AI & MERL: Resources for Social Impact Professionals
Keeping up with AI is like drinking from a firehose. For those of us in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning (MERL) roles—or anyone working in nonprofits and social impact—the question isn’t “What’s happening in AI?” It’s “What should I actually pay attention to?”
Here’s a curated set of resources that cut through the hype and give you practical, thoughtful takes on how AI intersects with evaluation and social change. It’s definitely not an exhaustive list, but some really useful ones. What are you paying attention to? What should we listen to/read/watch? We’d love to hear from you!
Podcasts to Tune Into
Everyday AI — Quick, jargon-free daily episodes on AI news and how-tos. Great if you want snackable insights you can actually use in your day-to-day work.
AI For Good — Case studies of nonprofits and social enterprises using AI to make an impact. Conversational, applied, and ethics-minded.
REvaluation Podcast — For evaluation professionals: big-picture conversations about the future of research and evaluation, including whether AI really saves time (and when it doesn’t).
YouTube Channels Worth Subscribing To
Michael Quinn Patton — Evaluation wisdom from one of the field’s luminaries, in a format that feels like having a mentor on demand.
Newsletters & Blogs for Insights
Good AI for Good (Substack) — A weekly, hand-curated digest on AI, ethics, and social impact.
MERL Tech Blog & Community — The go-to hub for how evaluation and tech collide, with frank reflections from practitioners.
MIT Technology Review: The Algorithm — Smart, balanced reporting on AI trends and their social implications.
Steve Powell’s Causal Mapping blog — Practical methods for capturing and analyzing causal claims at scale; helpful for blending qualitative depth with computational tools.
Global Institutions to Watch
WFP Evaluation — Clear, humanitarian-grounded take on how AI could reshape evaluation in crises, bias reduction, and real-time learning.
OECD.AI Policy Observatory — Policies, data, and analysis for trustworthy AI; a good window into where global governance is heading.
UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of AI — The first global normative instrument on AI ethics, adopted by 193 Member States in 2021; useful principles for social-sector adoption.
Must-Read Articles & Books
AI-Powered Nonprofits (SSIR series) — Case studies of NGOs already leveraging AI, highlighting both possibilities and pitfalls.
Artificial Intelligence and Evaluation: Emerging Technologies and Their Implications for Evaluation — INTEVAL/Routledge volume edited by Steffen Bohni Nielsen, Francesco Mazzeo Rinaldi, and Gustav Jakob Petersson; includes open-access content and practical cases for evaluators. Routledge page | Open access.
Why This Matters
The point isn’t to become an AI expert overnight. It’s to stay curious and informed—because evaluation is changing, programs are changing, and the tools we use to measure impact are changing too.
Dip into one of these resources each week, and you’ll be ahead of the curve without burning out on AI noise.
Anthralytic is a strategy and evaluation firm helping mission-driven organizations navigate complexity with clarity. We blend human-centered design, evaluation, and AI tools to make impact strategy more effective—and more human.