How nonprofit organizations are using emerging tech to do more with less
Most businesses are driven by traditional ROI: return on investment. Nonprofit organizations operate by a different kind of ROI: return on impact. Whether they’re working to save lives, the planet, or their communities, nonprofits across the globe measure impact by their ability to fulfill their mission.
What the most successful for-profit and nonprofit organizations have in common is a clear understanding of, and dedication to, their purpose. That’s why business leaders everywhere can learn from the purpose-driven innovation that characterizes so many of these organizations.
In the ServiceNow nonprofit special report, we set out to understand how nonprofits are acting as incubators for innovation by using emerging tech to do more with less. Here’s what we found.
Generative AI
A group of nonprofit leaders and tech experts shared how they’re putting generative AI (GenAI) to work today.
Em Fackler, chief innovation officer of the International Rescue Committee, envisions adopting GenAI for its potential in the nonprofit sector. “We’ve identified a few areas where we think AI can have a significant impact on our work,” she says, specifically proposal writing, collaboration, and knowledge management.
“We’re in meetings most of the day,” she adds. “Imagine if an AI tool could generate the minutes from those meetings. That would save huge amounts of time.”
Low-code app development
The mission of Ndlovu Care Group, a nonprofit in South Africa, is to serve the health and nutritional needs of children in Limpopo, one of the country’s most impoverished regions.
The organization partnered with ServiceNow in 2022 to create a low-code app its healthcare workers could use to capture data about a child’s progress while out in the field. The app has helped Ndlovu reduce the malnutrition rate from 45% to 21% for more than 5,000 children.
Data analytics
Ndlovu is just one of the many nonprofits innovating both intentionally and on the fly. We talked with seven nonprofit leaders, who shared real-world examples of how they’re using everything from GenAI and chatbots to social media, data analytics, and geo-mapping to support their mission without breaking the bank.
WeSeeHope, which works to teach children in Africa skills for a successful and sustainable future, latched onto the power of data analytics to help fulfill its mission. The organization uses data to prioritize the programming it provides.
“Our dashboards also provide transparency so that WeSeeHope supporters trust that their giving has the desired impact, going to those that need it most,” says Phil Wall, founder. “In terms of staff retention and motivation, the existence of a highly visual, data-driven app has been profound.”
Tech partnerships
The report also examines the power of public-private partnerships, including ServiceNow’s ongoing collaboration with Welcome.US, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting refugees who want to connect with sponsors in the United States.
“The drive to create and deliver impact—not through profits or dividends, but through lives saved, communities transformed, and environments protected—is what gets me up in the morning,” says Vanessa Smith, president of ServiceNow.org.
We hope this special report inspires organizations to innovate with passion and better understand the importance of the work nonprofit leaders do every day to make the world a better place.