At Bonterra, we believe AI should serve people and their missions, never the other way around.
Every feature we design is built with discipline and care, because in this sector, trust is the foundation of progress.
We hold ourselves to three principles that others often treat as afterthoughts:
Governance + ethics
We review every AI use case before launch and hold it to recognized global standards and our own ethical values. Our AI is mission-driven, built for fairness, guided by transparency, and accountable to human oversight. Governance is not bolted on later — it’s built into the foundation.
Client data is never currency. We defend it with enterprise-grade safeguards, encryption at every stage, and hardened Amazon Web Software (AWS) infrastructure. We never use customer data to train general-purpose large language models (LLMs). Clients own their data, period, and we treat sensitive information with the highest level of care
Power without waste. We deploy AI efficiently by using inference, not expensive retraining, and we choose right-sized models for the job. Our systems run on green infrastructure that’s proven more energy-efficient than standard data centers. And we don’t stop there, we measure, improve, and evolve our practices as research and technology advance.
Our AI strategy is grounded in Bonterra’s ethical AI values. We have an established AI Governance Committee that reviews every use case before launch, ensuring it aligns with our values and supports client missions. Our teams weigh risks, benefits, and alternatives at every stage — because governance is not an afterthought, it is designed into the foundation.
We also align our governance with leading frameworks including SANS CIS Controls (v8), ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2, and NIST SP 800-53 (Rev. 5), to ensure our systems are resilient, auditable, and continuously improving.
The ethical standards guiding our work include:
Mission-driven design
AI built to advance social good, not spectacle.
Fairness and inclusion
Proactively identifying and reducing bias in outputs.
Transparency
Clear communication on when and how AI is applied.
Accountability
Human oversight in every high-stakes decision.
Privacy + security
At Bonterra, we take a security and privacy first approach grounded in strong operational controls and trusted industry practices. For us, protecting data is not optional — it is the foundation of trust.
Strong safeguards
We protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability through continuous monitoring, encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access with MFA, and full audit logging.
Trusted Infrastructure
Our AI runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides secure workload isolation to protect your data. For any protected health information (PHI), we use only HIPAA-eligible AWS services with safeguards such as encryption, audit controls, and breach notification protocols.
Data ownership and sensitive use
Clients always own their data. We use only aggregated, anonymized information for service improvements and apply heightened safeguards for sensitive cases, including PCI-DSS–aligned protections for financial data. Our Privacy Notice, Master Services Agreement, and Data Processing Agreement make these commitments enforceable.
AI data use
We never use client data to train our own AI models, and our third-party LLM partners do not retain customer data. Data is used only to deliver the requested features or responses, and no one else can see your prompts, files, or results. All AI features run securely in our cloud environment, powered by AWS.
Environmental sustainability
We recognize that AI carries environmental impacts, and we are committed to reducing them. Sustainability is a design choice, not an afterthought. By taking these steps, we ensure AI benefits communities without placing an unnecessary burden on the planet.
Efficient deployment
We focus on inference (applying existing models), not training massive new models. Training consumes the most energy, while inference is far lighter, reducing our footprint while still enabling powerful features for clients.
Green infrastructure
We run on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is more energy-efficient than typical data centers and committed to 100% renewable energy.
Continuous improvement
We track AI energy use, adopt more efficient methods as they emerge, and train our teams to use AI responsibly.
Purpose-built with trust in mind
At Bonterra, we use AI to strengthen missions, not compromise them. By embedding governance into design, protecting privacy and security with enterprise-grade rigor, and reducing environmental impact through efficiency and research-backed practices, we deliver AI that organizations can trust.
And we know this work isn’t one-and-done. Trusted AI is built in continuous partnership, with our customers, our communities, and the entire social good ecosystem. We refine through feedback, share responsibility for responsible use, and evolve in lockstep with the missions we support.
Our commitment is clear and uncompromising: AI must be ethical, secure, and sustainable — anything less puts missions at risk.
FAQ: AI at Bonterra
Bonterra is committed to deploying AI responsibly and sustainably. We use foundation models only for inference (not training), which dramatically reduces energy use. For example, if a user ran one AI task per day for a year, the electricity used would be about the same as running a single 60-W household light bulb for two days.
We also host all our AI features on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is 3.6x more energy efficient than typical data centers, and already uses 100% renewable energy.
No. We make this explicit: Your data is never used to train large language models (LLMs). Bonterra does not train or host its own models. We only use trusted foundation models — the large, general-purpose AI systems built by others — to provide answers and analysis. Your information is only used to answer your request, and the third-party model providers we partner with do not retain customer data after the response is generated, or use it for training or fine-tuning.
No. Only authorized users can view your data, prompts, files, and results. We safeguard your information with the same security protections that secure our platform every day: encryption in transit and at rest, strict role-based access with multi-factor authentication (MFA), comprehensive audit logs, and continuous monitoring in our secure Amazon Web Services (AWS) environment to prevent unauthorized access.
Bonterra applies SOC 2, ISO 27001, and PCI-DSS–aligned protections to safeguard financial and donor data. Bonterra products apply controls aligned with HIPAA standards of due care to support our clients in safeguarding protected health information where applicable. Your data stays securely isolated and cannot “leak” to other customers.
Your data is hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the same infrastructure trusted by the world’s leading banks, healthcare providers, and governments. AWS has explicitly committed that it does not retain or use customer data for AI training.
At Bonterra, our goal is to deliver AI that organizations can trust, so they can advance their missions with confidence. Trust means adhering to the core principle that humans are always in control. If you would prefer not to have AI features enabled for your organization, you can always opt out by speaking to our support team.
Check out Bonterra Que, our ethical AI purpose-built for nonprofits and fundraisers.
