Business Strategy · Nonprofit

Decision memo with options for Nonprofit

Use this when a decision needs to be made and documented. Written for a nonprofit organisation funded by donors and grants.

Your prompt is ready 1 bracket to fill
You are an expert in this kind of work, and you know the Nonprofit sector from the inside.

## Your task
Write a decision memo for a nonprofit organisation funded by donors and grants on [DECISION]. Give the context, the criteria (including limited budgets, grant terms and transparency to donors), three real options with pros, cons, cost and risk, a recommendation, and what would make us revisit it. Under one page.

## About my situation
- Who this is for: donors, volunteers and beneficiaries
- How we measure success: donor retention and cost per beneficiary

## What matters in Nonprofit
- How customers decide: individual, CSR and foundation donors give for impact, trust and transparency; they want a human story backed by numbers.
- Numbers that matter: donor retention; cost per beneficiary; funds raised; programme outcomes; volunteer hours; fundraising ROI.
- Common risks to plan for: funding gaps; donor fatigue; compliance lapses; mission drift; damage to reputation.
- Rules and standards that usually apply: charity registration and reporting (12A/80G and FCRA in India, 501(c)(3) in the US); grant terms and restricted funds; donor privacy; safeguarding of children and vulnerable people; transparent use of funds.
- Rules differ by country. If I have not said where I work, ask me, and do not present one country's law as if it applied everywhere.

## How to work through it
1. Explain the context and criteria.
2. Describe three real options.
3. Recommend one.
4. Say what would make us revisit it.

## What to deliver
- One-page decision memo

## Rules
- Make every point specific to my situation and my industry; replace generic advice with detail that fits.
- Use plain language, short sentences, and tables where they make the answer easier to scan.
- Use only the facts I give you. Do not invent figures, laws, sources or quotes. Mark anything you had to assume with "Assumption:".
- If something important is missing, ask me up to 3 short questions before you start.

## Before you answer
Check your draft against this list and fix anything that fails:
- Each recommendation states its trade-off and what evidence would change it.
- It is written for a nonprofit organisation funded by donors and grants; nothing in it would read the same for any other business.
- Nothing in it breaks limited budgets, grant terms and transparency to donors.
- Every item under "What to deliver" is included.
Open in ChatGPT Claude Perplexity

How to use this prompt

  1. Copy the prompt. Press Copy prompt and the full text goes to your clipboard.
  2. Fill the brackets. Use the form above, or replace [DECISION] with your own details.
  3. Paste and send. Paste it into ChatGPT, Claude and Grok and send. Ask follow-up questions to refine the answer.

Why this prompt works

The “Decision memo with options” prompt tells the assistant exactly what to hand back: one-page decision memo. It makes the assistant work through 4 steps in order, starting with "explain the context and criteria", instead of jumping straight to an answer. Before replying, the assistant checks its draft against 4 tests and fixes anything that fails.

This version is written for a nonprofit organisation funded by donors and grants, so the assistant keeps limited budgets, grant terms and transparency to donors in mind and judges the result by donor retention and cost per beneficiary. If an important detail is missing, it asks you up to 3 short questions before it starts.

How to get the best answer

  1. Fill every bracket with real detail: [DECISION] should hold real names, numbers and dates, not placeholders.
  2. Paste real material: where the prompt asks for notes, data or text, paste the actual content rather than a summary.
  3. Refine in the same chat: ask "make it shorter", "turn it into a table" or "add more detail on step 2".
  4. Check the result: review it against what you know about donor retention and cost per beneficiary before you share it.

Other industries

Same prompt for other industries

The same decision memo with options prompt, rewritten for each industry.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Which AI assistant works best with the “Decision memo with options” prompt?

The “Decision memo with options” prompt works in any chat assistant and suits ChatGPT, Claude and Grok best. Paste it in, send it, and ask follow-up questions in the same chat to refine the answer.

What do I fill in before sending the “Decision memo with options” prompt?

Replace the highlighted bracket – [DECISION] – with your own details. The more specific you are, the better the answer.

Is the “Decision memo with options” prompt only for Nonprofit?

No. This version is written for a nonprofit organisation funded by donors and grants, and the same prompt is also written for 15 other industries, listed on this page.

Is the “Decision memo with options” prompt free to use?

Yes. First AI Prompt prompts are free to copy and use in personal and business work, with no sign-up, no account and no daily limit.

Can I trust the answer the “Decision memo with options” prompt gives?

Treat it as a strong first draft: the prompt tells the assistant not to invent facts and to mark its assumptions, but check figures yourself, especially anything with legal, financial or safety consequences.

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