Essentials of AI for non-profits
Workshop brochure
(in-person workshop)
A full-day interactive workshop designed to help non-profit professionals explore how artificial intelligence can advance their mission, ease operational pressures, and amplify impact, without overwhelming their teams or compromising their values. No technical experience or coding knowledge is required!
Halifax, NS
August 12, 2025
Toronto, ON
August 20, 2025
Edmonton, AB
September 9, 2025
Background
This engaging, timely, and relevant session will show you how AI can be used ethically and effectively to advance your organization’s mission, ease operational pressures, reduce the burden on already stretched-thin staff, and amplify impact.
Through real-world use cases, group activities, and take-home tools, you’ll walk away with immediately applicable knowledge and the confidence to take your next step with AI.
Whether you’re in administration or communications, finance, fundraising, or program delivery, this workshop will show you how to develop an AI action plan for your organization and use this technology to support your team and community.
Learning objectives
In this interactive, expert-led workshop, participants will:
- Understand what AI is, including predictive and generative forms, and why it matters now
- Identify pain points AI can help address across non-profit and public-sector operations
- Reframe common misconceptions and explore real-world use cases
- Evaluate tools for functions like fundraising, volunteer management, communications, and reporting
- Apply ethical frameworks to assess risks and social impacts
- Reflect on how AI may affect roles, trust, equity, and accountability
- Use tools and templates to begin experimenting confidently
- Assess organizational readiness for responsible AI adoption
- Develop an AI action plan aligned with the organizational mission and values
- Communicate AI’s potential internally to build support
- Access resources to continue learning and implementing AI after the workshop
Scholarship opportunities
This scholarship program offers 50% off to select eligible individuals for the Essentials of AI for non-profits workshops. Our goal is to reduce barriers to participation and support a more inclusive, innovative, and equitable non-profit sector.
This initiative reflects MDR Strategy Group’s commitment to social impact, our mission to drive meaningful, lasting change across the non-profit and public sectors, and our core values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and access.
Click here for details and application instructions.
Instructor
Melissa Peneycad is Director of Public Engagement & AI Strategy at MDR Strategy Group, a Halifax-based social enterprise that drives meaningful transformation in non-profit and public sector strategic communications, public engagement, organizational design, and AI.
She is the award-winning author of Essentials of AI for Beginners and Generative AI Basics & Beyond, and played a key role in planning and delivering Canada’s first AI in Regulation conference (Toronto, 2025).
A recognized authority on developing tools and frameworks for evaluating and implementing innovations in communications, equity, sustainability, and technology, Melissa is known for making complex topics engaging and accessible. She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and facilitator, having worked with hundreds of professionals and students in various sectors across Canada, the U.S., and Europe.
Reconciliation, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in Regulation
(in-person workshop)
This full-day workshop is a timely and necessary conversation for regulators across Canada seeking to strengthen their approach to reconciliation equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
Designed specifically for the Canadian regulatory context, the session offers a practical and reflective learning experience grounded in both current realities and forward-looking leadership.
Edmonton, AB
September 10, 2025
Background
Through a series of interactive and thought-provoking modules, participants will explore the foundations of EDI and anti-racism within regulation, examine how unconscious bias shapes decision-making, and build the skills needed to lead inclusive, culturally aware conversations. The workshop also provides tools for developing practical anti-racism strategies, fostering organizational belonging, and embedding EDI into governance structures and professional practice.
Importantly, the session addresses the unique responsibilities regulators hold in advancing reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and ensuring that regulatory systems evolve to reflect the diversity of Canada’s communities.
Participants will leave equipped with a stronger understanding of how to create equitable regulatory environments that protect the public interest while promoting fairness, inclusion, and trust. The workshop is open to regulators at all levels—whether just beginning this work or seeking to deepen their existing commitments.
Participants will leave the workshop with:
- A foundational understanding of reconcilitation, equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism, unconscious bias, microaggressions, and why this matters in the context of licensing and professional regulation.
- Practical strategies to protect the public interest with greater awareness and sensitivity
- Opportunities to learn from peers across the regulatory sector.
- Tools and reflection prompts to challenge personal assumptions and expand perspective.
- A starting point for operational and governance-level empowerment and change.
Instructors
DANIEL ROUKEMA
Daniel is a seasoned and award-winning strategist recognized for his innovation and thought leadership. A recognized facilitator, speaker, and instructor, he has maintained an unwavering commitment to social impact in Canada and around the world for thirty years.
The founder and CEO of MDR Strategy Group, Daniel has led transformative change in the non-profit and public sectors, advancing public interest initiatives in Canada and internationally. Within the regulatory sector, he has held senior communications roles at the Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council and the Real Estate Council of Ontario, guiding external affairs and stakeholder engagement.
Daniel’s leadership has been recognized with multiple honours, including the Consumer Protection Award from the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR) in 2016. Under his leadership, MDR Strategy Group received CLEAR’s 2024 Regulatory Excellence Award.
MELISSA PENEYCAD
Melissa is a seasoned public engagement executive practitioner with more than 20 years of leadership experience across the non-profit, private, academic, and public sectors in Canada and internationally. Her work spans operations, strategy, business development, and public engagement, with a strong focus on embedding equity, inclusion, and anti-racism into governance and organizational culture. She has led projects in healthcare, education, infrastructure, housing, and regulation, supporting leaders to drive meaningful, measurable change.
Melissa’s work helping Boards and staff align their practices with the public interest routinely focus on the importance of inclusion. She serves on the Bureau of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Working Party on Public-Private Partnerships, and advises on professional training through Beyond21 Academy. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, a Master in Environmental Studies and Graduate Diploma in Business and Environment from York University, and a certificate in Leading Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Northwestern University.