Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology
Technological innovations in Artificial Intelligence continue to offer opportunities for improving work processes within nonprofit organizations. Automated workflows, technological insights, and AI bots made accessible to nonprofit organizations help to increase revenues and reduce costs. Nonprofits should look to integrate AI technology within their organization in 2023.
Relevant Software and Tools
Fundwriter.ai is an AI-based fundraising assistant. Fundwriter can draft professional appeals, emails, and posts. As your employees use the Fundwriter platform, it adapts and becomes more customized to your needs and patterns. The Fundwriter platform is an excellent solution for nonprofit organizations that want to draft highly personalized letters to donors quickly.
Amazon’s Alexa allows users to use Alexa to donate to their favorite nonprofits. To do so, all you need to do is register your organization with Amazon Pay.
Levity is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for workflow automation. To use it, organizations upload a series of images, text files, PDFs, etc., into the platform, and the AI learns from it. Organizations can then connect the AI to their applications to automate their workflows. In addition, to workflow automation, Levity can classify email campaign responses and provide automatic replies, predict the performance of ad campaigns, and features a smart tagging engine.
Instrumentl is a platform that helps nonprofits to discover, track, and manage grant applications efficiently. The platform features automated workflows and helps to streamline the process for locating and applying for grants.
Events and Collaboration
Over the next year, we are expecting to see a decrease in the funds being donated to nonprofit organizations. To be able to hold on to market share, nonprofits are going to have to find ways to expand their reach. Technological advancements in augmented and virtual reality and the Internet of Everything (IoE) has created new ways for people to connect with one another. During the year to come, it is going to be crucial that nonprofits begin to integrate this technology into their ways of doing business.
Relevant Software and Tools
Purposely helps connect nonprofit organizations with volunteers by providing easy-to-use applications that companies can use for volunteaming—team building through volunteer work.
Gather is a startup company focused on building innovative ways for people to connect within the Metaverse. The platform creates an added layer over the physical world to bring people together to work, socialize, and learn.
The Social Good Community is an area within the metaverse on the AvaCon Grid that is free for nonprofit and social good-focused organizations. Each organization selected to be a part of the AvaCon Grid will be allotted 15,360 square meters of virtual land, primitive objects for building and creating content, resources and tutorials to learn how to use the platform, and access to shared public event and meeting areas. The goal of the organization is to help other nonprofit organizations to gain access to the Metaverse, so that they can better connect and reach donors and volunteers.
Touchcast is an organization that focuses on running and hosting events within the Metaverse.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing can potentially reduce costs and improve your organization’s efficiency. By moving computing services to the cloud, cloud computing eliminates the need for organizations to invest in personal servers and other hardware. In addition, cloud computing improves your organization’s transparency by allowing for automated data processing workflows and centralizes data management. Nonprofits should keep an eye on cloud computing technologies and the startups created to provide valuable technology to nonprofits.
Relevant Software and Tools
Campaignr is a cloud-based campaign management platform designed specifically for social, political, and charitable organizations.
GoodCloud is a startup that provides charities and nonprofits with access to cloud data storage.
Data Transparency
Financial data transparency is critical for nonprofits to ensure legal compliance. In addition, with the shifting economy, it is expected that donors are going to want more-and-more transactional transparency to ensure that the money that they are donating is going to a good cause. Providing transactional transparency can be labor-intensive. Innovations in data management software continue to make it possible to provide donors with the transactional transparency they are looking for without having to invest a lot of resources.
Relevant Software and Tools
Cherr.io is an online fundraising tool that uses blockchain technology to connect nonprofit organizations with donors. For a small percentage of the proceeds, the platform allows organizations to use advocates to help expand their reach.
AIDONIC uses blockchain technology to provide organizations with an affordable way to deliver aid quickly and with complete transparency.
Automation
Given the decrease in funds that we expect to see in 2023, nonprofits should begin to look for ways to decrease their overhead. Advancements in automation technology have led to the creation of integrated workflows and CRM platforms designed specifically for nonprofit organizations. These platforms can help nonprofits track donation requests, send automated thank you letters, pay bills, find potential donors, post to social media, send email blasts, etc. It is expected that throughout 2023 there will be an increase in the number of organizations taking advantage of these technologies. Additionally, the integration of automation technologies with blockchain has made possible smart contracts. A smart contract is an automated contract that will release funds once the criteria have been fulfilled and recorded on the blockchain. You can expect that throughout 2023 more donors will be looking to donate to organizations that use smart contracts because of the transparency that they afford.
Giveffect is a 10-in-1 nonprofit software that combines giving, events, marketing, smart automation, volunteering, wealth screening, relationship database, web hosting, and nonprofit management. The goal of the company is to create an easy-to-use software that leverages innovations in technology to seamlessly connect and automate your organization’s data between your individual departments. The platform provides you with a truly holistic view of your nonprofit’s activities, alleviating the need for transferring data and reducing the redundancy, duplication, and cost for your organization’s operations.
Kenneth R. Cerini, CPA, CFP, FABFA
Managing Partner
Ken is the Managing Partner of Cerini & Associates, LLP and is the executive responsible for the administration of our not-for-profit and educational provider practice groups. In addition to his extensive audit experience, Ken has been directly involved in providing consulting services for nonprofits and educational facilities of all sizes throughout New York State in such areas as cost reporting, financial analysis, Medicaid compliance, government audit representation, rate maximization, board training, budgeting and forecasting, and more.