Author: Cory Sinclair

Testing the Waters with AI Tools

Post author By Cory Sinclair
Post date October 20, 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) has steadily gained ground in the workplace to the point where nonprofits need to think about how it might best figure into their operations. Much like the computer and the internet changed how we work and live, AI is poised to follow suit. Big time. And it will happen more quickly than either of those earlier innovations.

AI is already familiar to most of us in everyday devices such as smartphones and the virtual assistants Siri and Alexa. We’ve similarly grown accustomed to online video and product recommendations, to say nothing of social media where AI works vigorously to keep us engaged. More recently, large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot, have introduced a wide range of new possibilities, some remarkably useful and others hard to fathom.

AI Automation and Analysis

For the nonprofit currently considering AI tools from the sidelines, a good starting place may be to think about automating administrative tasks. Here the trial and error phase would be carried out internally with staff members rather than with donors, clients, and the community. A number of administrative tasks are suitable for automation, especially repetitive ones such as scheduling, data entry, processing contributions, creating and maintaining financial reports, and conducting basic donor research.

Beyond administrative automation, AI tools can provide deeper, more strategic insights. By analyzing large amounts of unstructured data such as emails, social media interactions, and surveys, for example, AI can detect the tone and mood of a given topic through sentiment analysis. Then again, the technology can be employed to identify patterns and trends in data sets, and if prompted make predictions based on those patterns and trends.

Adopt a Healthy Skepticism with LLMs

As many readers have no doubt discovered, LLMs can produce quick and easy content on a world of subjects in whatever form and length one desires. They can compose grant applications based on an organization’s past successful proposals. Likewise with emails, press releases, and marketing materials. Or prepare the draft of an annual report based on a given set of files. What’s more, with AI-powered summarization tools, one can encapsulate complex reports in an abstract, an executive summary, or otherwise.

But while LLMs can crank out the copy, the finished product requires careful review. The text occasionally includes a perspective, or a word or term, that is inaccurate, inappropriate, or even offensive to the reader. LLMs simply reflect the data sets that train them, together with the algorithms that process those data sets.

On the other hand, an LLM’s finished product may be substandard due to a lack of specificity in the prompt. These systems deliver the best results when the instructions they receive are precise and draw from diverse and representative data sets.

The Rise of the Chatbot

Chatbots are another AI tool that will likely become a standard fixture of many websites. And for good reason, they offer a number of important benefits. With 24/7 access, chatbots serve a vital purpose in the health care sector, for example, by providing answers to questions about a distressing medical issue. This is of great value to medical organizations and their clients, especially those in remote areas with limited means. Similarly in the education sector, chatbots can open doors for people with disabilities by converting text into speech and speech into text, among other things.

From another angle, the ability of chatbots to translate language makes a world of difference to the many nonprofits that operate in diverse, multilingual environments. At the same time, they relieve staff members from handling repetitive queries. And the data that they collect not only provides actionable information about the organization at hand but also feedback about its website (e.g., content, appearance, navigation).

Chatbots are not without their drawbacks, though. They only provide answers to a limited number of queries, which calls for a staff member to take over at some point. Further, because they lack emotional intelligence, unable to detect anger, frustration, or panic, they may respond to a query in a manner that makes matters worse. For this and other reasons, the organization should factor in regular monitoring and maintenance of the chatbot, along with refining and updating its algorithms.

Opportunities for Collaboration

Many technology companies offer pro-bono services and skills-based volunteering, particularly through AI hackathons and tech conferences. Nonprofit executives might look into attending such events and having discussions with various people about working together. These partnerships should be clearly understood as mutually beneficial, with the nonprofit gaining access to AI expertise and the tech company enhancing its reputation, and the participants’ morale, by joining forces with your organization.

Challenges and Safeguards with AI Tools

While AI tools offer a host of benefits, they also raise legitimate concerns about bias, privacy, and ethics. Intentionally or not, biases in algorithms and training data can lead to discriminatory outcomes in a number of ways, such as hiring, granting loans, or segmenting a target population. In addition, the handling of private and sensitive data about donors and other stakeholders is crucial to keep confidential.

Early on, leadership should develop an AI Usage Policy to provide staff members with guidelines as to what is acceptable and what is off limits. Nonprofits must continually assess how AI tools impact their operations and reputation. Those who do so thoughtfully will not only upgrade the job duties of their staff, but also increase the organization’s ability to concentrate on its mission.

Corporate & Social Responsibility

Biden Makes Historic Moves toward Environmental Justice

Post author By Cory Sinclair
Post date June 13, 2023

EPA Seeks EJ Grantmakers and Worthy Projects

Environmentalism and Environmental Justice (EJ) have long been at odds with each other. In April 1970, when largely middle class and white Americans celebrated the first Earth Day by the millions, African-American sociologist Nathan Hare penned a scathing essay titled “Black Ecology,” in which he described the environmental realities of Black life in the United States and argued that those realities received little notice from mainstream environmentalists. While environmentalism works to preserve our natural resources and minimize the negative impacts of human activity on the planet, the EJ movement seeks to also establish an equitable distribution of both the benefits and burdens of the environment. EJ activism generally arises from an existing or imminent local issue, one with detrimental impacts on where people work and live. These EJ activists are mostly people of color and of limited means, who have grown frustrated that their concerns are not more widely recognized and addressed. A similar concern is playing out now in the field of artificial intelligence.

The EJ movement grew out of the Civil Rights Movement, reinforced by Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin for any program that receives federal funds. But the movement became a force of its own in 1982, when the governor of North Carolina announced plans to site a PCB landfill in rural Warren County, just south of the Virginia border. The announcement created a firestorm among local residents, a majority African-American community, and sparked protests and arrests that received national attention. Despite this controversy, the state went forward with the landfill.

The Warren County protests did prompt several important studies, however, including a landmark 1987 report titled Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, perhaps the first study to compare toxic waste and demographic data. The report gives a grim account of racial and environmental injustice in numerous cities across the United States. In 1994 President Bill Clinton responded to this and other studies, as well as a growing EJ movement, by issuing Executive Order 12898 titled “Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations.” This order called on each federal agency to make a concerted effort to minimize any adverse effects of its actions regarding public health and the environment. Clinton’s executive order lent credence and visibility to the EJ movement and galvanized grassroots efforts.

Nearly thirty years later, Biden has taken meaningful EJ measures of his own. In his first week in office, the president issued Executive Order (EO) 14008 titled “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.” This order introduced the Justice40 Initiative, among other things, which sets a goal that 40% of the overall benefits of selected federal investments will reach the communities that live closest to and suffer most from hazardous waste. These funds will target not only climate change, clean energy, and remediation, but also affordable housing and workforce development.

In April 2023 Biden built on EO 14008 with another more targeted executive order (14096) titled “Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All.” This order establishes a first-ever White House Office of Environmental Justice, which will help to raise public awareness on critical issues as well as influence federal agency permitting, grant awards, and other approvals for activities that affect distressed communities. In addition, it extends Clinton’s executive order by directing all federal agencies to incorporate environmental justice more systematically into their decision-making, whether that concerns plastic pollution, hazardous waste, infrastructure projects, or critical services.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture responded to EO 14096 by announcing in May 2023 that it will begin to administer two loan and grant programs worth nearly $11 billion to boost clean energy systems in rural areas, made possible through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The programs—part of the Justice40 Initiative—plan to put rural nonprofit electric cooperatives on equal footing with larger privately owned companies that have already made major investments in clean energy, according to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.

Along with these efforts, the EPA’s Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program will select a number of Grantmakers from across the country, both to facilitate the grant application process and to administer the awards. The deadline for prospective Grantmakers has been extended until June 30, 2023, suggesting that the agency wants to select from a larger or perhaps a more diverse pool of applicants. Eligible organizations include nonprofits, tribal governments, and educational institutions, or some combination of these. Grantmaker partnerships are encouraged and will likely receive special attention.

As for those organizations applying for funds, the EJ grant requirements are intentionally broad and the opportunities varied. Construction, demolition, and remediation will all be considered, for example, as well as other activities that may not be specified but that help to “meet communities at their needs.” The partnership principle applies to grant applicants as well, so as to increase the number of stakeholders in the community, whether businesses, public agencies, health care organizations, or otherwise.

EPA encourages all eligible organizations to apply. They make this clear by simplifying the application process and by emphasizing that technical assistance is available to support the grant writing and reporting process, along with guidance on project planning and development. The agency wants to be able to tell great stories, to report to the public that the EJ programs are making vital improvements to underserved communities. They want Environmental Justice to become and remain a high priority.

Risk Management & Fundraising Governance

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act Calls on the Nonprofit Sector to Think Creatively

Post author By Cory Sinclair
Post date November 1, 2022

U.S. government spending is often subject to the political climate, with the budgets of federal agencies fluctuating from one Congress to another. This requires nonprofit organizations to keep a close eye on current events, study recent funding trends, and take note of which agencies are receiving money and what types of programs, organizations, and collaborations they are likely to support.

Now that President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law, the federal government will make major investments in healthcare, domestic energy production, and the environment. More than a dozen federal agencies will receive funding, with the majority of the direct appropriations going to three of them: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). These agencies will all move quickly to implement the provisions of the legislation.

This presents opportunities. Nonprofits should brainstorm about possible projects and programs that may pique the interest of one or more of the federal agencies. “Innovation has never been more important for environmental science,” according to EPA’s website. This sentiment extends to other agencies as well, where innovation grants, prizes, and programs are on offer.

Federal agencies often color outside the lines, funding projects and programs that appear to best serve the community rather than adhering to a set of strict criteria. They emphasize flexibility in funding and are open to considering a wide range of proposals. These agencies also frequently collaborate with one another, particularly on large-scale efforts (e.g., the National Drought Resilience Partnership takes in more than a dozen agencies).

The three grants that follow illustrate these ideas. Each was awarded by a different federal agency, each one pointing to a receptive government culture. Maybe they will plant a seed for a proposal that has promise at your own organization, whether for a first-time submission or an innovative program or partnership.

1. In 2007 the EPA awarded $50,000 to The Artist Boat, a nonprofit on Galveston Island on the Texas Coast, for environmental education. The Artist Boat used the funds to instruct middle school students and teachers about the Coastal Heritage Preserve in Galveston County. The organization combines climate science and art instruction together with hiking and kayaking—an entertaining way of promoting community awareness and preservation of the marine environment.

(In August 2022 EPA awarded 34 organizations more than $3 million in funding for projects under the Environmental Education Grants Program to raise awareness and advance environmental education. Most of the recipients were colleges, universities, and environmental organizations.)

2. In 2012 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $1.5 million to Portable Practical Educational Preparation, Inc. (PPEP), an educational and social service organization based in Tucson, Arizona. This nonprofit got its start in 1967 as a one-man operation working out of a school bus, offering English language instruction and other practical skills to immigrant farmworkers. Since then PPEP has experienced remarkable growth, currently employing a staff of more than 500. The organization offers an unusually wide range of services, such as counseling, health and housing services, employment and vocational training, and services for the developmentally disabled. PPEP collaborates with multiple public agencies at all levels of government.

3. In 2015 USDA Rural Development in Honesdale, Pennsylvania awarded the Wayne Economic Development Corporation (WEDCO) a $50,000 Rural Business Enterprise Grant to develop the Stourbridge Project, a business incubator that features advanced technology such as music mixing software, 3-D printing, and state-of-the-art media and video equipment. This project also received state funding, along with support from two other regional economic development agencies. WEDCO is a nonprofit corporation made up of local businesses that collaborate with state, county, and municipal government to promote economic development.

With public arts funding in short supply, it makes good sense to consider ways of incorporating one or more components of the arts into a larger development. They add cachet to a project, which attracts media attention and community support. Public art such as murals and sculpture often get funded in a similar way, whether by a city or state transportation agency, or by a Percent-for-Art ordinance that some cities and states require for capital projects.

Government officials rely on nonprofit organizations to deliver publicly financed services, and they look to them for a more detailed understanding of the issues and for help in implementing policy. Your proposal idea may be one that an agency would like to support, even hold up as a model.

One EPA program worthy of special mention: Environmental Justice (EJ). In recent years, the EJ movement has received increasing attention from the media, academics, activists, and public officials, and there is every reason to believe that this will continue. The EJ program offers numerous funding opportunities and encourages collaborative community efforts. If your project or program does not qualify for funding on its own, an innovative partnership may well make the difference.

Fundraising Campaigns & Strategic Planning

The Role of the Environmental Scan in Strategic Planning

Post author By Cory Sinclair
Post date June 6, 2022

Your organization may be preparing to develop a strategic plan, whether to provide direction to a fledgling nonprofit, to breathe new life into an established organization, to respond to the rapid changes in technology, or to disruptions in funding, leadership, or the competitive landscape.

One of the first steps to take on this process is to examine the conditions both inside and outside of the organization. A nonprofit needs to have a strong sense of its current value in the community and its ability to carry out its mission, as well as understanding the people it serves and those it hopes to reach.

An environmental scan helps to bring clarity to these ideas, in addition to evaluating the issues, events, and trends that currently do or soon may affect the organization. This process is not simply about discovery but also about establishing agreement among the key participants.

A particularly useful and widely recognized analytical tool for conducting the scan is the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, in which the strengths and weaknesses identify the organization’s internal attributes, and the opportunities and threats examine relevant external matters. The strengths represent an organization’s advantage over other nonprofits in the community, while the weaknesses generally address the areas where it hopes to make gains or improvements. The opportunities represent prospects for growth, including new clientele, products, programs, and partnerships. Threats, on the other hand, identify the organization’s principal competitors, as well as possible problematic legislation, economic shifts, tax and compliance issues, and so forth. When considering each of these areas, it makes sense to narrow the focus to just the most critical issues for the sake of staff and stakeholder cohesion.

It’s useful to begin the SWOT analysis by considering external factors. Forces in the outside world frequently impact the future of an organization even more than internal ones. The pandemic and the recent outbreak of war are grim reminders of this idea, although most threats and challenges to an organization are easier to anticipate and likewise to prepare for. Stakeholders outside of daily operations are especially valuable here because they tend to think of a nonprofit on the whole—its place in the community and among competitors—rather than specific administrative and departmental functions. If your organization is able to network and exchange information with other nonprofits that have common attributes, so much the better.

A nonprofit similarly needs to look within, to recognize its value and what it is capable of, while also acknowledging its limitations, whether that concerns its facilities, one or more of its programs, funding shortfalls or personnel matters. An organization’s leadership (board members and executives) will certainly have input here, but it’s also crucial to interview staff members and clients (or customers) who are inclined to think more pragmatically about current policy and new plans. Established performance indicators will help to clarify and refine this input.

The next step in this process is to consider how the organization’s internal strengths can capitalize on external opportunities, and similarly how its weaknesses might be managed to avoid or at least minimize an external threat or challenge. Depending on the conditions, it may make more sense to complete this step in reverse, to first identify an opportunity (or threat) and then consider how the organization, given its strengths and weaknesses, may best approach it.

Two other analytical tools warrant mention here. The PEST or PESTEL (political, economic, social, technology, environmental, legal) analysis concentrates on factors external to an organization, a method that may be useful to nonprofits that work closely with public agencies or that offer services in one or more of the identified areas. The SOAR (strategies, opportunities, aspirations, results) analysis, on the other hand, is designed for young nonprofits that are still grappling with how best to carry out their mission: what programs to offer, who to serve, where to operate, and how to measure success.

An effective environmental scan helps to define an organization’s attributes and priorities within the relevant area of operations and over a specified time frame. It’s important to develop consensus when conducting the scan, both in terms of the issues themselves and in setting priorities. The greater the consensus, the stronger the foundation for the strategies and actions that follow.