In this day and age technology is at the forefront of many businesses. This is no different for charities, especially now that people can donate in many different ways.

This has caused charities to move with the times. The donation landscape is pushing technology to the forefront of charity operations.

In a post-pandemic world it has forced many businesses to do things in a more tech focused way. Following the pandemic around 82% of charities placed “digital services” at the top of their agenda, and more than 50% offered new online services during 2022. This has meant that many charities have stated that website improvements would be central to their future success.

Here are 2 of the best ways that we believe tech is helping charities!

Virtual Reality

VR has been used by a couple of charities. It is a powerful tool for engagement to show different scenarios and circumstances. When applied to charities this works well as it builds a story and narrative and shows people exactly what support can do. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) was one of the first charities to publish a 360 degree video from the crews perspective whilst out on the water. This form of video has since been used by other charities including the Samaritans to help their #welisten campaign.

Chatbots

AI has rapidly grown in popularity over the last few years. It is everywhere, many businesses have utilised it, including charities. Many charities are now using chatbots on their website to aid in giving the public a better understanding of their work. WaterAid’s “Talk to Selly” campaign is a campaign that gives potential donors a chance to chat to an AI bot purporting to be someone who would directly benefit from the charities support. Using this bot donors can ask questions and “chat” to it to get a better understanding of the help and support they would be donating to. WaterAid are not the only charity to utilise AI in this way, Mencap also use an AI chatbot in this way. They have an ‘Understand me’ bot that guides potential donors through a conversation with Aeren. This AI gives users information about her life with a learning disability plus information and statistics about learning disabilities in the UK.

Of course these are only 2 examples of charities using tech. Technology is being used in many ways, every day. For example, contactless payments for donations, Social Funding platforms such as Alice or GoFundMe and even specific apps such as the Beam app that is used to help homelessness.

It is safe to say that technology is an integral part of charity work these days.

If you are a charity or non-profit and would like to have a chat about any of this or if you need any IT support. Get in touch!