Prepared for the Maclellan Foundation

Winter 2026 AI Cohort — Impact Snapshot

How nine Chattanooga-area nonprofits moved from curiosity to capability across four sessions and a 1:1. Drawn from baseline, midway, end-of-cohort, and 3-month follow-up surveys. Follow-up responses are arriving now and update this page as they land.

At a glance
0
organizations in the cohort
4 + 1
live sessions plus a 1:1
0
avg concept clarity (out of 10)
0
rated session pace "Just Right"
10/10
overall cohort experience
What we covered

A 201-level, hands-on implementation cohort. Each 90-minute in-person session moved participants from prompts to a launched workflow with calculated ROI, plus a 1:1 for personalized support.

Session 1 · 90 min

Prompt Engineering Deep Dive

  • The CTFC framework: Context · Task · Format · Constraints
  • Chain-of-thought, role-based, and few-shot prompting
  • Hands-on build: 2-3 working prompts for a real workflow
Session 2 · 90 min

Custom Agents + Integration Foundations

  • Build a custom GPT or Copilot agent for a specific use case
  • File uploads ("chat with your data") so AI is an expert on your org
  • Automation preview: Zapier, Make, and Power Automate
Session 3 · 90 min

Launch Planning + ROI Calculation

  • The People · Process · Technology · Governance framework
  • Calculate the actual dollar value of an AI implementation
  • Draft a 30-day pilot plan with metrics and risk mitigation
Session 4 · 90 min

Stakeholder Buy-In + Failure Mode Analysis

  • Tailor the pitch for leadership, staff, and IT
  • Map failure modes (AI, user, process) and how to mitigate each
  • Practice a 60-second elevator pitch with the ROI number
1-on-1 Coaching Call · 30 min

Personalized Implementation Support

After Session 4, each participant got a 1-on-1 with Russ to troubleshoot live pilot results, optimize prompts and agents, and plan how to scale from pilot to standard practice.

The numbers

Confidence: baseline → midway → follow-up

Self-rated across five dimensions, normalized to 1-5 across all surveys. Toggle to the gain view for baseline → follow-up.

Concept clarity held high across sessions

Per-session feedback, "How clear were the concepts?" (1-10). Stayed near 9 even as content got more advanced.

New projects since the cohort

From the 3-month follow-up (5 responses so far) — what people have launched or started building.

Tool adoption: baseline → midway

Share of respondents using each tool. Claude and Gemini adoption climbed; ChatGPT was already near-universal.

3-Month Follow-Up · 5 of 9 responding so far
5/5
using AI more than before the cohort
5/5
now use AI daily (4 multiple times a day)
5/5
started a new AI project (2 launched, 3 building)
4/5
adopted new tools since the cohort
What they've built since
In their words
“

The AI cohort gave me a solid foundation in AI and the opportunity to collaborate with other organizations, helping us implement tools that save valuable administrative time and improve efficiency.

Kate Baker
Choices Pregnancy Resource Center
“

Russ brought great real-world examples of uses of AI. This cohort made implementing AI into my organization's processes seem much more attainable. Our team is passionate about serving families, and AI will allow us to focus more of our time on those families.

Mitchell Qualls
First Things First
“

This cohort challenged me to build real-world solutions. From refining prompts to creating specialized Gems, I've gained the tools to increase our organizational efficiency without losing our human touch.

Amber Hoyle
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Chattanooga
From the leaders who sent their team
“

Since our Chief of Executive Strategy, Whitney Glaze, went through Russell's cohort, AI has become a genuine part of how our full leadership team operates, not just a tool a few of us were using. We're using Claude to build reports, analyze data, structure our weekly routines, and tackle work that used to take much longer. What made the difference was the 1:1 session Russell did with our team as part of the cohort. Having him walk everyone through setup kept the process from feeling overwhelming and ensured nobody got left behind. That hands-on follow-through was everything. Now, our team feels both confident and secure in how we're working with AI.

Jessica Whatley
CEO · Northside Neighborhood House
On the impact for her Chief of Executive Strategy, Whitney Glaze

Reading this snapshot

What's next

The AI-Fluent Agency Cohort

Train your champion. Build your agency's AI operating system.

Participants build a Team OS, an operational AI system that automates meeting prep, email handling, report writing, and knowledge management for their department. By cohort completion they walk out with a production-ready system deployed across their team, plus a CEO demo to showcase ROI.

Cohort A · September 2026 4 sessions · 90 min · biweekly Virtual 12 seats · one per org
Learn more →