A story about one student, a nonprofit website, AI and the moment everything shifted.

Margaret* didn’t think she needed AI.

She had come to our session with a very specific goal: update her nonprofit’s website and figure out how to pull financial reports from QuickBooks. Practical stuff. Nothing flashy.

She was organized, committed, and had already put in close to ten hours updating the scholars page before we even sat down together. She was not someone who needed hand-holding. She just needed the right tools.

So when I introduced her to ChatGPT that day, I wasn’t sure how she’d respond.

She leaned in.

Within minutes, she was typing a prompt asking for a draft article about her organization’s 50th anniversary. ChatGPT produced something she could actually use. Not perfect, not final, but a real starting point. She printed it. She used it.

The week after, she was using AI to draft fundraising letters for donation requests. She was reaching out to hotels, country clubs, sponsors. Some of them responded. Some didn’t. But she kept going, and she was no longer starting from a blank page.

That shift matters more than people realize.

The most common thing I hear from my students is some version of: “I’m not a tech person.” Margaret said it too. But what she showed me over our sessions together was that she didn’t need to be. She needed someone to explain it clearly, walk through it once, and trust her to take it from there.

That’s exactly why I wrote “How to Use AI: A Guide for 50+.”

You can get it here: https://elizabethw2.gumroad.com/l/howtouseai50plus

It started as notes from sessions like hers. The questions that came up again and again. The hesitations. The small moments where something clicked and a person realized they could actually do this.

If you’ve been curious about AI but haven’t had time to sit down with someone, this guide is where to start. It’s plain language, no jargon, and no assumption that you already know what any of this means.