Nicole Scully Director of Engagement, Leukaemia Care

Practical AI for charities

Helping charities turn AI from hype into useful, safe and workable applications.

Talk to me about AI See examples of my work

Around ten years in senior charity roles across information, digital products, communications, fundraising and strategy. I have launched AI to real users, from inside a charity.

What I help with

AI works best when it starts with a real problem. I help charities work out where it can genuinely help, and how to do it well.

AI opportunity workshops

Find the problems worth solving, and be honest about the ones that are not.

AI governance and responsible use

Put sensible boundaries, risk checks and decision-making in place, sized for your organisation.

AI product and service development

Shape, test and launch applications people can trust, from first idea through to real users.

AI training and team adoption

Help staff understand what AI is good for, where it falls short, and how to use it in their own work.

The questions I help you answer

What problem are we actually trying to solve?
Where could AI genuinely save time or improve services?
What information should the AI use?
What should it be allowed to do?
What are the risks?
How do we test it?
When should a human take over?

I have done this from inside a charity

I am a charity leader, not an external technology consultant. I have implemented AI inside a real organisation, with real users and real consequences.

I have around ten years' senior charity experience across information, digital products, communications, fundraising and organisational strategy. I have managed charity information for much of that time, and I lead on digital products.

That is the view I bring to AI. It is rarely a technology problem first. It is a question about people, information, services and how an organisation decides to change.

To be clear about what I do

I am not an AI engineer and I do not build AI models. My expertise is in applying AI well.

I bring an understanding of:

charity users and what they need
information and how to structure it
services and digital products
governance and responsible use
organisational adoption

Examples of my work

Three different AI applications, with three different levels of risk. Each needed a different approach.

Beneficiary-facing, higher risk

Mia, Leukaemia Care's AI Advisor

A closed-loop AI service that answers questions using trusted Leukaemia Care information. It supports people affected by leukaemia, so it was a higher-risk application and every decision was made with that in mind.

Key lesson

The hard part was not building the AI. It was getting the application right.

What my work included

Shaping the concept
Selecting and structuring source material
Prompt development
Testing
Guardrails
Clinical signposting
User experience
Governance
Launch decisions
Ongoing learning from real conversations

Internal, for staff

Brand CustomGPT

An internal CustomGPT that helps staff apply brand guidance, tone of voice and organisational rules more consistently in their everyday work.

Key lesson

AI can make organisational knowledge easier to use day to day.

Supporter-facing, fundraising

London Marathon CustomGPT

A CustomGPT built to help a very large London Marathon fundraising team answer common supporter questions. It works under different parameters from Mia and is not closed loop, so the two are not directly comparable. It shows how learning from one AI implementation can carry into another. I launched it within around a week.

Key lesson

Different problems, different risk levels, different solutions.

AI does not need to be a massive IT project

The application matters more than the technology.

The best applications I have seen tend to start in the same place.

A clear problem
Good source material
Clear boundaries
Thoughtful testing
Appropriate governance
An understanding of when humans still matter

Governance and responsible use

Good governance is what lets a charity use AI with confidence rather than anxiety.

At Leukaemia Care, implementing AI led to a wider organisational approach, including an AI working group. It is where we talk through new use cases and learn from what we have already done.

I also engage with sector organisations such as CAST to sense-check approaches and keep learning from wider charity-sector work on AI.

Our working group discusses:

New AI use cases
Risk
Governance
Implementation
Organisational learning

I bring a practical, organisational view of governance. I am not a legal, data protection or technical security specialist, and I will say so when you need one.

Speaking

I speak openly about what works, what does not, and what happens when AI meets real users.

Available for

Conferences
Panels
Leadership sessions
Charity network events
Practical workshops

Possible topics

Practical AI adoption in charities
Developing beneficiary-facing AI services
AI governance and responsible use
Moving from experimentation to implementation
What actually happens when you launch AI to real users

Ask me about speaking

Who I work with

Mainly charities and non-profits, especially small and medium-sized ones, and the people inside them who are working out what to do about AI.

Charities and non-profits
Small and medium-sized charities
Charity leadership teams
Digital, information, communications and service teams
Health and support charities
Organisations already experimenting with AI but unsure how to scale or govern it

Health and support charities are a big part of my experience, but the approach applies wherever people rely on trusted information and services.

Not sure where AI could help your charity?

You do not need to start with a technology project.

Sometimes the best place to start is simply identifying the problems worth solving.

Let's have a conversation

nicole@charityaihelp.co.uk LinkedIn