Nonprofits want to embrace AI but held back by manual processes

Technology integration key to minding the gap between strategic ambition and unleashing innovation 

London, UK, 9th December, 2025 – Unit4, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for people-centric organisations, has launched an international study of nonprofits commissioned by IDC. “Mission Impact Through Unified Insight: Modernising the Nonprofit Enterprise” shows organisations are keen to embrace AI to support their strategic ambitions but they are held back by significant backoffice issues. Greater focus on technology integration will be key to fulfilling goals in 2026 and beyond. 

Nonprofits embracing AI 

• 83% of nonprofits surveyed have GenAI investment on their strategic roadmap and 67% have plans for predictive AI.
• Among nonprofits with over 1,000 employees, 87% have an AI strategy linked to their business transformation objectives compared to only 32% of organisations with 250–999 employees 

Respondents view AI as a way to better deliver key use cases such as: 

• Predictive maintenance and asset management
• Data entry and documentation
• Automated report generation 

There is also an understanding that AI can deliver automation and augmentation: 

• Automation focus: in the next 24 months to improve real-time insights and reporting as well as delivering automated workflows to reduce manual errors
• Augmentation focus: in finance respondents see AI as a way to augment top three being Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Financial Reporting 

“Given all the volatility nonprofits face, it is understandable they view AI as a vital way to maximise their available resources,” said Rafael Artacho, Director AI Product Incubation, Unit4. “They also appreciate AI can provide a variety of benefits from predictive analytics to automation and augmentation. Larger organisations may be slightly further ahead in assessing the technology, but this is also a great opportunity for smaller organisations who can adopt AI integrations as part of packaged solutions tailored to their specific sector and needs.” 

Manual processes and cumbersome financial systems 

There are clear issues around accessing, using and managing ERP data: 

• 45% of all respondents still use manual processes for policy, legal and compliance workflows
• Large nonprofits have difficulty getting real-time or near real-time status updates and other information
• 39% of all respondents say financial information gathering and reporting is cumbersome 

This is reinforced by the top three operational challenges: 

• Operational risk and compliance oversight
• Limited technology adoption and integration
• Siloed information 

Integration key to single source of truth 

Respondents say technology provides opportunities to unify data and, with AI innovation enables new user experiences, new levels of transparency and deeper measures of impact. More than half of respondents (54%) also confirm a preference for deploying backoffice applications on the public Cloud compared to 26% who choose hybrid Cloud. 

Nonprofits are prioritising greater integration between core backoffice systems to support this move to the Cloud: 

• 100% of all nonprofits are planning to integrate finance and accounting and HR
• Over 90% are planning to integrate operations management and programme and project management
• 82% want to integrate procurement, purchasing and sourcing 

This integration will lead to a single source of truth for information within these organisations, which will enable improved: 

• Visibility into processes
• A unified view for consistent compliance
• Data quality and better decision making with AI
• Financial controls and compliance
• Streamlined processes 

Fulfilling strategic imperatives 

If nonprofits can overcome these integration challenges, it will help them to address their main business challenges: 

• Raising funds, grants and building donor relationships (40%)
• Financial sustainability (34%)
• Measuring and demonstrating mission impact (31%) 

And it should also help them to fulfil their strategic priorities: 

• Fundraising, financial growth and diversification
• Improving the delivery of mission outcomes
• Growing mission impact and outcomes