By - Drew Page at Siege Media Nonprofits can learn a lot about technology, operations, and more from companies in the for-profit sector. One technology that has been gaining popularity among c-level executives is machine learning and its contributions to modern Artificial Intelligence (AI). Since true AI — the ability for computers to process unstructured data, form conclusions, and take action — is not yet on the horizon of possibilities, machine learning models have become synonymous with AI.
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By Greg Duke Nearly a year ago, many nonprofit organizations in the United States were scrambling to meet the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) implementation deadline of May 25, 2018. Last spring, when I spoke with several advancement services and prospect research professionals in the US, there was a great deal of confusion about what GDPR would mean to their fundraising activities across the Atlantic. The great hope was that, in due time, a lot of this confusion would be resolved by further instructions from the European Union, which would clarify the rules fundraising institutions have to follow. Unfortunately, during this time, little has been decided about the future of data protection regulations and what those regulations mean with regards to fundraising institutions in the US. By - Greg Duke Many of you in the nonprofit world have heard about GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation) and its consequences for the protection of data for individuals in the European Union and the United Kingdom. There have been a lot of rumors and stories involving the consequences for American nonprofits which fail to protect their European-based alumni or donor constituents. In this article, I will demystify GDPR and help point American database managers and others involved in the maintenance of data in the right direction to follow European and UK law. “I need to write our case for support,” said my friend who I ran into at Fundraising Day New York. My immediate suggestion was to identify those words and phrases that would resonate best with his audience. In other words, I wanted to reach through his organization’s social media accounts to find what words and phrases got the largest number of positive reactions (such as “likes” on the organization’s Facebook posts). And so we launched a project, borrowing the web sites of two of our small business friends: Gabriel Colella, a transformational teacher; and Snug Planet, an environmental services company.
This blog appeared in the APRA Upstate New York newsletter in the fall of 2009.
As fundraisers, we focus our resources on major gifts prospects. However, with Big Data bringing out a lot more information from social networking, we now see the value of using modeling and mining tools to help annual giving, membership, and events programs. Our recent conversations have centered on engagement – a rather nebulous term we use to try to understand what our donors feel about us before they give for the first time. |
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