How United Way uses ChatGPT Enterprise to speed contract review, prevent costly renewals, and scale responsible adoption
United Way, a nonprofit supporting a global network of 1,100 local United Ways, adopted OpenAI Enterprise earlier this year to boost quality and productivity across the organization. CTO Lawana Jones paired the rollout with governance and an internal AI Ambassador program so staff could learn responsibly and scale what works.
One high‑stakes win stands out. Previously, a legal colleague would read every page, flagging issues for Jones by hand. Now, with ChatGPT in the workflow, the team can surface key terms, renewal dates, and non‑standard clauses in seconds and produce a concise summary for leadership. That shift turns a 20‑page slog into a focused checklist, and it’s already avoided costly mistakes.
A recent example: an obscure termination clause that required notice 45 days before the end of term. Miss the window and the agreement rolls over. In Jones’s words: “It automatically renews.” With AI helping to spotlight time‑sensitive provisions, the team can act before deadlines pass. And when vendors send “revised” contracts, ChatGPT helps compare versions so United Way can confirm the only changes are the ones it requested, an extra safeguard Jones says “saved us a couple times.”
The impact is practical and immediate: hours returned to the legal and IT teams, lower risk of auto‑renewals and unfavorable terms, and faster cycles from intake to decision. Those gains compound across a portfolio of technology and services, freeing leaders to focus on vendor strategy, data security, and mission delivery rather than manual redlining.
Contract review is part of a broader modernization effort for United Way. Teams are also using ChatGPT to draft communications, assemble research briefings for international meetings, and spin up clear rollout decks in minutes instead of hours. As Jones tells her team, “you’ve got to have the mindset that you want to be a lifelong learner or you’re not going to do well in tech. You’re not going to do well in this department.”
United Way’s gains in time savings and efficiency with AI are consistent with other adopters. A Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study found over half of AI users save 3+ hours per week, and a Harvard study found knowledge workers using AI produced 40% higher quality work.
For nonprofits balancing tight budgets with growing demand for their services, United Way’s playbook is a useful starting point: train champions, and pick a mission‑critical bottleneck like contracts where time and risk concentrate. From there, the efficiencies stack up. In United Way’s case, ChatGPT is helping ensure that everything is mission-aligned, even the fine print.
