FinOps practices often rely on revenue, margins, and growth metrics, but public sector and nonprofit organizations operate without these signals. In this lightning talk, I’ll share a real-world practitioner approach to managing data platform and AI costs in a large nonprofit ecosystem where success is measured by community impact, compliance, and stewardship.
Attendees will learn how we applied FinOps principles to data cloud platforms and emerging AI workloads by using outcome-based allocation, unit economics without revenue, and executive-ready cost narratives. The talk will highlight one practical framework, one dashboard example, and one key lesson learned that attendees can immediately apply in regulated or mission-driven environments.