CCNDR CoLabs
Collaborative spaces for co-creating practical digital solutions.
CCNDR CoLabs are how we bring people together to solve real digital challenges facing nonprofits across Canada.
Each CoLab is a national, time bound collaboration anchored in one of our focus areas:
Data Management & Literacy
Cybersecurity Readiness
Emerging Technology
Rather than developing solutions behind closed doors, CoLabs create structured spaces where nonprofits, community partners, and experts work side by side to design learning, tools, and pathways that are practical and grounded in lived experience.
CoLabs are intentionally designed to be practical, inclusive, and repeatable. They create focused environments for shared problem solving, applied learning, and sector wide collaboration.
Explore our CoLabs to find opportunities to collaborate on shared nonprofit digital challenges.
At their core, CoLabs centre:
Real nonprofit share-lived experience
Responsible and equity informed design
Shared learning and collective insight
Outputs that are ready for real world use
AI Nonprofit Skilling CoLab
An Emerging Technology CoLab focused on responsible AI adoption
The Nonprofit AI Skilling CoLab was CCNDR’s first national CoLab and the first application of this model at scale. Its work is now complete. The Nonprofit AI Skilling CoLab produced the CCNDR Nonprofit AI Skilling Program, a free, bilingual credential launched on August 17.
Led by CCNDR in collaboration with Microsoft Elevate, the CoLab brought together nonprofit organizations, learning partners, and practitioners to co-create practical, nonprofit-specific AI learning. Ten community partners co-designed the content alongside our Co-Design Lead, CILAR, and more than 20 Validation and Practice Partners checked it against how nonprofit work gets done.
The focus was never AI hype. You have a genuine choice about whether and how to use AI, and this program exists to help you make that choice with more clarity, keeping the focus where it belongs: stronger service delivery and deeper community impact.
Built by the sector, for the sector
The program offers two tracks, developed in English and French from the start:
- Nonprofit AI Skilling Program: Practitioner Credential, for teams putting AI to work day to day
- Nonprofit AI Skilling Program: Leadership Credential, for leaders and boards setting direction and responsible use
Why a credential
Many nonprofit professionals are already using AI, but few can show they’ve learned to use it safely and responsibly. A credential proves that difference. It shows you have done the work and gone beyond practice to responsible use. With it, you can decide whether and how to adopt AI, with the proof to back that judgement. It also travel with you. In a sector where people change organizations often, that portability matters.
This is the first credential of its kind in Canada, and the people who earn it early help shape responsible AI use across our sector.
You’ll walk away with:
Tangible outputs tied to your role: an applied AI workflow, or a board-ready governance framework and AI plan
The knowledge to decide whether and how AI fits your work, on your own terms
A credential you can showcase on LinkedIn and your resume, the first AI credential built for the Canadian nonprofit sector
Progress Timeline
Cyber CoLab 2026
Coming soon. Fall 2026.
Could this be a CoLab?
Some challenges are too complex for one organization to solve alone.
If you’re seeing a digital issue that requires coordination, applied learning, and sector wide collaboration, it might be a fit for the CoLab model.
We welcome ideas from nonprofits, funders, and ecosystem partners who want to build practical solutions together.