AI in Philanthropy: Challenges and Ethical Considerations

We are back for a surprise third blog in our series on artificial intelligence in philanthropy. In our previous blogs, we discussed what AI is and explored practical applications. While AI brings significant promise, it’s crucial to consider the challenges and ethical aspects as we embrace this technology. In this blog, we’ll delve into some of the challenges and ethical considerations surrounding AI in philanthropy.

Data Privacy and Security: One of the primary concerns when using AI in philanthropy is data privacy and security. Nonprofits often deal with sensitive donor information. As AI systems require vast amounts of data, ensuring that this information is protected from unauthorized access or breaches is paramount. Robust data security measures and compliance with relevant regulations are essential.

Algorithmic Bias: AI systems, including machine learning models, learn from historical data. If these historical data sets are biased or contain systemic inequalities, AI can perpetuate these biases. For example, if past fundraising efforts favored certain demographics, AI may continue to target these groups, neglecting others. It’s essential to address and mitigate algorithmic bias through careful data curation and model testing.

Transparency and Accountability: The “black-box” nature of some AI systems presents challenges in understanding how decisions are made. It can be difficult to explain to donors, staff, or regulators why AI suggested a particular course of action. Striking a balance between AI’s complexity and the need for transparency and accountability is a significant challenge.

User Skills and Training: Implementing AI often requires staff to acquire new skills. It’s not just about understanding how to operate AI systems but also interpreting their results. Many smaller nonprofits may find it challenging to provide the necessary training and resources for staff to use AI effectively.

Cost and Resource Constraints: While AI can be a valuable tool for nonprofits, it’s not without costs. Smaller organizations may struggle with the financial burden of adopting and maintaining AI systems. Ensuring that AI investments align with the organization’s mission is essential.

Donor Trust and Ethical Fundraising: Donors expect their contributions to be used ethically and transparently. The use of AI in fundraising must align with ethical principles. Overreliance on AI without human oversight can erode trust. Donors should understand how AI is used and how it benefits their causes.

Social Responsibility: As AI continues to shape the world, philanthropy should not only adopt AI but also participate in the development of ethical guidelines and responsible AI practices. It’s an opportunity for the sector to influence AI for the greater good.

The Way Forward: AI is a valuable tool for philanthropy, but its implementation should be guided by a commitment to ethical practices. This includes robust data privacy measures, proactive steps to mitigate bias, transparency in decision-making, and responsible use of AI technology.

As AI evolves, the philanthropic sector must stay informed about developments and adapt to changing ethical and regulatory landscapes. AI can be a powerful force for good, but it’s up to us to ensure it’s harnessed in a way that aligns with the core values of philanthropy: improving the well-being of communities and individuals.

At the beginning of this blog, we said this blog was a surprise, but the real surprise is that this entire post was written entirely by Chat GPT! I hope this blog was both a trick and a treat for you to understand how helpful Chat GPT and other AI solutions can be for your organizations. Happy Halloween!

AI in Philanthropy: A Roundup of Practical Applications

In the last blog post, we attempted to summarize what AI is, its pitfalls, and the roles philanthropy can play in the newly evolving field. Now we can get down to the brass tacks – how to start incorporating AI into your everyday workflows.

Commonly suggested use cases for AI in philanthropy include help with writing letters, emails, proposals, and other communications to donors and prospects. To me, these items seem like the easiest entry-point into using AI. Natural language-based AI platforms such as ChatGPT and Google Bard allow everyone with Google to access a generative AI platform for free.

I asked ChatGPT to write a thank you letter for someone who donated to breast cancer research as a test. The results were, frankly, better than I could have written in an hour hemming and hawing trying to find words to express gratitude. Would the letter need editing? Absolutely; it had neither the organization-specific language I would expect in a letter nor any personalization to the specific donor. it provided a scaffold — a fully fleshed-out outline — which could be edited within a few minutes to get an impactful letter. using this sort of scaffolding — for letters, proposals, emails, personalized campaigns, biographies, excel formulas, coding structures, etc. — to jumpstart a problem or task, is exactly how we as experts in our field can use AI to make ourselves more efficient. The hardest part of creating any profile for me isn’t the research; it’s the first paragraph. It is challenging for me to go from no words to some words that can be cobbled together into a coherent thought. These AI programs generate words to work with, and even if you find mistakes in what the tools start you out with, you are editing rather than creating.

Additionally, AI can be used for editing. Tools such as the spell-checker in Word and the website Grammarly (which I can’t recommend enough) are built on AI platforms that use machine learning to process your writing differently than grammar and spell checkers of ye-olden days.

Other common suggestions are predictive modeling, chatbots for organizations’ landing pages, videos, blog posts, infographics, proofreading, and social media monitoring. While these suggestions are all valid, they usually require staff with extensive time, training, and coding abilities. Many prospect development professionals are well-versed in predictive modeling, but the barrier to entry (even in conjunction with consultants or vendors) can be too extensive for smaller nonprofits to both enter and effectively use the results afterward. However, undeniably, AI is the present and the way forward for better, more efficient fundraising.

• Revolutionizing Fundraising Part I: 6 Ways AI is Transforming the Nonprofit Sector
• Revolutionizing Fundraising Part II: 5 Nonprofit Sector AI Application Examples
• Webinar: AI In Philanthropy: How to prepare for a remarkable future
• Webinar: AI in Fundraising: A Look Back, at Today, and Into the Future
• 5 Ways Prospect Research Can Evolve in the World of AI
• AI for Nonprofits: Should Your Organization Be Using Tools like ChatGPT?
• Practical Application of AI
• AI’s Powerful Prospecting Potential with Shawn Olds, boodle.AI | The Nonprofit Podcast Ep – 60
• Empowering Charities With ChatGPT: Guiding Donors Towards Effective Giving
• Rehumanizing Fundraising With Artificial Intelligence

AI Roundup: What is it, How is it Used, and More Considerations

AI, Chat GPT, Google Bard– We’ve all heard of them. We all know that artificial intelligence (AI) has been rumored to be on the precipice of transforming industries overnight easily for the last two decades, but are we finally there? Has AI reached the point of actually taking over, or is it at a place where it can assist us in our daily work? Our daily lives? This is the first of a two-part blog series on AI and philanthropy, a roundup of the current thoughts on AI, what it means for our industry, and how to incorporate it into our work.

Primers on AI

What is AI? Well, I will let ChatGPT answer that for itself in two sentences:

“AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is the development of computer systems that can perform tasks requiring human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, and problem-solving, using algorithms and data. It encompasses both narrow AI, designed for specific tasks, and the theoretical idea of general AI, which would possess human-like intelligence across diverse tasks.”

Still too broad? Here is a primer on AI:

• Philanthropy & A.I.

Considerations before using AI

As a new and quickly evolving field, AI companies and users are struggling to untangle a whole new world of privacy, ethical, moral, and security issues. Data privacy is always a key concern in philanthropy. As with all big-data projects, you are using hundreds of thousands if not millions of data points. If that amount of information is being shared with a third party, data security and privacy is always a concern. As with all vendors, a careful review of privacy policies is needed when evaluating AI products.

Data accuracy can also be a concern with AI models – there isn’t a good way to check the data you are given by AI except by checking it yourself; if you ask for a biography of a potential donor, even if you ask for sources to be cited, you still need to go back and check all those sources. Numerous instances of Chat GPT presenting incorrect facts or incomplete facts as the truth can be found. A search that highlights the difference in how these models “think” compared to humans is that Chat GPT states that there are no countries that start with the letter “V”. While the technical truth, most people would probably consider the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam would count as starting with “V”. Testing of all information provided by AI platforms is crucial, whether it be a giving model, a biography, or a customized proposal. The concern with data accuracy is not limited to language or code-based answers – AI’s ability to create visual content has improved so much that photography competitions have been won by AI-generated photos.

A final concern is that many AI-generated models used in our industry are based on using millions of data points of previous human behavior. These historical data points can create models to be biased against commonly marginalized groups of people, which without careful consideration can continue to shift fundraising efforts away from more diverse populations.

• Artificial Intelligence Can Help Nonprofits Reach More Donors, but Fundraisers Can’t Ignore Potential Pitfalls
• Prospect Development in a Changing Landscape: Adapting Ethical Practices for the Future

• Is your nonprofit thinking about using ChatGPT? Your first step is to do no harm

Role of Philanthropy in AI

Philanthropic funders also have a role to play in the AI world. Alphabet (Google), Twitch, Microsoft, and Meta have all either completely dismantled or drastically reduced the size of their AI ethics teams, even after their teams raised red flags about their products having potentially harmful consequences. This opens an area where philanthropy can step in to help fund the creation of ethical and moral guidelines on AI use.

• Philanthropy Should Prepare for a World Powered by AI
• It’s Time for Philanthropy to Get Involved Driving Equity in AI
• Philanthropy and AI
• A Call for Philanthropy Across Industries to Get Smart on AI

In Conclusion

AI is certainly here to stay; it is another tool in our toolbelt to help us dive into the data that we use to drive decisions. But it is just that: a tool. Just in the same way that we need to verify the data that is returned from a wealth screening, or double-check the security of the vendors we work with for annual fund solicitations – it is not a fool-proof tool or set of tools to be used indiscriminately. Will our jobs be replaced with AI this year? No, but it will certainly continue to make us more efficient at our work and hopefully more accurate with our recommendations for fundraisers. Check back next month for a roundup of practical applications of AI in philanthropy and prospect research!

TikTok – It’s not just for Gen Z

TikTok has been around long enough at this point to not be the thing the cool kids are doing anymore. TikTok now has over 138 million active users in the US alone and a whopping 52.6% of its users are above the age of 30!  Regardless, it can be an amazing place to find cute dog videos, dance trends, both delicious and horrifying recipe videos, and yes, helpful tips to make your work life better. If you haven’t downloaded the TikTok app, take this as a sign that it’s time for you to join the 2020s and check out these accounts that Apra Greater Houston board members, Ashley Estes and Amanda Whiteside recommend:

Ashley’s Recs:

I’m currently living very focused on self-care and wellness, and I think there’s so much value for us as nonprofit employees to find resources that we can use to take care of our own mental health, create work-life balance, and keep to those boundaries we set with our employer.

• Nedra Tawwab (https://www.tiktok.com/@nedratawwab) is a therapist and New York Times bestselling author of Set Boundaries, Find Peace. Her TikTok account is full of wonderful videos breaking down how people interact and how we can better understand each other and create healthy boundaries with the toxic people in our lives. She provides recommendations on how we can grow and tools we can use to get out of our own way. Her insights have been earth-shattering at times for me. I send a lot of her videos to my husband.  

• Anu Gupta (https://www.tiktok.com/@bemorewithanu) is a lawyer, educator, scientist, and the founder of BE MORE with Anu. He has synthesized his skills as an attorney, research scientist, and meditation teacher to build programs centered on advancing equity and belonging. His TikTok videos focus on meditation and mantras of the day, in addition to a handful on how to deal with bias. It’s nice to start your day with a quiet moment of positivity. Anu’s voice is so calming and he’s truly interested in breaking bias in our world and helping us all become stronger and more at peace.

• Miss Excel (https://www.tiktok.com/@miss.excel) is an account that I’ve found super helpful as I work a lot in Excel. Miss Excel shares tips and tricks on how to perform complex functions or shortcuts to perform common tasks. I’ve found a number of her videos have given me ideas in further customizing the reports I build to make them even more consumable by the gift officers or development leadership.

• My last recommendation is The Excel Team (https://www.tiktok.com/@the.excel.team). Another Excel-based account that has provided so many shortcut tips and formatting ideas. Additionally, she acts out work scenarios between colleagues, and it’s so charming. A lovely one-woman, Excel-based, show.

Amanda’s Recs:

I tend to let the algorithm tell me what I need at any given moment, and the algorithm has definitely figured me out! When it isn’t showing me videos of cows loving life or cats getting up to mischief, it gives me helpful hints for life – including for work!

• This isn’t a creator, but simply a one-off tip for those of us who use Microsoft Teams. You can change your Teams tone to liven up your day! This tip certainly has made taking video calls more enjoyable!

@americaninrome

When you change yohr ringtone on Teams to the Teams club remix #perte

♬ original sound – American in Rome

• Want to level up your soft skills? I highly recommend Dr. Ben Crosby of triviumu (https://www.tiktok.com/@triviumu). He is a Professor of Rhetoric and a Communication Skills Coach, and his videos focus on research and tips on how to interview, communicate, and improve your soft skills overall. He has different series on interviewing, public speaking, and how to improve your communication skills. I find I particularly enjoy that his tips are often grounded in research, which makes sense considering his academic background.

• Leigh of HRManifesto (https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto) does a great job of blending hilarious stories and sharing relatable bad manager experiences while letting viewers know what is and is not supposed to be expected in workplaces. Although not non-profit specific, I appreciate her humorous approach to talking about work situations, and think they are often great reminders of how to be a good co-worker.

• Who knew Excel was such a common topic on TikTok? One of my favorite Excel accounts is Grant of excel.withgrant (https://www.tiktok.com/@excel.withgrant). He gives mostly hot-key tips, which over time are really speeding up any manipulation I have to do in Excel. His videos are short and to the point, which I appreciate.

Happy scrolling!

Measuring Affinity

With a variety of internal and external data easily available, prospect researchers and analysts are able to provide greater insight to reach their organization’s goals. In order for data to help grow the prospect pipeline and inform decisions, one must be able to turn this data into valuable measurements.

I learned this first-hand in my initial attempt to create an affinity score to assist with prospect identification. To prepare for the task, I asked myself a series of questions. Some of those questions included:

What is affinity?

How do I define affinity for my organization?

Who would I consider has a high affinity for my organization?

What data is available to me that supports the statement, “a constituent has a high affinity?”

Do all significant donors or volunteers represent their affinity in the same way?

Which data points that are common between “high affinity constituents” and new prospects are, or are not, coincidental?

Which data points have greater ‘weight’ than others?

Which data points should have a maximum capacity in the resulting total score?

 

All of these and more were critical in my attempt to create a score.

Please note the use of the word ‘attempt’ above. I stress this because there is quite a bit of trial and error in the path to a final product. This is a project where one must continuously validate, adapt and iterate until the results successfully inform the decisions of your team.

Do not be afraid to try this on your own. There are services that can help with the process, but Excel is a great tool to begin the data manipulation required to calculate your score. Whether or not you use Excel or a specialized application for developing a score, it does not eliminate the need to question and understand affinity for your organization.

So I ask you, what is affinity for your organization?

How to calculate date intervals in Excel

This incredibly useful function isn’t exactly mentioned in the Excel formula list.  It’s one of those “off-the-menu” items you have to know about.

 

DATEDIF computes the interval between two dates in Excel.  You could use it to compute any of the following

• donor’s overall giving horizon (Date of Last Gift minus Date of First Gift)
• number of months since a donor’s last gift
• number of years between degree date (graduation) and first gift date

 

So … you’ve got the general idea, right?  This formula is crazy fabulous!

 

Here is the syntax (from Pearson Software Consulting):

 

Just click on the image to read the full information available from Pearson about this formula and start using it next time you’re trying to filter, or prioritize or inform or just plain report out some basic information for a group of constituents.

Building a culture of data fluency

For the eleventy-hundredth time I read an article stating that organizations who base their strategic decision making on data out-perform organizations who don’t.

No longer surprising, right?

So what’s the big deal?  Why isn’t every organization taking full advantage of the data we so carefully input, record and store?

That question is also discussed a lot in these days too.  Seems that it’s pretty difficult to get people to change their behavior (eg, adopt a data driven mindset) if no one is comfortable with the concept of understanding data.

The headline above is from an article in Forbes dated October 2014 by H. O. Maycotte.  Mr. Maycotte explains that complex analysis from a business point of view involves a LOT of data.  He says most people just don’t know where to start analyzing and frankly don’t have the right tools to help them accomplish the work.

 

The central issue is getting people comfortable with understanding the data related to the programs they support.

 

Recently, TechTarget published a case study highlighting an online-lending organization who is taking their employees through a week-long data boot camp to build data fluency throughout their organization.

Their goal is to be one of the companies who out-perform their peers by taking advantage of data and they’re equipping their employees with some essential skills:

• asking for the data they need
• summarizing their competed analysis
• presenting their findings.

They’ve adopted new management policies to require hard facts to support all decisions.  So if you’re trying to get your department or program to move forward, you’ve got to be able to present your case.

Click on the TechTarget logo above to read the case study and find out more.  And for more discussion on the topic, click here.

Bookmark this – Metropolitan geography data base

If you’ve ever attempted to conduct analyses of your constituency across a geographic area, then you’ve no doubt gained an appreciation for metro city coding.  These numeric identifiers group clusters of city names together into a single designation suitable for counting, sorting or reporting.

Imagine life without city codes.  Let’s say we wanted to count constituents in Houston.  Our work wouldn’t be complete unless we also counted constituents from every single named town in and around Houston, like Kingwood, Spring, The Woodlands, Humble, Sugar Land, Bellaire, Pasadena, Webster, Katy, Pearland, etc.

Talk about craziness!  I can sense we’re in agreement.

 

Anyway, just the other day in my quest to translate a few city code to city names (off-the-cuff) I stumbled upon this great online resource!

This easy-to-use query tool allows you to drill into a city code to see which townships compose the metro area and it features a simple search bar.

 

tbed is the newest addition to my bookmark folder!  Click on the logo above to give it a try!

Bookmark this – Earnings chart for 820 occupations

The Bureau of Labor Statistics compiled average wages by occupation type for 820 different jobs in America.  The chart below highlights the top 20:

 

Nice work!  Be sure to click on the image above to get to the original source listing all 820 occupations.

Bookmark this – US metro economic indicators

If you work in a nonprofit organization, national economic indicators are part of the big picture.  These indicators paint a picture of economic disparities and highlight the areas of greatest need for families struggling to maintain their stability and independence. These indicators influence current and future demand for education, healthcare, housing, transportation and social services.  Thankfully, the Urban Institute compiles an incredible amount of insightful and useful data, dashboard style.  Their dashboard includes data compiled for 366 of the country’s most densely populated cities.  Give it a try!

 

 

Drill-down information for Houston–

 

This dashboard is amazing!