AI Resource Guide for Progressive, Political, and Democracy Use Cases

Higher Ground Institute
/ February 24, 2026

A living resource guide for campaign staff, advocacy organizations, funders, and tech volunteers. Updated regularly by the Higher Ground Institute Progressive AI Lab.

Last Updated: March 5, 2026

One of the most common things that Higher Ground Institute is hearing right now—from campaign managers, organizers, program officers, and tech volunteers—is some version of: where do I even start? The AI landscape is moving fast, the hype is loud, and it’s genuinely hard to figure out what’s actually useful for political organizing work versus what’s noise.

This guide is our answer to that question. Through HGI’s Progressive AI Lab and the conversations we’ve been having across the ecosystem, we’ve been collecting resources, events, trainings, case studies, and our go-to blogs and articles. This is our list of what’s working in the field, what helps you build an internal policy, what to read if you want to understand the landscape, and more.

We’ve organized this by resource type, with topics tagged inline. Use them to find what’s relevant to your work and share it with others. This is a living document—if something belongs here, reach out to institute@highergroundlabs.com and we’ll keep it updated.

Just launched: AI Campaign Stack – a community tool and workflow guide for civic tech, campaigns, organizations

Please check it out and leave us feedback, add or edit a tool entry, leave a tool review or submit a workflow that works for you. Its a work in progress we hope will improve with community input.

Trainings, Workshops, and Events

Sign up for the March 31 AI Open Mic here! If you want to submit your work to be considered for a future AI Open Mic, please use this form.
AI Open Mic Recordings — Analyst Institute / Higher Ground Institute / Research Collaborative — Recordings from the cross-ecosystem AI Open Mic series. Find presentations and. recordings from previous calls here.
Takeaways from 2024 AI Open Mics – Higher Ground Labs – Presentations and learnings from the 2024 AI Open Mic series
[UPCOMING EVENT] AI is Here – Now What? — Arena — Join Team Arena on Friday, March 13th, for a candid panel unpacking the risks and opportunities posed by the rise of Artificial Intelligence in the political campaign space.
AI for Progressive Campaigns — NDTC — A deeper-dive companion course focused on practical applications: content creation, voter outreach, and data analysis.
AI 101 for Political Campaigns — NDTC — Free, self-paced intro course for Democratic campaign staff and candidates covering AI ethics, strategy, and real case studies. The best first step for anyone new to AI in this context.
Prompting Lab Series — InnovateUS — Hands-on workshop series teaching practical AI prompting skills, with exercises built around real campaign and advocacy scenarios.
Mastering Public Communication in the AI Age — InnovateUS — messaging communications Workshop series on AI-assisted message development, audience targeting, and content optimization for progressive communicators.
AI Fluency for Nonprofits — Anthropic — A free AI education course for nonprofit staff, included as part of Anthropic’s Claude for Nonprofits program. Covers foundational AI fluency to help teams understand and responsibly adopt AI tools in their work.
Stewarding AI: How to Build Responsible Principles, Workflows, and Practices — Charley Johnson — A cohort-based course built around the STEWARD framework — a seven-step process for redesigning workflows and governance practices around responsible AI adoption. Covers accountability, workflow redesign, and what must stay human. [Paid course]

Essential Contextual Reading

Power Not Panic: Why Organizers Must Engage with AI — Oluwakemi Oso and Lee Anderson / Forge Organizing — The case for engagement. AI adoption is a power question, and organizers who disengage cede the field. Required reading before anything else on this list.
The Critics are Right: The Left Risks Losing the Political Battle on AI — Catherine Bracy / TechEquity — A sharp argument that the Left is ceding political ground on AI not because the policy work is bad, but because dismissing the technology or defaulting to governance abstractions leaves a vacuum the Right is filling with emotionally resonant narratives about family, dignity, and human meaning. A must-read for anyone doing progressive AI advocacy.
Campaigns Are Knowledge Workers and the Tools Just Caught Up — Matt Hodges — A framework for understanding how agentic AI transforms campaign operations, with clear-eyed analysis of equity gaps for under-resourced campaigns.
How AI Could Reshape Down-Ballot Campaigns — Campaigns & Elections — Explores where AI matters most for resource-constrained campaigns — exactly the context where force-multiplication is highest.
Political Machines: AI in the 2024 Elections — Center for Media Engagement, UT Austin — IInterviews with 20+ operatives from both parties. The best available resource for understanding how the other side is using AI.

How-To Guides & Landscape Analyses

AI Political Tech Landscape Report — Higher Ground Labs — The essential ecosystem overview. Maps AI use cases, vetted vendors, and gaps for progressive campaigns. Start here if you want to understand the field.
2024 Progressive AI Lab Report — Higher Ground Labs — Year-one results with real data: 3,600+ trained, 21,000+ hours saved, $16M conserved. Includes use case breakdowns across fundraising, field, and content.
Generative AI on Campaigns (2025) — Meg Schwenzfeier & Jack Welty — Practical applications from former Harris analytics leads (fundraising, field, research) with honest assessments of limitations.
Quick-Start AI Guidelines for Democratic Campaigns — Zinc Labs / HGL / Cooperative Impact Lab / DigiDems — The most practical guide for campaign staff. Covers guardrails, AI redlines, and high-value use cases. Give this to every new hire.
Secure AI Toolkit for Campaigns — Defending Digital Campaigns / Microsoft — Designed for the political sector, deepen your understanding of security considerations to take into account when deploying AI and provides guidance on how to implement AI for your team and vendors.
NTEN: AI for Nonprofits Resource Hub — NTEN — Curated AI resources for nonprofits covering strategy, implementation, ethics, and governance. A solid general-purpose hub.
AI Readiness and Adoption in the Nonprofit Sector (2024) — GivingTuesday — Sector-wide data on where nonprofits actually stand on AI adoption in 2024. Useful context for funders and org leaders benchmarking their own progress against peers.

Making Your AI Use Policy

Nonprofit AI Policy Builder — Fast Forward — A free interactive tool that walks you through a guided Q&A to generate a customized AI usage policy covering governance, privacy, risk, and ethics.
How MoveOn Developed an AI Policy — Cooperative Impact Lab — Documents MoveOn’s internal AI approval process and integration across content and data workflows. One of the best examples of governed AI adoption at scale.
NTEN AI Workplace Policy Template — NTEN / ANB Advisory — A ready-to-edit AI policy template for nonprofits and campaigns. Start here when building your org’s internal AI governance.
Microsoft AI Usage Policy Template — Microsoft / TechSoup — Complementary policy template with a corporate governance lens. Use alongside the NTEN template or the Fast Forward tool.

Model and Tool Analyses

A Guide to Which AI to Use in the Agentic Era — Ethan Mollick — Detailed blog post that dives into which models are optimized for which types of projects, an attempt to answer “Which AI shoudl I use” from one of AI’s clearest analysts and bloggers
Caucus AI — Meg Schwenzfeier & Jack Welty — A new tool that systematically monitors how multiple AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, etc.) answer common questions about candidates, races, and elections — tracking sources cited, factual errors, and how responses differ across models over time. Helpful for folks thinking about GEO or how voters are encountering political information through AI.

AI + Democracy Reports and Frameworks

An Agenda to Strengthen Democracy in the Age of AI — Brennan Center for Justice — Comprehensive framework covering AI disinformation, election security, voter suppression, and deepfake regulation.
AI and Democracy: Mapping the Intersections — Carnegie Endowment — Maps where AI intersects with democratic processes: elections, governance, civic participation, and the information environment.
Promise and Peril: Generative AI’s Debut in U.S. Political Campaigns — Center for Democracy & Technology — Examines both productive AI uses and risks (deepfakes, microtargeting, disinformation) with policy recommendations for responsible use.

Use Cases, Case Studies & Examples

How I helped Zohran Mamdani turn 45,000 social media clicks into a real-life army of volunteers — Gabriella Zutrau/FWIW News — A first-person account of integrating automation into an active 2025 mayoral campaign, with specific tools, workflows, and honest lessons.
AI Case Study: Analyzing Canvassing Conversations with Fair Count in Mississippi — Cooperative Impact Lab — Documents how Fair Count used AI to analyze canvassers’ voice memos from GOTV work in Mississippi, surfacing voter sentiment and regional trends that predicted low-turnout counties. Includes lessons learned and a roadmap for scaling the approach.
Unleashing AI’s Potential in Campaigns and Organizing — Cooperative Impact Lab — Lessons from the front lines: concrete examples and honest reflections on what worked and what didn’t across multiple orgs and cycles.

Consultants & Tech Providers

ShareProgress/AI Progress Hub – Jim Pugh – Provides training, coaching, and AI policy development workshops for progressive organization
AlongsideAdvisors – Peter Koechley and Rachel Marcuse – Consulting for organizations on AI usage, workflows, and cultural adoption challenges
Defending Digital Campaigns — Defending Digital Campaigns — A nonprofit providing free cybersecurity tools to eligible campaigns. AI-powered phishing detection, DDoS protection, mobile threat tools. Apply if your campaign qualifies.

Programs, Grants & Funding Opportunities

Claude for Nonprofits — Anthropic — Up to 75% off Claude’s Team and Enterprise plans for nonprofits, plus integrations with Blackbaud and Candid and a free AI education course for staff.
Tech for Campaigns AI Lab — Tech for Campaigns — Pairs progressive orgs with senior tech volunteers to run AI experiments in messaging, creative, and email fundraising.
Mozilla Democracy × AI Cohort — Mozilla Foundation — Mozilla’s incubator program supporting organizations building responsible AI for democratic processes. Track for funding cycles and cohort learnings.

So You Want To Start (Claude+) Coding

Claude Code + Study Hall Sign Up – Higher Ground Institute – HGI will be hosting a series of Claude Code + study halls designed for people who want to try to build products but haven’t yet tried- no technical experience needed
How Should I Get Started with Claude? – Adam Conner – A blog post by Adam Connor of CAP and CAP Action on getting started with Claude Code
Claude Code for Everything: Finally, that Personal Assistant You’ve Always Wanted – Hannah Stulberg – An intro guide to getting started with Claude Code
Vibe Code Your Own Chief of Staff – Ben Jackson– A How-to for building a personal chief of staff using Claude Code