2971: Bloomerang and Generative AI Pioneering Nonprofit Innovation

[00:00:01] Have you ever wondered how small to medium-sized non-profits could leverage technology, specifically the power of AI, to amplify their mission? Well today I'm diving into a critical yet often overlooked aspect of artificial intelligence, the potential to revolutionize the non-profit sector.

[00:00:22] Despite the dominance of AI in large enterprises, smaller organizations often lack the resources to fully capitalize on some of these technologies. So today I've invited Tammy Hammond onto the podcast. She's the Chief Product Officer at Bloomerang and she's going to be sharing her optimism about the

[00:00:43] transformative role of Gen AI for non-profits and also discuss the incredible opportunities out there to save time, create more compelling content and ultimately enhance donor and volunteer engagement, all while addressing challenges of AI adoption in this sector. We're currently producing

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[00:02:01] That's kiteworks.com to get started today. But enough rambling from me let's get today's guest on. So buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to Atlanta, Georgia where Tammy's waiting to join me today. So a massive

[00:02:19] warm welcome to the show Tammy. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Well hey Neil first of all thank you for having me. My name is Tammy Hammond I am the Chief Product Officer at Blue Meringue.

[00:02:34] We serve nonprofits with a giving platform which for us is how we define that is both donor management, volunteer management and fundraising. Well thank you for joining me on the podcast today and every single day on

[00:02:51] here I try and demystify the world of technology or the real-world impacts it can have on businesses and also get people thinking differently about areas that you maybe don't associate with technology and how it is being impacted.

[00:03:05] And if we take artificial intelligence or generate and generative AI it's all everyone's talking about at the moment but I'd love to shine a light on how generative AI can specifically benefit small to medium-sized nonprofits and I

[00:03:20] know this is a subject very close to your heart so is there anything you can share around that just to set the scene for our conversation tonight? Yeah I'm super excited about all of the opportunity to help nonprofits do more good in the

[00:03:38] world and however they define their mission there's so much opportunity for AI both traditional predictive AI and generative AI that have just there's there's so many different use cases that we can talk through where it can really

[00:03:54] help them not only to raise more money for their organization but raise more awareness like book more volunteers there's just there's there's just so many use cases that we're working on and we're actually about to launch are like some first-to-market generative AI functionality that's super excited about

[00:04:16] all the things where work positive impact can happen. And for anyone listening that wants to look beyond that AI buzzword status just to bring it to life are there any early successes or notable measurable improvements that you've observed in nonprofits that are using generative AI to enhance their

[00:04:34] operations anything that you've seen now that's particularly exciting? Well I would tell you that generative AI really AI in general but especially generative AI is very early nonprofits are typically not early adopters of technology we're seeing a little bit in the very large nonprofits in small and

[00:04:53] medium there tend to be a little bit hesitant with technology and so the approach we're taking is we're really embedding the generative AI technology into their everyday use cases where the product is already helping them it's

[00:05:07] just basically empowering them to do it faster with better results. So some of the examples that we're rolling out initially are of course with generative AI it's all around content creation so we're rolling out an email content

[00:05:24] creation but in our early alphas and betas we've had really positive results. I was reading a stat the other day and it said the attention span in the United States is now at 8 seconds I think is the attention

[00:05:41] span so it's really about helping our nonprofits and this is not just nonprofits but especially in nonprofits really look at short impactful captivating messages for these micro moments that they need to create so email generation anything about content current generation for grants is

[00:06:02] another opportunity that we're looking at and and talking to in the early stages of discovery but as far as like early results that it's very very early and as far as this technology being rolled out into nonprofit specific software. And as

[00:06:19] you said Gen AI holds potential or so much potential for content creation that's where we hear most of the use cases but if we dare to look beyond content are there any other tasks with within nonprofit management that you

[00:06:32] think it it can revolutionize and not just right here right now as you said it's very early days or anything in the future that you see around that too? Yeah absolutely so and when you think about content creation it's when you look at

[00:06:45] some of the for-profit software companies it will be very similar but very verticalized to nonprofit specific use cases around content creation but it's also about like content repurposing so let's say I have created an email I

[00:07:02] want to repurpose it for a social blog I want to repurpose it for various grant applications I want to make it longer I want to make it shorter I want to customize the voice lots of opportunities around content creation but

[00:07:17] also around learning so what we have done is we're starting to look at also ways to pipe in our best practices and our knowledge base articles not just on how to use our software but best practices in the nonprofit world of like

[00:07:34] how some best practice around donor retention or bringing back how to re-engage lapsed donors so there's things like that we also are looking at generating ideas for events for their galas for themes so it is content

[00:07:49] related but a lot of very specific use cases around again learning how to do something better is one that I'm super excited about because a lot especially when you're talking about small and medium-sized nonprofits when you think

[00:08:04] about all the skills you need to do digital marketing well then you add on top of that all the skills you need to run a nonprofit they really need some help on doing these various skills they may be very strong skilled in one area

[00:08:18] but not in the other so helping to give them creative ideas on that front I think is just got a tremendous amount of opportunity and in helping them do certain tasks again another area we're looking at is harvesting the data so not

[00:08:37] only creating the content but harvesting data so that some people they have relationships with donors for years especially their mid and major donors and so sometimes it's hard to harvest that data from their databases and put it

[00:08:54] into like a really succinct profile or recommended talk track or notes about that so it's it's a there's so many opportunities really and I suspect that you have encountered certain elements of AI fatigue out there so how do you

[00:09:11] address some of that skepticism around gen AI especially in the nonprofit sector particularly among stakeholders who might be apprehensive about his integration anything around that that you're saying yeah absolutely I would tell you that it is very interesting so the largest conference in the nonprofit

[00:09:30] world is a conference called AFP icon and in the last two years the the sentiment around AI has radically changed which I was really excited to see because in the conference in 2023 in April of 2023 there was a lot of I

[00:09:47] would even say fear like it was just a very much unknown we don't really understand this technology is it like how do we make sure that it's ethical how do we make sure that when you think about donors a lot of donors want to be

[00:10:03] anonymous or even if they're not anonymous to the organization they don't want it getting out who they actually give to you and so making sure they're protecting their data issues around security so a lot of that is was very

[00:10:19] coming from a place of fear and it really changed this year so at AFP icon this year that and again I just use that as an example where there's a lot of people gathering there's a lot more excitement around it I mean there's

[00:10:33] still the need to be focused on security of data so companies like Bloomering I think taking a really strong stance making sure that privacy and respecting the the donor first as always top of mind is super important but I do think

[00:10:55] that the overall sentiment is changing and the willingness to experiment which I think is core so they have to be open to experimenting I think the other thing that is really essential in the way that we are choosing to approach this is

[00:11:08] having it really be an AI we call it an AI empowered so an AI empowered feature so we're not trying to to train nonprofits to be tech forward we really are just trying to use AI to empower something they're already doing so for

[00:11:27] example it doesn't do any it may do dynamic segmentation for example but then the nonprofit has a choice of what to do with that so it's really just automating out some very complex tasks like again bringing a lot of data

[00:11:43] together that letting the platform do that on their behalf and has has lowered the it's made it more approachable so just making the the feature more approachable in the context of how they're used to doing things like

[00:12:00] creating again a campaign for the end of the year or preparing for an event it's just gonna you're gonna see it just the AI just come into various features where it can just help them do their job faster with better results yeah I echo

[00:12:17] everything you just said there I went to a lot of tech conferences in the US and around the world last year there was this certain fear of the unknown going on but that has changed to excitement this year and I've got to ask though I

[00:12:29] mean when he talking about the learning curve that comes with generative AI tools and having to get to grips with this technology almost in real time what steps are you taking to maybe simplify these technologies for nonprofits and

[00:12:44] ensure everybody's comfortable using them yeah that's a that's a really good question and one that we're laser focused on so one of the key tenants of what we focus on and we believe is important in talking to our customers is

[00:13:00] ease of use and so again this is about not pointing them to a lot of different AI technologies that are out there but actually embedding it into the product and really focused on the UI design of the product itself so that may seem

[00:13:17] obvious but I think that there's a lot of tools out there that make it really hard to like cleanse your data so relying on on nonprofits to to do a lot of that on their own so a lot of this is about making sure that data is

[00:13:36] integrated and that it's structured correctly so that they aren't having to do that but also structuring the prompt so with Gen AI I'm sure as you know like the prompt structure is really critical and rather than doing a lot of that free

[00:13:52] form we're actually structuring it to be to help with that structuring of the prompt so it's more in a in a your there is more an interface that they're used to be they're used to using like giving them options on tonality of voice for

[00:14:10] example rather than relying on them to free form the structure of their prompts so it's very intentional in the way that we're thinking about incorporating AI and really focused on the UI design and the user experience in the way that

[00:14:26] it's incorporated into the product and that really flattens out that learning curve so they don't have to really understand all of the and all of those various issues that you'd and skills you'd need to learn if you were using

[00:14:40] like a chat GPT directly. And if we were to zoom in on one crucial element for nonprofits there in terms of donor and volunteer management is there anything any area where generative AI can facilitate deeper engagement and more personalized experiences I'm interested how that evolves from that content

[00:15:02] creation to making a real difference in things like donor and volunteer management. Yeah there are many use cases let's take volunteer management for example there's a lot of it's really kind of coupling again gen AI and predictive AI together to do a very personalized experience so what we're

[00:15:23] looking at is a personalized I'll call personalized donor journeys so especially when you look at the generational shifts in terms of how they like to give how they how different generations behave in terms of their giving and their

[00:15:39] charitable engagement many times you're gonna see especially in like Millennials they may volunteer with an organization prior to actually giving so it's really about using that AI to understand who potentially has volunteered who hasn't given yet and vice versa and really trying to bring that together marry that

[00:16:03] with the things they're interested in and preferences in terms of channel and prefaces in terms of the kinds of the kinds of volunteering so that you're really able to suggest the volunteer opportunities that are the best fit for

[00:16:18] that particular person for the impact that that constituent wants to make on the world. So it's really helping to really personalize the opportunities that we bring forth in terms of volunteer opportunities. We're just at

[00:16:34] the tip of the iceberg of what we can do with that so it's really exciting because I think it creates a richer experience for the the volunteer for the donor as well as it brings the richer the experience the more passionate they are

[00:16:51] about now what they're doing not only the mission but the actual activity the more engaged they're gonna be the more they're gonna want to volunteer and the more hours and dollars that the nonprofit will get to help their mission

[00:17:06] so lots of exciting things there to to work with. As you said there's so many exciting things to work with at the moment lots of excitement building this year and of course we are seven months into 2024 already already starting to

[00:17:21] have maybe one eye on 2025 so looking ahead any developments in AI that you think might have a more significant impact on the nonprofit sector next year and beyond and how are you preparing to leverage some of these innovations as

[00:17:37] you begin preparing for the months and years ahead? Yeah well I mean two come to mind one is just the that as video creation and some of the when you get into kind of more live video audio those types of things where it can be where we

[00:17:58] can bring that together because video is just such an important aspect in terms of the way the consumers outside of nonprofit but just consumers like to consume information when you look at the success of YouTube and video any kind

[00:18:15] of video based content so I think that's a real key area is to help nonprofits create more compelling short videos to tell their story and to engage with their with their donors and their volunteers I think that's one key area.

[00:18:31] The other area is really again we talked talked and mentioned it earlier but I think it's about bringing predict traditional predictive AI together with generative AI so when you think about like it in again and a donor life cycle

[00:18:48] when when are they likely to be engaged with you and make their first gift when they have have volunteered but haven't given when is the best opportunity so the predictive is telling you more things like the key elements of the donor

[00:19:07] themselves traditional machine learning so predictions about who would give and when they would give in how much they would give so it feels very personalized to that particular donor and then the generative AI is really about creating that personalized impactful content that's specific that's marrying

[00:19:25] the again the different opportunities to give maybe you're passionate about giving coats to a drive that's one of the things that I gave to you with a church that I support out of New York that that I was really passionate about

[00:19:41] so trying to bring those things to bear and opportunities to give or specific needs that the nonprofit has and so bringing those the two things together I think is is a huge opportunity it's it can be complex to do that well but that's

[00:19:58] one area that we're really thinking about in terms of what we're planning for 25 well how exciting times ahead and I cannot thank you enough for donating your time today sharing your insights around the intersection of AI and donor

[00:20:12] and volunteer management as well as AI trainings within the workplace so as a thank you I'm gonna see if there's something we can do for you now because there is a some of the biggest names in business VC funding and tech have either

[00:20:26] been guests or maybe even listen to this podcast so if I was to ask you is that a person you'd love to have a private or breakfast or lunch with because he or she might just listen to this would it be and why I'm curious who

[00:20:39] you'd say here let's see what we can manifest together you know that's a really interesting question Neil I you know I think I would have to say Brian Halligan and who was one of the founders at HubSpot it's just so many things that

[00:20:53] he came out and I listened to a lot of his lessons learned and he's very transparent he had a motorcycle accident a few years ago so he's not actively with HubSpot but I think he'd be a really interesting person to to talk to

[00:21:09] about taking he talks about taking an unconventional approach like he with HubSpot when they first started now you know HubSpot it's obviously over 2 billion it's a huge company but when they started he talks a lot about how a

[00:21:26] lot of their investors tried to get them to focus on the enterprise and our prizes have more money and he was really convicted that he really wanted to impact small and medium-sized for-profit companies but they didn't have they

[00:21:41] didn't have all the skills they needed and so HubSpot really invested in in learning and in giving people the right information and knowledge to to to use their tools and I think that's very similar to some of the challenges that

[00:21:57] were focused on and I just thought he had a really he was very very deliberate and very convicted in what he wanted as he was growing that company and I just think he would be a really interesting person to learn from. Wow what a great

[00:22:12] choice and we have quite a few people from HubSpot that's been on the podcast I'm gonna see we can get a message out there we'll send it out into the universe see what we can make happen and for anyone listening just wanting to find

[00:22:23] out more information about Bloomerang the work you're doing maybe ask you or your team a question about how you're using generative AI but where would you like to point everyone listening? Well obviously we can point them to our

[00:22:36] website www.bloomerang.com we also have all kinds of webinars and best practices webinars that are open to all nonprofits not just our customers that anybody who's interested in learning and a lot of them are also available for

[00:22:56] CFRE credits for those people who are certified fundraising executives and so we welcome anybody who's interested in learning about Bloomerang to to go to the website and then you can see all the webinar schedules we do at least one

[00:23:09] learning webinar a week sometimes two so it's quite a commitment to giving back to the nonprofit community again it's open to anybody who's interested not just our customers so they're free for anybody who wants to

[00:23:23] join and learn more. Awesome well I will add a link so people can find that nice and easily and before you came on the podcast today I was very conscious that AI has dominated large enterprise markets but there's one aspect that is

[00:23:37] overlooked and it is that use as a resource for small to medium nonprofits and I think that especially because they don't have volume of assets that larger companies have I think it's so important to shine a light on it and

[00:23:49] you've done just that today so many more questions and I'd love to stay in touch with you maybe get you on next year seeing how your journey is continuing to evolve but more than anything just thank you for sharing that

[00:23:58] with me today. Yeah Neil we'd be happy to again we're just getting this whole sector is really just getting started with Gen AI so we should have a lot of results to show on how that was actually able to impact the money and the

[00:24:13] volunteer hours and the raising more that we are trying to do for our nonprofit customers we should have some really compelling stats to share with you next year on on what the results were. As we've heard from Tammy today

[00:24:25] generative AI offers a wealth of possibilities for small to medium nonprofits whether it be streamlining content creation to personalizing donor experiences it's clear that while the journey may come with some challenges the potential benefits far outweigh the initial hurdles but what are your

[00:24:46] thoughts on the future of AI in the nonprofit sector do you see it as a game changer for smaller organizations I'd love to hear your insights on this please join the conversation share your insights on how you see AI possibly

[00:25:02] shaping the future of giving so tech blog writer Outlook.com if you want to email me if you follow me on the socials yes LinkedIn Twitter Instagram just at Neil C Hughes don't just hit follow or connect send me a little message though

[00:25:17] let me know what you thought of today's conversation but that's it for today so thank you for listening as always and until next time stay curious keep exploring this intersection of technology and impact and the future it

[00:25:29] could have on giving and we can regroup tomorrow morning but I've got to go now so I will speak with you all again bright and early tomorrow bye for now