Speaker · Fundraiser · Writer
Tara
Quarrie
Keynotes and sessions on AI, ethics, and capacity for nonprofit fundraising leaders and the funders behind them.
Creator of the TRUST Framework™
A fundraiser first, who understands AI.
About
Twenty years inside the fundraising office.
Tara Quarrie is a fundraiser who understands AI, not an AI person who learned about nonprofits. Over twenty years in equity-centered fundraising, including at USC Athletics and Heifer International, she has sat in the seat her audiences sit in now: the development director handed a mandate with no budget, the gift officer asked to do more with less.
As President & CEO of Quarrie Development Group, she helps nonprofit development teams, and the funders behind them, adopt AI in ways that protect donor trust and actually build capacity. She created the TRUST Framework, a practical tool for evaluating AI in fundraising through an ethical and equity lens.
She writes The Philanthropic, where she asks the questions the sector has been avoiding: who carries the risk when AI goes wrong, who is paying for the capacity, and what adoption has actually bought.
Speaking
The conversations the sector keeps putting off.
Every talk is tailored to the room. Audiences leave with the structural reason behind what they are seeing, and one decision to make at their own organization.
-
How to Build an AI Policy Your Team Will Actually Use
Most requestedAI usually arrives as an announcement and lands on one person's desk, with no budget, no policy, and nothing taken off her plate. Staff are already using it, with or without permission. Why a ban drives it underground, and what a one-page policy has to decide: what is allowed, what never goes into a public tool, what donors are told, and who to ask.
For executive directors, development teams, and boards -
Would Your Donor Consent to This?
AI agents are already texting and emailing donors. Where the line sits between "AI helped draft this" and "AI is the relationship," and why disclosure is the floor, not a tax on innovation.
For fundraising and donor relations leaders, and boards -
You Adopted It. What Did You Actually Get?
Nearly every nonprofit now uses AI; almost none report that it changed anything. The structural reason adoption bought activity instead of capability, and why small organizations are falling furthest behind.
For development leaders past the experimenting stage -
Who Pays for the Capacity?
Funders are adopting AI inside their own walls while support for grantee technology declines. A direct conversation with program officers and foundation leaders about a decision being made by default.
For foundations, corporate giving, and philanthropy networks
- Keynote
- Breakout
- Virtual session
- Panel
- Emcee & host
Watch Tara on stage
Fundraising.AI Global Summit 2026 · "Your organization already has an AI policy."
Fundraising.AI Global Summit 2026
Speaker on ethical AI for fundraising leaders, event emcee, and host of the AI in Practice track. 3,000+ registrants.
Fulcrum Nonprofit Leadership Conference 2026
Workshop presenter on AI for nonprofit leaders at the 2nd annual conference.
SCAHD 2026
Webinar presenter: How to Build an AI Policy.
Writing
The Philanthropic
A weekly newsletter on what AI is doing to nonprofit fundraising, written from inside the fundraising office. Start here:
-
Your Organization Already Has an AI Policy
Undocumented staff AI use is already your policy. Why leaders should write it down before junior staff are left carrying the risk.
-
AI Is Drawing a Color Line Through the Nonprofit Sector
The organizations closest to the communities AI will hurt most are the last ones being funded to use it.
-
Who Is Going to Fund the Nonprofit Sector's AI Transition?
Funders are investing in AI for themselves while support for grantee technology declines. The decision nobody has made yet.
What organizers say
Tara was an incredible addition to our 2nd Annual Fulcrum Nonprofit Leadership Conference, and we are so grateful she took the time to join us and share her expertise with our nonprofit leaders. She is not only deeply knowledgeable about AI, but she has a wonderful ability to make a complex and rapidly evolving topic feel approachable, practical, and relevant. I heard from several attendees that Tara’s workshop was one of the highlights of their conference experience and that they walked away with ideas they could immediately apply to their work. Tara is a thoughtful, engaging, and generous speaker, and I would highly recommend her to any organization looking to help its leaders better understand and thoughtfully leverage AI.
Mansi Chokshi, COO & Co-Founder, Fulcrum Nonprofit Leadership
Book Tara
Bring this conversation to your room.
Tell me about your event and I'll be in touch within two business days.
Download the media kit →The rooms I say yes to
I am glad to join programs that reflect the communities our sector serves, with diverse speaker lineups and accessible sessions. If your lineup is still getting there, tell me. I am happy to recommend other voices worth hearing.