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AI for Impact: Skilling Up Nonprofit Leaders for the Latest Generative Technology

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The artificial intelligence boom is in full swing, as generative AI tools like Jasper and ChatGPT take over our workplaces and AI-based chatbots play feature in everything from the way we shop to the way we learn. Globally, 77 percent of businesses are using or exploring AI, but smaller companies with fewer resources tend to be slower to adopt. The technology giant Salesforce is looking to extend the potential of AI to another group at risk of falling behind. 

Nonprofit organizations provide a vital lifeline to underserved people and communities worldwide, but many are understaffed, strapped for budget and could use some help of their own. AI technologies have the potential to automate mundane tasks and support dynamic new tools for the people and communities nonprofits serve. But nonprofit leaders aren't exactly known as technology trailblazers, and lack of resources when it comes to tech means that many miss out on the opportunities emerging technologies can afford.

"When we think about digital transformation and the AI revolution that we're in right now, how the world is undergoing this incredible shift, we want to make sure the organizations that are serving our communities — those on the front lines, working day in and day out — really have the tools they need to do that work," said Naomi Morenzoni, SVP of philanthropy for Salesforce.

Indeed around 74 percent of nonprofits consider digital transformation a “need-to-have” or “must-have,” according to 2022 Salesforce research, but many struggle to move beyond the row of dusty desktop computers donated in decades past.

Salesforce's newest accelerator, AI for Impact, is looking to change that by providing funds, technology and coaching to help nonprofits unlock the potential of AI to further their missions. 

"I think of AI, and generative AI in particular, as augmenting the superpowers of nonprofit staff and leaders. It helps them do what they do best in a more efficient or effective way," Morenzoni said. "The AI for Impact Accelerator brings together unrestricted funding, donated technology, as well as one-on-one coaching from Salesforce experts and staff to help them as they're shaping and developing those strategies." 

From skills-matching to teacher simulations: Inside the AI for Impact Accelerator 

The first round of the AI for Impact Accelerator will distribute $2 million in funding to help six nonprofits develop new solutions using AI.

The organizations vary in their size and approach, but all focus on education and workforce development. The U.S. organization Per Scholas, for example, connects people with the skills and resources they need to switch careers into technology. That takes the form of free technical training, as well as coaching and consultation. It's highly impactful work — with more than 20,000 graduates moving on to successful tech careers — but it often relies on individualized services that can be difficult to scale. 

"These are often individuals who've maybe been a cashier at Walmart or a floor manager at Chipotle. They have a lot of skills and experience managing a high volume of customers, doing operations or dealing with complex situations, but it's hard to translate those skills directly to a traditional tech resume," Morenzoni explained. 

Per Scholas' career coaches work with learners one-on-one to build resumes and cover letters that clearly connect their skills to what's needed by technology employers. "But that's really time and labor intensive," Morenzoni said. 

Through AI for Impact, Per Scholas is looking to automate the first pass of the process with an AI tool that matches each learner's experience with in-demand skills, allowing career coaches to spend more time on the nuanced conversations that can really set learners up for success. 

The nonprofit is definitely onto something: Surveys suggest nearly half of all jobseekers now craft their resumes and cover letters with the help of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, so it's easy to see how a custom AI solution could make this crucial step of the job search faster and easier for Per Scholas staff and the people they serve.  

Salesforce AI for Impact

Meanwhile, in the U.K., the nonprofit Teacher Development Trust is looking to mirror the success of another industry to help educators do their jobs better. "Flight simulation has transformed the way that pilots fly," Morenzoni explained, and the nonprofit hopes to do the same with teacher simulations.

As a former teacher, Morenzoni knows all about the difficulties that come with managing a classroom and the doubt that can creep in after facing difficult situations. "Being in the classroom can be a really lonely experience, and classroom management is really, really hard," she said. "I used to leave a situation and and think, 'Oh gosh, how could I have handled that differently?' Maybe I'd talk to my department chair, and they would give me some coaching." 

The Teacher Development Trust aims to automate this process for the 4,000 educators it serves annually across the U.K. "Their idea is creating an on-demand, chat-based simulation for teachers where they can put in their exact environment, what happened in the classroom, what their mix of students are, and get fed back a real-time simulation — based on the pedagogy we know is trusted from the Teacher Development Trust — to help guide those teachers in the process of responding," Morenzoni said. "Again, it's taking that superpower of one-on-one coaching and making it scalable and making it faster so those teachers can really get the support they need." 

Likewise, the U.S. organization College Possible is developing an AI-driven platform to assist coaches as they work to get students from underserved communities into college, while the global organization CareerVillage.org aims to leverage AI to "put the world’s greatest career coach in the pocket of millions of young people."  

The organizations will be incubated in a six-month cohort, where they'll receive coaching from Salesforce experts about how to build their solutions effectively and ethically in order to maintain user trust. More than 300 Salesforce employees signed up to provide pro-bono coaching to nonprofit partners. Six will ultimately serve as coaches, with their skills closely matched to each nonprofit's needs. 

"One of the things we hear consistently from our nonprofit partners is that the talent gap and being able to access top talent around technology is a real challenge," Morenzoni said. "Being able to connect them with our developers, architects, and data scientists to provide one-on-one coaching and support is invaluable for those organizations." 

Coaches will be available for another six months after the cohort wraps, and the nonprofits will have free access to Salesforce products for two years to support the development of their AI solutions. 

More work is needed to help nonprofits unlock the power of AI

While it's too early to tell how an accelerator model like this can work for nonprofits, Salesforce is already seeing promising results from its first nonprofit accelerator launched last year. The four nonprofits incubated in Salesforce's Accelerator for Nature are already starting to implement new solutions using technology — including the nonprofit Rainforest Connection's AI acoustic monitoring tool that can pick up the sounds of illegal deforestation.

Results like these demonstrate the untapped potential of AI for nonprofits, but much more work is needed in order to help them realize it. "During this moment of an AI revolution where everyone is moving as fast as possible, we need to make sure that these organizations are not left behind," Morenzoni said. 

Salesforce pioneered the 1-1-1 model of philanthropy, donating 1 percent of corporate equity, 1 percent of product and 1 percent of employee time to community causes since its inception. Thousands of companies have signed up to do the same through the 1% Pledge, and Salesforce is looking to get more leaders on board. 

"Every company should be stepping up with its technology, its products, its services, and its people to serve our communities," Morenzoni said. "And to do that effectively, they have to start with listening. They have to start with trust, and they have to be led by the organizations who are doing the work day in and day out."

Image credits: terovesalainen/Adobe Stock and Salesforce

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Salesforce's AI for Impact accelerator provides funding, technology and coaching to help nonprofits unlock the potential of AI to further their missions.
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We Asked Americans What They Think About the Term “ESG.” Their Answers Were Eye-Opening

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The term ESG is fine, according to a recent poll of 1,000 Americans. Despite continued polarization related to the acronym, which stands for environmental, social and governance, the majority of Americans believe it’s the best way to describe a company’s approach to improve business, society and the environment. Before we get to the data, though, it’s important to understand why we asked this question in the first place.

How did we get here?

Over the past year, a rising chorus of conservative U.S. voices have claimed that ESG is “woke capitalism,” or corporate virtue signaling about social and environmental concerns which they see as beyond the bounds of business.

The issue drew President Joe Biden’s first presidential veto in March of this year, defending legislation related to ESG investing and bringing the issue into the national spotlight. ESG is facing such a significant backlash that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, long one of the financial industry’s staunchest proponents for purpose and ESG, doesn’t even want to use the term — though BlackRock's policies around society, the environment, and business governance remain unchanged.

It’s also important to establish that whatever you call them, sound ESG practices are not new, and are indeed vital to operating a responsible, ethical, and profitable business. As Fortune sustainability reporter Eamon Barrett observed, “major corporations documenting their environmental, social, and governance policies for investor scrutiny is actually a decades-old process.” At its core, ESG is a means to broaden the lens on what constitutes key drivers of business value, accompanied by efforts to measure and report on what matters for individual company operations via standardized reporting frameworks. 

Americans say ESG is a-okay

We partnered with Purpose Collaborative member Reputation Leaders, a global research and thought leadership consultancy, to ask Americans what term they feel best describes “the approach companies take to improve business, society and the environment.”
ESG and sustainability are tied for the top, at 23 percent each. Corporate social responsibility is second, at 21 percent, followed by purpose (11 percent), corporate citizenship (8 percent), stakeholder capitalism (7 percent) and stewardship (5 percent).

ESG research statistics — public opinion

Across demographic groups, ESG and sustainability are the favored terms among men, while women prefer “corporate social responsibility,” a phrase that connotes a sense of obligation. ESG is also the top choice for younger audiences, particularly those aged 25 to 34, while consumers aged 55 to 64, prefer the term “sustainability.” There are regional differences, as well. People living in the Northeast prefer sustainability, while their Southern and Midwestern counterparts prefer ESG.

Reputation Leaders also analyzed the tone of media coverage related to Americans’ top three terms: ESG, CSR and sustainability. CSR garnered the largest share of positive sentiment at 37 percent, with sustainability in second place at 32 percent and ESG trailing at 20 percent. ESG was the only term to have a significant amount (10 percent) of negative sentiment.

What now?

This study can help support companies in exploring the terms they will use to discuss the impact their business has on society. It is important to develop a clear, shared perspective and take a long-term view.

From the United Nations to the World Economic Forum, global leaders are advocating for businesses to embed a net-positive approach into their operating models to accelerate innovation and impact. Increasingly, employees, customers, supply chain partners, and others are asking about the ESG commitments of the companies they work for or with. Business leaders need to have answers and a strong point of view on which issues are most important to their business, and why. Our best advice? Don’t worry about what you call it — stick to your organization’s long-term, strategic commitments to stakeholders, society and the environment.

When it comes to communications, here are three ways to help depolarize the conversation:

  • Be clear about the goals of ESG. ESG is not about imposing a set of values on business. It provides a framework for companies to assess and optimize their value and impact. 
  • Increase transparency around ESG data and metrics. This will help to ensure that investors and other stakeholders are making informed decisions.
  • Embrace standardized reporting frameworks. This will make it easier to compare companies' ESG performance — think: the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Yes, the polarization will continue, especially as the 2024 presidential election nears. As the world continues to endure climate impacts from extreme heat and flooding to record-breaking wildfires, there also will be greater demand for businesses to address environmental challenges.

Scores of studies suggest that ESG — done right — drives sustainable competitive advantage and can accelerate organizational growth over the long-term. An impressive 80 percent of investors believe that companies with strong ESG practices can generate higher returns and make for better long-term investments, according to research from Morgan Stanley.
 
By continuing to show a link between ESG issues and the business, we can help to make the debate around ESG more constructive and less polarizing. This will ultimately benefit businesses, investors and society as a whole.

Reputation Leaders is a global thought leadership consultancy. Our people are passionate about business as a force for good, believing that profit and purpose can co-exist by aligning brand purpose with responsibility towards the environment, society and corporate citizenship. Reputation Leaders Ltd managed the study which ran with 1,000 nationally representative respondents in the U.S. in July 2023.

The Purpose Collaborative is a global group of 45+ firms and subject matter experts in 20+ countries with 500+ professionals, all developing breakthrough work to help organizations accelerate their purpose, ESG, and sustainability commitments. Member capabilities include research and data analytics, employee engagement, sustainability strategy and reporting, digital marketing, creative programming and storytelling, and video production. Learn more here

Image credit: blacksalmon/Adobe Stock

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Despite the pushback, new research finds that most Americans prefer the term "ESG" to describe corporate commitments to society and the environment.
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