woman looking amazed.” ChatGPT 4 turns your prompt into more elaborate prompts for DALL-E 3 to use. Here are the prompts it generated; I chose the image that came from #1. Pretty cool!
A photo of a modern laptop on a wooden desk with the ChatGPT icon on the screen, and a middle-aged woman with short brown hair, wearing glasses and a blue blouse, looking amazed.
An illustration of a cozy home setup with a middle-aged woman with curly blonde hair next to a laptop on a marble table, the ChatGPT icon brightly illuminated.
A watercolor painting of a room with a vintage decor, a laptop on an ornate wooden table showcasing the ChatGPT icon, and a middle-aged woman with wavy gray hair in a purple cardigan looking amazed.
There is a ton of information published about writing ChatGPT prompts. Books on Amazon, blog posts, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more. It’s overwhelming! I’ve found that one of the best things to do is just to ask the chatbot how to improve your prompt, but please share in Comments any resources you find that are particularly helpful!