Ask teenagers what they think about Facebook and Twitter, and you will get an epic eye roll. Social media are so 2016, their expression will tell you. What’s the next big thing? Messaging apps are growing faster than social-media platforms.
The most popular of these apps are Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, both of which are owned by Facebook.
The rise of these platforms has spurred a meteoric rise in the use of chatbots, computer programs used to exchange messages that feel like conversations between people. If you’ve ever had an online conversation with a service representative on a company website, chances are you were talking to a chatbot.
In mid-2016, Facebook opened up Messenger to allow companies (including nonprofits) to program their own chatbots for customer support, e-commerce guidance, content, and interactive experiences. By April 2017, more than 100,000 Facebook Messenger bots had reached over 2 billion Facebook Messenger users.
Nonprofits are beginning to use chatbots to increase their ability to interact with supporters at almost no cost. Chatbots are available 24/7 to answer questions and — the hope is — free up staff to do other work. The ability of bots to relieve organizations of administrative tasks is not an incremental improvement. According to one estimate, “more than 30 percent of tasks can be automated through chatbots now.” That is a huge shift in how work is done, and by whom, within organizations.
Of course, the bots are not exactly “free” for users as both the bot owners and Facebook Messenger are collecting information about the users and their bot conversations.
Here’s how nonprofits are using chatbots:
Donor queries and administrative tasks: Imagine a bot answering questions you are asked all the time even though the answers are on the FAQ page of your website. Questions such as: When are you open? Are you a 501(c)(3)? When is the big gala? Where are you located? All of these questions can be answered online by a friendly bot. In addition, bots could do intake for new clients, sign up new members, arrange meetings, and even order lunch.
Storytelling. Yeshi is a chatbot created by Charity: Water to educate people about her six-hour walk to get clean water. The conversation with Yeshi is “smart,” meaning she asks and answers questions with a variety of images, maps, text, and videos. Chatbots like Yeshi can provide visual and emotional ways to tell your nonprofit’s story and help people understand the real problems your work addresses and overcomes. It is the first rung on the ladder of engagement.
Data gathering. The World Food Program uses a chatbot in Nigeria and Haiti to ask people about local food prices and food security in their communities. The chatbot operates in several languages and through low-band internet access. This is a much faster, less expensive way to collect survey data. According to Kayla Matthews, senior writer at MakeUseOf, “A chatbot used at your nonprofit could theoretically field many of the questions usually addressed by humans, then allow a real person to step in if someone gets upset.”
Human resources. “OUR Walmart” is a chatbot that answers Walmart workers’ questions. It is powered by IBM Watson’s artificial intelligence. The purpose of the bot is to provide information to workers on company policies that they cannot learn elsewhere. The bot is not a tool for union organizing — yet — but it could be in the future.
Community organizing. The nonprofit the Climate Reality Project is using a bot to send action alerts to community members. A user signs up on the messenger chatbot to receive action alerts to fight climate change. The organization promises not to spam you with too many messages; they send just a few a week with specific actions you can take to fight climate change.
Fundraising. According to Beth Kanter, chatbots are just beginning to enter the fundraising realm: “Mission is a chatbot on Facebook Messenger created by the Vatican to simulate a conversation with the Pope. The Pope bot engages and shares stories and then asks for money by linking to a donation landing page. The thing I have not seen yet is making a donation from within the chat text, actually typing your credit card in versus being sent to a landing page.”
It is easy to imagine chatbots asking for money soon. And what a relief that will be for organizations that regularly hear volunteers and board members say, “I’ll do anything you want except ask people for money.”
But just because bots can ask for money doesn’t mean they should.
Chatbots can be programmed to engage in conversations by mining data from previous responses. They know that a person likes, say, certain foods or events, and they can encourage more conversation based on those likes. However, this also means that chatbots can also be programmed for conversation’s evil twin: manipulation. What are the ethical limits to using technology to encourage people to give money — and perhaps more money than they would have given to a human being?
This is currently an unregulated field, and if we don’t take action, it is likely we will repeat the hand-wringing moment we are having now regarding social media with the bots in a few years. The nonprofit sector can take the lead in thoughtful conversations about regulations and boundaries. We can insist on an ethical approach to bots before unscrupulous people begin emptying people’s bank accounts for nonprofit causes.
Here are three steps we can take now to ensure that we are in charge of the bots and not the other way around:
A code of bot ethics. This would be an outstanding job for a cross-sector organization like Independent Sector to spearhead. A committee could be charged with answering questions such as: What are the expectations for organizations using bots in ethical ways? When should people step in to talk to users with concerns?
A nonmanipulation pledge. Bot usage needs to be very transparent for donors and supporters. There should be a trust badge similar to the ones in use now to verify trusted websites, to assure the public that a nonprofit is using chatbots in ethical ways. For instance, they may ask users if they want to see the organization’s 990 tax forms before asking for a donation.
The right to be forgotten. The right to be forgotten comes from Europe, where criminals have a right to have their crimes expunged. For the internet age, the right to be forgotten is the opportunity to erase your digital footprint. It is the opportunity for anyone who engages with an organization to ask that their interaction be permanently expunged. This is a very bold step for nonprofits that rely on expanding their network of supporters for revenue. Nonprofits have an opportunity to choose a different way to work. We can go beyond our immediate transactional needs and focus on the good of society.
The bots are here — for good and bad. Automation is going to bring radical changes to the way organizations operate and interact with the public. The nonprofit world has typically dragged its feet when it comes to new technology. This is the time to be forward thinking and bold to ensure that the new technologies enhance our work, improve our relationships with supporters and activists, and, most of all, land on the side of good and not evil.
Here is a beginner’s guide to chatbots.
Allison Fine is an author, consultant, and expert on nonprofit leadership and strategy.