Fundraising · Nonprofit Leadership · Applied AI
I have spent my career raising money, building relationships, and helping mission-driven organizations grow. Now I am exploring what happens when AI is built directly into fundraising, research, operations, and decision-making.
AI built into the work, not around it.
Select a world to exploreEach world represents a part of my work. Choose one and follow the comet.
Evidence / AI in practice
From research to real meetings. A practical look at how AI accelerates high-value partnership development.
Read the case studyEvidence / AI in practice
A real example of how AI helps identify, qualify, and engage the right foundation partners, turning research into meaningful conversations.
Identify aligned foundations using AI-assisted research.
Score and focus on the best opportunities for your mission.
Create tailored outreach using foundation insights.
Track, nudge, and manage conversations to close the loop.
Real results
Opening case study
I built an autonomous outreach system that identifies youth sports tournament directors worldwide, researches them, writes and sends the outreach, tracks engagement, and keeps working.
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My work starts with people: listening closely, building trust, and creating the structure that turns shared purpose into sustained action.
As Executive Director of the Medulloblastoma Initiative, I help connect researchers, funders, families, and partners around one goal: move the most promising science toward clinical trials faster.
I use Codex to build connected systems for research, outreach, reporting, project management, and institutional memory. The goal is practical leverage, not AI theater.
The goal is not to add more AI tools. It is to reduce fragmentation. Brainstem is an experiment in creating a system that can remember context, connect information across projects, surface priorities, and reduce the chance that important work gets lost.
Some of my best lessons about AI have come from building things myself. These projects are experiments in organizing fragmented information, creating useful systems, and turning ideas into working products.
A national discovery platform designed to make youth sports tournaments easier for families, coaches, teams, and event hosts to find.
A connected platform for NBA, WNBA, and NFL draft intelligence that brings rankings, mock drafts, player movement, and historical context together.
Experiments in fundraising, AI, nonprofit leadership, and building better systems.
I am documenting what I build, what works, what fails, and what I learn along the way. The goal is to share practical examples of how AI can actually be used inside mission-driven organizations.
How MBI built an AI-assisted outreach program that researches potential partners, manages follow-up, preserves institutional knowledge, and produces executive reporting on demand.
Read case studyExplore my career, impact, and the experiences shaping how I build mission-driven systems.
About James Case study · AI systemsHow an autonomous outreach system moved AI from assistant to operator.
Read the case study Practical guide · Nonprofit AIFive useful combinations of AI and human judgment across a fundraising workflow.
Read the guideI’m documenting what happens when AI is built directly into fundraising and nonprofit operations, including what works, what fails, and what I learn along the way.
A future home for focused prototypes that help nonprofit teams understand foundation fit, donor research, fundraising workflows, and AI readiness.
Across more than 20 years in fundraising and nonprofit leadership, I have built my career around a belief that ambitious missions deserve equally ambitious execution.
My work spans major gifts, nonprofit leadership, patient and family advocacy, entrepreneurship, and technology. Today, I serve as Executive Director of the Medulloblastoma Initiative, helping unite philanthropy and science to accelerate better options for children facing brain cancer.
I am also deeply interested in how AI changes the way small teams operate. I do not approach it as a novelty. I use it as a working partner to research faster, connect information, build useful products, and create durable systems that extend what a team can accomplish.
Trust compounds. The strongest results begin with listening, relevance, and a real understanding of what matters to people.
Technology is most powerful when it removes friction and gives people more time for judgment, creativity, and connection.
Big goals become real through clear next actions, consistent follow-through, and the willingness to keep improving the system.
I’m always interested in thoughtful conversations about philanthropy, nonprofit growth, patient advocacy, entrepreneurship, and applied AI. For direct inquiries, email jrgraham1125@gmail.com.
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