Free Guides for NGOs Navigating the Age of Automation

The internet is half bots. We help civil society organizations understand
what that means — and what to do about it.

BOTS.NGO is a free resource platform built for nonprofit staff, campaign teams, technology managers, and civil society leaders who need to understand, deploy, and defend against automated programs (bots) in their digital environments. Whether you're exploring automation tools for your fundraising, communications, or advocacy work — or trying to protect your organization from bot-amplified harassment and disinformation — this is your practical guide.

Our guides are written for practitioners, not engineers. They combine the best available research with field-tested frameworks, real case vignettes, and actionable tools. Everything we publish is free to download, share, and adapt.

Who This Is For

  • NGO communications and campaign staff working in bot-saturated digital environments
  • Technology and operations staff evaluating or implementing automation tools
  • Organizational leaders developing AI and automation policies
  • Fundraising teams exploring predictive analytics and donor management automation
  • Legal and advocacy teams working on regulatory processes vulnerable to bot-flooding
  • Policy advocates working on digital rights, platform accountability, and election integrity
  • Anyone who wants to understand the bots shaping the information environments we all live in

Our Values

Clarity over fear. Bots are neither magical nor apocalyptic — they are software tools with real capabilities and real risks. We help NGOs understand them clearly, without panic or dismissal.

Transparency by default. We believe all automation should be disclosed. We model that in our own work: when we use automated tools, we say so. We advocate for the same transparency from platforms and from civil society organizations.

Human-centered always. Every automated system should augment human capacity, not replace human judgment. There should always be a pathway to a human being. We hold this principle across all our guidance.

Practical and free. Every guide, template, and framework on this platform is free to access, download, and use. Reducing barriers to high-quality strategic knowledge makes the whole civil society sector stronger.

GUIDES

Understanding Bots — What NGOs Need to Know

A comprehensive grounding in what bots are, how they work, what opportunities they create for civil society, and what risks they pose. Covers the three categories of bots relevant to NGO work — beneficial automation, neutral background activity, and adversarial bots — and provides a framework for building organizational literacy, mapping digital exposure, and developing a foundational bot policy. The essential starting point for any NGO operating in a digital environment.

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A step-by-step guide to identifying, selecting, implementing, and governing automation tools — from predictive donor analytics and AI grant writing assistants to chatbots, legislative monitoring services, and agentic workflows. Covers use case assessment, tool selection, human-centered automation design, governance frameworks, ethical culture-building, pilot testing, and ongoing monitoring. Grounded in documented case studies from Greenpeace, UNICEF, Charity:water, and others.

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The defensive and policy guide — covering how to detect and respond to bot-amplified harassment and disinformation; how to protect regulatory and advocacy processes from bot-flooding; how to build staff protection infrastructure; and how to engage in policy debates about bot governance and platform accountability. Includes threat assessment templates, incident response protocols, platform reporting guides, and policy advocacy frameworks.

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Start Here

New to bots? Begin with Guide 1 for a grounded introduction to what bots are, how they work in NGO contexts, and the foundational literacy your organization needs.

Looking to deploy automation tools? Jump to Guide 2 for a step-by-step implementation framework, use case assessment tools, and governance templates.

Facing harassment, disinformation, or regulatory process threats? Guide 3 provides threat assessment, incident response, and policy advocacy frameworks built for civil society organizations.

BOTS.NGO is part of a family of free resource platforms for NGOs and civil society organizations. All guides are published under a Creative Commons Attribution license — share freely, adapt openly, and credit the source.