ENGOs and AI: Key Considerations As You Consider Incorporating It Into Your Nonprofit

Date: May 27, 1-2 PM ET

Cost: Free (Zoom Webinar)

This webinar is designed for executive directors, program managers, and team leads at environmental nonprofits who are feeling the pressure to "do something" about AI — but aren't sure where to start or whether it's even right for their organization. No technical background is required to participate.

In 60 focused minutes, you'll get an honest, jargon-free look at what AI can realistically do for mission-driven organizations — from drafting communications to synthesizing research — and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. You'll also get straight talk on the concerns ENGO leaders care about most: data privacy, environmental impact, and the risks of over-reliance.

The session closes with a practical readiness check so every participant leaves knowing exactly where they stand and what their smartest next step is — whether that's piloting a tool this week, addressing a precondition first, or wisely waiting.

Registrants also receive a customizable AI Use Policy template and a 15-question Operational Drag Quiz to keep the momentum going after the session ends.

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Our Presenter

Denisse Rodriguez spent 30 years in enterprise technology — 20 specialized in enterprise data at Deloitte, leading programs across 72+ countries on four continents. She built and led multicultural teams and delivered multi-year transformations, and drove governance, data quality, and AI-enabled solutions for organizations operating at global scale.

Denisse now brings that same expertise to mission-driven organizations through In Service AI. Her mission: to help organizations clearly see, prove, and scale their impact through practical, human-centered, and genuinely useful AI-powered technology. AI-powered operational systems that eliminate the invisible drag slowing their work—the manual processes, disconnected tools, and data no one fully trusts. In Service AI designs systems that hold clarity, carry information reliably, and give leaders back the presence they need to do their best work.

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The DEFNP workshop series will offer tailored programming designed to match ENGOs on their decolonial (un)learning journeys. In Spring 2026 members of the ENGO sector will be able to choose one of three workshop tracks: Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector, Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application or For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action. Each series consists of four three-hour sessions.

‍Collectively, Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships fosters:

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‍Awareness of settler colonialism and the ways it potentially harnesses civil society;

Understanding about how Canadian law such as the Indian Act and the Income Tax Act has suppressed Indigenous governance systems;

Awareness that Indigenous peoples have unique inherent political and legal systems, with which ENGOs may want to form partnerships;

A better understanding about how to navigate partnerships with Indigenous communities that promote decolonial environmentalism;

A stronger sense about how to identify and explain individual and organization social locations (i.e. positionalities) as part of ethical partnership development;

Promoting the resurgence of Indigenous self-determination in the Canadian ENGO sector.

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How to choose your stream:

‍ENGO representatives may self-select from the three workshop tracks based on their previous learning experiences with decolonization content.‍

‍Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector is designed for first-time learners and those with limited comfort exploring the Session topics. Sessions will be lecture-style making limited space for group discussion. Breakout rooms will be used intermittently to encourage first-time learners to practice discussing topics and gain confident understanding of materials.

‍‍Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application is designed for ENGO representatives who have experience with session topics and are ready to take chances by participating in potentially uncomfortable conversations to expose the root issues at play. These spaces are designed with safety of participants in mind with the goal of exposing the potential reproduction of colonial thinking/doing within the ENGO sector. Sessions will be conversational while making use of lecture-style teaching.

‍For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action is designed for Indigenous people who work within the ENGO sector and seek to connect with others to discuss experiences and vision decolonial pathways forward. These session agendas will be co-developed with participants.

Introduction to Decolonization in the ENGO Sector

Wednesdays, March 11, 18, 25 & April 1, 1-4 PM ET

Cost: $100 (Register 2 spots, get the 3rd free)

70 participants max.

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101

Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.

Session 2: Positionality

ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.

Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101

Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.

Session 4: Building Better Relations

ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.

Instructor:

Philippe Blouin is an anthropologist and translator. His PhD, completed at McGill University in November 2025, studies how Kanien'kéha:ka (Mohawk) political philosophy challenges Western views of relating, and belonging. In particular, his work focuses on the Two Row Wampum, whose conception of alliance based on the respect of difference provides an ethical and methodological framework for settler-Indigenous relationships.

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Advanced Decolonial Theory and Application

Thursdays, April 2, 9, 16 & 23, 1-4 PM ET

70 participants max.

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Cost: $100 (Register 2 spots, get the 3rd free)

All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.

Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector

Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.

Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance

A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.

Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex

ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.

Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships

This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.

Instructor:

Dr. Les Sabiston (Red River Métis) is from Aswahonanihk (Selkirk), Manitoba. Working at the intersections of political, legal, and medical anthropologies, as well as Indigenous Studies, Les’ work brings together critical social theories of colonialism, race, class, gender and sexuality with the political commitments of decolonization and aspirations of realizing alternative worlds informed by Indigenous futures. A guiding principle to his work has been to develop a more robust understanding of the ongoing process of encounter with Indigenous peoples in Canada, that is, how the state and its people interact with and understand themselves in relation to the original peoples of this land.

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For Indigenous Ears Only - A Space for Reflection and Action

Mondays, March 2, 9, 16 & 23, 1-4 PM ET

70 participants max.

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Cost: Free

The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.

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Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector

Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector

Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector

Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector

Instructor:

Jocelyn Cheechoo is a member of Moose Cree First Nation and is the Senior Specialist for Hudson and James Bay Lowlands for WWF Canada. She has extensive experience working with and for First Nation communities on their territories on issues and projects related to climate change, waste management, research, land use planning and energy. Jocelyn practices cultural harvesting with her family and is also reclaiming and learning the language her grandparents spoke, Cree L-dialect.

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