with Erik Solce and Carolyn Woodard
Wednesday, August 19th, 2026, from 3-4pm Eastern, Noon Pacific
Have you used AI for quick tasks like drafting emails or summarizing meeting notes, but wondered if it could help with something bigger?
Do you have a project you’ve been putting off because it felt too technical or too complicated to take on alone?
We’ve been there. And we figured some things out.
Webinar: AI in Practice for Nonprofits – a case study in progress
Join Erik Solce and Carolyn Woodard from Community IT for a case study in using AI for a real project with moving parts, not just a one-off prompt. Community IT Innovators used AI to build a marketing data lake, a centralized system for tracking performance across seven channels. The project involved someone who knew the data and the goal, someone who could help with the technical pieces, and AI as the tool that made it possible to actually get it done.
We are calling it the three-role model: topic expert, tech coach, and AI enabler. Our case study happens to be a marketing project, but the structure can work for almost any project where your team knows what needs to happen, you just need some help figuring out how.
In this session, Carolyn Woodard, Director of Marketing at Community IT, and Erik Solce, IT Business Manager, will walk you through what they built, how the collaboration worked, and what they’d do differently next time.
If you’ve been experimenting with AI and want to try something more ambitious, come learn from what we tried.
Community IT is proudly vendor-agnostic, and our webinars cover a range of topics and discussions. Webinars are never a sales pitch, always a way to share our knowledge with our community. In this case study the AI tool used was Claude from Anthropic, but other AI tools can be used with a similar three-part model, and we can answer your questions on the tools you use.
The session will include time for a dedicated Q&A. You are invited to submit your specific questions regarding AI in practice for nonprofits when you register.
As with all our webinars, this presentation is appropriate for an audience of varied IT experience.
Presenters:
Carolyn Woodard is currently head of Marketing and Outreach at Community IT Innovators. She has served many roles at Community IT, from client to project manager to marketing. With over twenty years of experience in the nonprofit world, including as a nonprofit technology project manager and Director of IT at both large and small organizations, Carolyn knows the frustrations and delights of working with technology professionals, accidental techies, executives, and staff to deliver your organization’s mission and keep your IT infrastructure operating. She has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Johns Hopkins University and received her undergraduate degree in English Literature from Williams College. She is looking forward to presenting this webinar on AI in practice for nonprofits based on her experience with this practical AI project.
As an IT Business Manager (ITBM), Erik Solce guides clients through complex implementation of effective technology investments and utilizing efficient IT services in direct support of their missions. He also assists with long-term planning, budgeting, and strategic goals.
The Community IT ITBM service provides an outsourced IT manager to clients at a reduced cost to hiring and having an IT manager on staff. These managers are a resource dedicated to matching technology solutions to clients’ business needs. To do this well requires an ongoing conversation with the client to continually understand their business needs, and then effective communication with client staff and leadership about the ways specific technology solutions can meet those business needs and how to budget for technology.
The ITBM makes recommendations on IT investments, training programs, maintenance, and licenses. They help the client be forward-looking, and act as a vendor-agnostic, trusted advisor with deep knowledge of the nonprofit IT software and platforms available. Because Community IT works in partnership with clients to manage long-term IT needs, the ITBM relationship with the client makes them a true asset.
Erik has 18 years of IT experience working his way up from help desk to systems engineer. He started in IT by working for his high school during the summers preparing computers for the next school year. He interned at the US Army Corp of Engineers as help desk technician while attending MCTC in West Virginia. After working his way up to systems engineer focusing on Windows Server, Exchange, and virtualization, Erik then ran his own MSP providing support to local small businesses in Louisville before being hired as an IT Business Manager with Community IT. Erik is pursuing ITIL certification.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com M on Unsplash