Artificial intelligence may not be the final frontier, but it is a new one. Nonprofits are trying to figure out if they can use A.I. to better fulfill their missions, but they also worry about the damage it could cause. To help nonprofits better navigate this murky terrain, GivingTuesday has launched the online Generosity AI Working Group.
“There’s a lot of anxiety in the sector — not just about the harm that can be done [with A.I.] but also feeling like ‘I don’t know what I’m supposed to know,’” says Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer at GivingTuesday. “We’re trying to provide a space for that learning.”
Nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, researchers, tech companies, and others can join the working group by creating a free account and logging in. The online community includes four sections: a problem library, a collection of data, a knowledge bank, and tools and initiatives repository.
The knowledge bank is designed to help people learn more about particular A.I. topics, while the tools and initiatives section highlights current A.I. research projects. The problem library can pair nonprofits that have a problem or question related to artificial intelligence with researchers and tech companies working to solve that problem.
“We’ve already seen quite a bit of interest among developers who have solutions that they are working on,” Rosenbaum says.
Users can find a range of information on the site, such as Fundraising Effectiveness Project transaction data and raw figures from the IRS 990 form.
The site aims to help both small and large organizations with information available for a “one-person nonprofit” trying to figure out what A.I. solutions are available, Rosenbaum says, all the way up to a high-tech team that wants to see “the actual code repository” and learn which tools “are working and what issues are arising from their deployment.”
Relevant A.I. Content for Nonprofits
Elizabeth Searing, assistant professor of public and nonprofit management at the University of Texas at Dallas, joined the working group and says it’s been helpful for finding reliable, pertinent information.
“Right now, everyone has something to say about A.I., even the people that shouldn’t be saying things about A.I.,” Searing says. “So I like the content curation here because it gives me a place to start.”
The working group launched late last month, and its information sections are growing as more people join and add to them. Searing, who has participated in other working groups, says the site is quite robust already. She recently went down a rabbit hole on how A.I. can improve chatbots.
“There’s some really interesting research out there now on what characteristics of a chatbot really encourage people to engage or donate more,” she says. “Do you need a smiley face? Do they need to admit that they’re a chatbot? Will using a chatbot that more people relate to potentially increase the donations that you get?”
By getting nonprofit questions and concerns on tech leaders’ radar, the working group can help nonprofits play a bigger role in the development of A.I. tools that are ethical and useful to the field, Rosenbaum says .
“We shouldn’t just sit by while these technologies start getting integrated into all of the technology solutions that we use,” he says. “Part of our mission is not just that the nonprofit sector doesn’t get left behind, but we think the nonprofit sector has an opportunity to inform how these tools are built.”
That’s a big aspiration. For users like Searing, the working group offers another benefit: It’s a place to consistently find practical information rather than tech-company marketing.
“Right now, almost every email I get is about A.I. in some form,” Searing says. “So when that subsides, I like knowing this working group [is here] because that’s where the serious work is going to be getting done. It’s something that is going to be there when the hype emails stop.”
