Companies have long leaned on advanced technology to maximize profit, while the non-profit sector has traditionally been slower to record innovations such as AI. But if we want to tackle the world’s most urgent social problems, that has to change, says Philantrop and MacArthur Genius subsidy recipient Jim Fruitman in a new book.
In Technology forever: how non -profit leaders use software and data to solve our most urgent social problemsFrom 2 September, Fruitman emphasizes social good organizations that use technology to solve Real-World problems, mental disorders, climate change, child abuse and more. FRFATERMAN is a technical-good leader and the founder of the Non-Profit Benetech, who made Bookshare, an online library for people who are blind or visually disabled. He spoke with Fast Company about a few ways in which technology is used to make the world a better place and what he hopes to get readers from his book.
It is refreshing to talk to a manager about the use of technology for socially good instead of using it to stimulate profit.
[Laughs.] I call it from money to meaning.
What are the challenges that non-profit organizations and socio-good organizations are confronted when it comes to technology?
One is a lack of money. Financing is tight. And although technology is often cost -effective, it is difficult to use if you find it difficult to think of the money to buy the technology. There are also often low levels of technical capacity among staff. People are used to using the phone instead of going a zoom call. The social sector also gives priority to different things than the sector with profit motive. It’s not just about efficiency. People are still quite important in social change. Saying: “Hey, you can get rid of a number of people” (by implementing a new technology) may not be the best sales pitch for a good cause trying to help people.
What are some social problems that can help solve technology?
I highlight in my book Talking pointsWhat helps teachers communicate with parents of children who do not speak English. If you can make the parents more involved, children are much more successful at school. That is a good example of a technology that fulfills a need for immigrant parents.
Community Solutions’ Built for Zero Initiative Try to end homelessness. For years we have treated the symptoms: let’s build temporary housing, eat people and get clothes. They ask: “Can we say that everyone who was homeless three months ago is now housed?” The most important technical innovation is a by-admission list that keeps everyone on community places that these people go into. When hiding places say: “Our beds are used 80% this month”, which measures the output, but it says nothing about whether we solve the problem of homelessness.
So much of what the social sector does is move information – well, there is information technology for that.
What would you say to a non -profit leader who feels overwhelmed by or unqualified to make decisions about technology?
Find people in your field who are for you on the technological journey and learn from them. Talk to your colleagues. If they say: “We write a third more trade fairs with the same amount of staff” with chatgpt or claude, then that is worth paying attention because it is not their case to sell you things.
In your book you emphasize some bad ideas in tech-for-good efforts. Which one do you see the most?
The cult of habit. It is the idea that “my non -profit organization is such a unique snowflake that I need adapted software to solve the problem of my organization.” And companies stopped writing adapted software 20 years ago because no golf course, no restaurant, no dentist needs to write software to run their business. When you write your own software, you are the only customer. It means that every bug that needs to be resolved, you are the only one who pays for it. You must look for a product that can be adapted to your needs. Also: I see many people building an app that nobody will download. Or people who follow the last whim – five or eight years ago, that was blockchain. That did not work. Three to five years ago it was the metaverse. That did not work. At the moment it is generative AI.
I’m glad you raised AI. What is your opinion about where AI should and should not be used in social impact work?
I think you should not replace human empathy and understanding with AI who does not understand what it says and has some empathy. People in the non -profit sector turn to people to help them. The best applications of AI in social good are more effective around the people in the front lines of social change. Let’s say I am trying to automate a mental health care adviser. Do I want to replace the counselor with a chatbot? At the moment it is not a great idea. But if we can shorten their amount of data entry time or paperwork time in two, then it is time that they can spend with another person who needs their help.
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