By: Kayleigh P. Marques
March 3rd, 2025
Introduction
Artificial intelligence is an incredibly powerful tool, but if you’ve ever used AI and thought, “This isn’t quite what I wanted,” you’re not alone. Whether you’re using Clear Impact’s AI Assist in Scorecard or any other AI-powered tool, getting the right response often comes down to how you ask the question.
Public and social sector professionals don’t have time to waste sifting through irrelevant AI-generated content or struggling to refine vague responses. You need accurate, actionable results, and you need them fast.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to craft better AI prompts and questions to get the insights, data analysis, reports, and strategic recommendations you need to drive real impact.
In this article, we’ll introduce 12 tips to craft better AI prompts and get the answers you’re looking for.
AI Assist for Clear Impact Scorecard — A Quick Recap
Recently, Clear Impact released two new AI-powered features in our Scorecard software (collectively named “AI Assist”). You can read more about this exciting update here: https://clearimpact.com/introducing-scorecard-ai-assist-your-new-quantitative-and-qualitative-data-analysis-partner
If you haven’t yet explored AI Assist in Scorecard, here’s a quick refresher:
✅ AI Assist for Data Analysis: Located in Scorecard’s graph section, this feature offers automated data analysis and insights to help you effectively interpret your data.
✅ AI Assist for Notes: Found in Scorecard’s notes section, this tool helps users brainstorm ideas, draft reports, summarize findings, and refine narratives—especially useful for Results-Based Accountability (RBA) users. Users can utilize pre-loaded recommended prompts (based on measure names) or enter their own custom prompts.
Both tools are opt-in, meaning administrators can choose to enable or disable AI Assist for their teams. They are designed to enhance—not replace—your expertise, helping you work smarter, save time, and get better results from your data.
DISCLAIMER: Because Scorecard AI Assist is highly tailored to our tool and the needs of our user base, it cannot effectively perform every function available to AI systems everywhere. For example, you cannot use Scorecard AI Assist to generate images or videos. Our AI Assist tool also utilizes Google Gemini technology, which has its own strengths and weaknesses when compared to other systems (e.g. ChatGpt). However, the following tips are general enough to help you use AI more effectively no matter what software system or AI platform you are using.
Ultimately, our goal is always to help you do your job more efficiently, automate time-consuming tasks associated with your work, and provide the best tools to maximize your program performance and impact. When used effectively (and ethically), we believe AI support tools — Like Scorecard AI Assist — can help you accomplish all this and more. That’s why we’d like to help you get the AI results you’re looking for without so much trial and error.
Now, let’s dive into how to make the most of AI Assist (and any AI system) by writing better prompts.
AI Assist is a new set of Scorecard features designed to help you analyze your data and develop effective data narratives. All paying customers can access AI Assist above Measure page graphs and in Measure page Notes sections.
12 Tips to Write Better AI Prompts (and Get the Results You Need)
To get accurate, useful responses from AI, you need to ask the right questions in the right way. Here are 10 essential tips to help you craft better AI prompts—with real examples tailored for social and public sector professionals.
1. Use the Right AI Tool for the Task
Different AI tools excel at different tasks. Clear Impact’s AI Assist in Scorecard is optimized for data analysis and measure note development, making it ideal for analyzing data trends, brainstorming, summarizing key takeaways, and refining data-driven narratives.
General-purpose AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini are better for content writing, and conversational responses. Choosing the right AI for the job ensures more accurate, relevant, and efficient results.
🔹 Do this:
Use Scorecard’s AI Assist to analyze performance trends in a dataset, provide insights, and brainstorm ideas for your Turn the Curve analysis. Then, use ChatGPT or another content development system to help develop a comprehensive impact report (based on contextual information uploaded from your Scorecard) that can be shared online.
🔹 Not that:
Ask any AI tool to do everything, regardless of its strengths.
👉 Why it works:
Matching the right AI tool to the right task ensures better accuracy, efficiency, and quality of output—helping you get the results you need with less back-and-forth refinement.
2. Understand What Kind of Information You’re Looking For
Before you type your AI request, ask yourself: What do I actually need? AI can generate recommendations, written content, data analysis, summaries of existing documentation, action plans, and more. The clearer you are about the type of response you’re looking for, the more helpful AI’s output will be.
🔹 Ask this:
“Summarize the key findings from our latest community needs assessment (pasted below) in a way that is digestible for policymakers. Focus on three main challenges and three proposed solutions.”
🔹 Not that:
“Summarize our community needs assessment.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt ensures that AI delivers a structured, actionable summary rather than a generic overview.
3. Be As Specific as Possible
AI performs best when given clear, precise instructions. If your prompt is too vague, you’ll likely get generic or irrelevant responses that don’t fully address your needs.
🔹 Ask this:
“Provide three data-driven strategies for reducing food insecurity among low-income families in urban areas, based on best practices from U.S. nonprofit organizations.”
🔹 Not that:
“How do I reduce food insecurity?”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt narrows the focus, specifies target demographics, and requests best practices from a specific geographical region, ensuring that AI delivers relevant insights.
4. Provide Relevant Context
AI doesn’t automatically know who your audience is or what your project is about. When crafting a prompt, make sure to include important background details, such as who the audience is, what the main objective is, and any relevant constraints.
🔹 Ask this:
“Write a summary of our 2023 homelessness prevention program’s impact (based on the information in this note) for a grant report. The audience is private donors and policymakers, and they are particularly interested in long-term housing stability outcomes.”
🔹 Not that:
“Summarize our homelessness program.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt specifies the year, program type, audience, and key focus areas, making it far more targeted and useful for writing a compelling report.
5. Upload Relevant Files (If Your Tool Allows it)
If your AI tool supports file uploads, take advantage of it! AI works best when it has real, relevant data to analyze. If you’re generating reports, summaries, or recommendations, uploading impact reports, survey data, or funding proposals will help AI produce accurate and context-aware responses.
🔹 Ask this:
“Using the attached 2023 impact report, generate key takeaways for a donor presentation on youth employment outcomes.”
🔹 Not that:
“Summarize our impact on youth employment.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt ensures that AI pulls from actual program data rather than making generic assumptions.
✨Pro-Tip: If you’re unable to attach files to your prompt, you can always copy and paste the information from the intended document into the prompt itself. You can also notify the AI system in your original prompt that you’ll share more relevant content or files in a subsequent prompt. Of course, this tip is limited based on the available word count in your AI system, but there should be no limit to your ability to provide contextual information in multiple subsequent prompts.
6. Ask for a Specific Format or Structure
AI will assume a format unless you tell it exactly what you need. If you’re requesting a summary, press release, or strategic plan, specify how it should be structured.
🔹 Ask this:
“Draft a one-page press release announcing our new partnership with the local health department, including a headline, subheadline, quote from our CEO, and key details.”
🔹 Not that:
“Write about our partnership with the health department.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt clearly defines the format, tone, and key sections needed.
When developing questions for AI, it is important to be as specific as possible and include as much relevant context as you can. This includes asking for a preferred response format (bulleted list, one-paragraph summary, traditional press release format, blog, etc.).
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Edit, Edit, Edit
AI-generated content is rarely perfect on the first try, and that’s okay! Think of AI as a collaborative assistant rather than an all-knowing expert. Instead of settling for an unsatisfactory first result, iterate and refine your prompt.
If the response is too generic, ask AI to provide more detail. If the tone isn’t right, request a revision in a different style. The more feedback you give, the more tailored and useful the response will become.
🔹 Ask this:
“Revise this impact summary to sound more engaging for a general audience, avoiding overly technical language while keeping the key data points intact.”
🔹 Not that:
“Make this sound better.”
👉 Why it works:
The improved prompt provides clear instructions on tone, audience, and content focus, whereas the vague prompt leaves too much open for interpretation. AI works best when given specific guidance on how to improve its responses.
8. Break Down Your Request Into Smaller Steps
When working on a large project—such as an impact report, strategic plan, or grant proposal—it can be tempting to ask AI for everything at once. However, broad prompts often result in overly generic, unstructured, or incomplete responses. Instead of asking AI to generate an entire document in one go, break your request into smaller, more focused steps. This approach also allows for easier refinements and iterations if you choose to employ Tip #6.
🔹 Ask this:
“Step 1: Identify the three most significant challenges related to childhood nutrition programs in low-income communities. Step 2: Provide five evidence-based solutions, citing relevant case studies. Step 3: Summarize potential funding sources to support these solutions.” [Provide each step in a different prompt]
🔹 Not that:
“Write a report on childhood nutrition programs.”
👉 Why it works:
The structured prompt breaks the request into logical sections, ensuring AI delivers more precise, relevant, and useful content rather than a broad, unfocused summary.
9. Leverage AI to Improve Critical Thinking, Not Just Automate Tasks
AI is more than just a content generator—it can help you analyze, critique, and refine ideas to strengthen your decision-making. Instead of using AI only for automation, use it to identify gaps in logic, highlight potential challenges, and explore alternative solutions in your work. Treat AI as a thought partner to enhance strategic thinking.
🔹 Ask this:
“Review this draft proposal and identify any weaknesses, potential objections from funders, and areas that need more supporting data.”
🔹 Not that:
“Rewrite this proposal to sound better.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt asks AI to assess and improve critical aspects of the proposal, while the second simply requests vague improvements without clear direction.
10. Ask AI to Provide Sources and Links for Its Responses
AI-generated content is only as reliable as the data it’s trained on, so it’s important to verify information and ensure accuracy—especially when making data-driven decisions. Many AI models can cite sources, suggest further reading, or provide links to relevant studies and reports. When working with impact data, policies, or best practices, ask AI to back up its claims with sources for easier fact-checking.
🔹 Ask this:
“List three evidence-based strategies for improving early childhood literacy and include links to peer-reviewed studies or reports from reputable organizations.”
🔹 Not that:
“How can we improve early childhood literacy?”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt ensures AI provides well-supported, verifiable recommendations, while the second might lead to generic, unsourced responses.
11. Use AI to Improve Writing Clarity, Grammar, and Structure
AI can act as an editor and writing assistant, helping you refine content for clarity, readability, grammar, and structure. Whether you’re drafting impact reports, grant proposals, or stakeholder communications, AI can make your writing more concise, engaging, and professional. Instead of just asking AI to rewrite something, be specific about what you want improved, such as tone, readability, or organization.
🔹 Ask this:
“Revise this executive summary to be more concise and engaging for a non-technical audience. Maintain key data points while improving readability.”
🔹 Not that:
“Make this sound better.”
👉 Why it works:
The first prompt clearly defines the desired improvements, ensuring AI tailors its response to your needs, while the second is too vague to produce meaningful revisions.
12. Get the Most Out of Google Gemini AI in Scorecard
Google Gemini AI excels at multimodal reasoning, meaning it can process and analyze text, charts, images, and complex data simultaneously to provide deeper insights. It’s particularly strong in understanding long-form documents, summarizing key takeaways, and drawing connections between different data points. When using Gemini AI in Scorecard, take advantage of its ability to synthesize complex performance data into clear, actionable insights.
🔹 How to analyze data in Scorecard:
- Click “⭐Analyze” at the top of a graph on a Scorecard Measure page.
- This feature is available to paying customers only.
- When the required number of data points is provided, this tool will provide information about outliers, trends, data gaps, statistical significance, and more!
AI can help stimulate creativity. Instead of using AI to generate content, try asking it to identify gaps in logic, highlight potential challenges, and explore alternative solutions in your work.
Want to See Scorecard AI Assist in Action?
📢 Try AI Assist in Scorecard Today! Request a demo to see how AI can streamline your data analysis, strategy development, and reporting.
If you’re a Scorecard user with editing access, AI Assist is available right now—ready to help you analyze data, craft compelling reports, brainstorm new strategies, and improve your impact.
📣 Log into Scorecard today to try AI Assist for yourself!
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