What can Microsoft Copilot do for charities?

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be a useful tool for charities when used to its full potential. It can save us time and boost productivity, automating laborious tasks to make everything quicker and easier for charities under pressure.

 

When it comes to which AI tools to use, Microsoft Copilot is a particularly good choice for charities. It is familiar as part of the Microsoft suite; it works with an organisation’s internal data and apps to make outcomes more relevant; and crucially, it keeps all that data safe and secure, compliant with its existing (and hefty) data protection protocols. For charities at the start of their AI journey, Microsoft Copilot allows them to explore the technology in a more controlled environment, though charities must remain cognisant of the risks of using AI, as with all tools, to ensure they get the most out of it.

 

“For nonprofit organisations to thrive in today’s landscape, embracing AI isn’t just about innovation; it’s about impact,” explains Microsoft partner mhance in it’s e-guide to adopting AI-powered technology. “Nonprofits and charities face unique challenges like limited resources, complex reporting requirements, funding uncertainty, and the need to demonstrate transparency and effectiveness.

 

“An AI-powered, cloud-based organisation management solution can help address these pain points by streamlining manual financial tasks, improving donor and grant visibility, enabling real-time reporting, and unifying data across fundraising, finance, and operations. With the right tools, nonprofits can spend less time on administration and more time driving their mission forward.”

 

To help charities get started, we explore three ways that Microsoft Copilot can help charities and boost impact, as explained by mhance. 

 

Download the full e-guide

 

 

Three ways Copilot can help charities

 

Assistant

 

Taking meeting notes, catching up with meetings, carrying over actions, when all done manually, it is easy for items to get missed, especially in fast-paced environments like the charity sector. One of the key ways that Microsoft Copilot can support charities is through its ability to capture and summarise meetings easily, and automating the follow-up so the team stays on track. 

 

For example, charities can ask Copilot to send meeting attendees a list of all actions from the meeting and highlight any key takeaways, saving precious document scanning time and ensuring the most important information is easily accessible. 

 

This use of AI is one that the charity sector is already finding their feet with. Administration and project management were the most common uses for AI technology at an organisational level, according to the 2025 Charity Digital Skills report, with half of charities using AI saying they do so for documents and reports. 

 

 

Advisor

 

Microsoft Copilot works with the data from Microsoft apps, such as Outlook, Excel, and CRM tools, to give charities outcomes that are directly relevant to their operational reality. 

 

As mhance points out in its e-guide, it can analyse complex data sets and “get clear, actionable insights from Copilot to navigate challenges, predict trends, and make more informed decisions to drive optimal organisational outcomes”. It can also use this data to create presentations that tell a story from your data – it can translate your numbers into impact.

 

This is an area of AI use that charities have yet to fully tap into. The 2025 Charity Digital Skills report revealed that only 17% are using AI tools for impact and evaluation, while 9% are using the technology for strategic planning. With data analysis being something that charities have historically struggled with, Microsoft Copilot could make all the difference, with controls in place to mitigate potential data bias.

 

 

Orchestrator

 

As well as supporting with data analysis, Microsoft Copilot can also help with smoothing out processes behind the scenes. Mhance gives the example of tasking it with identifying bottlenecks in an organisation’s month-end close process, asking Copilot to “recommend ways to streamline reconciliations and automate routine tasks for faster completion”. 

 

These recommendations, when combined with human oversight, can help charities adapt and change tactics quickly and more easily. Charity professionals can find it challenging to find the time to review processes and make improvements, amid rising demand for services and an uncertain fundraising climate. AI can help identify areas of friction, giving charities the information they need to make better decisions. 

 

Microsoft Copilot can be an incredible useful tool in a charity’s arsenal, with the right skills and knowledge to unlock it. As a Microsoft partner, mhance can train teams on how Copilot can work for them across specific use cases, taking the technology beyond meeting notes to more complex tasks like scenario modelling. 

 

To find out more about how mhance can support your charity on its AI journey, check out its website below. 

 

Discover mhance