The Smart Nonprofit: Staying Human-Centered in An Automated World 1st Edition

The Smart Nonprofit is a jargon-free roadmap for nonprofit staff, boards, volunteers and funders. It describes the ways that smart tech will automate many of the time-consuming administrative tasks that make work feel overwhelming and endless, and that lead to burnout and a lack of forward progress. Smart nonprofits are organizations of any size that use artificial intelligence and other “smart” technologies to create a “dividend of time,” a gift of new time that can be spent with clients and donors, preventing crises, or even thinking, learning and dreaming!

Smart tech does rote tasks like filling out expense reports and identifying prospective donors. However, smart tech is also beginning to do very human jobs like screening applicants for jobs and social services, while paying forward historic biases. Beth Kanter and Allison Fine elegantly outline the ways smart nonprofits stay human-centered, anti-biased and continue to do the compassionate and creative work that only humans can and should do.

This book introduces the basic concepts and history of smart technology in nontechnical language. The authors lay out a set of principles for the ethical use of AI, provide a slew of practical advice and case studies for introducing smart tech into nonprofit organizations, and present a stirring manifesto that will inspire us all to work toward a better, smarter, and more human-centered future.

PRAISE FOR THE SMART NONPROFIT

“I can’t imagine a more relevant and timely book, overflowing with practical advice. The Smart Nonprofit gives readers everything they need to know to leverage AI and other automated technology to its fullest (and safest) potential to enable nonprofit leaders to do what they do best: impact the world.”
―MEG GARLINGHOUSE, VP of Social Impact, LinkedIn

“The Smart Nonprofit explores whether we are going to use smart tech―or whether it is going to use us. Smart tech cannot help us understand the nuance of race, class, gender, disability, and the intersections of those identities, but smart nonprofits can. Read this book to learn how smart tech can address systemic racism and classifications and ultimately power, and how can we use it for healing, accountability, connection and community.”
―DESIREE ADAWAY, Racial Equity Practitioner and Principle of The Adaway Group

“The Smart Nonprofit is a splendid, timely book with important insights into our near future. Written in everyday, accessible language, this book enables people to listen more, relate more, build, plan, and dream together more―to be, in fact, more human.”
―HALI LEE, Co-founder of Donors of Color

“Racing to adopt new automation in nonprofits can be dangerous. As Kanter and Fine discuss, the answer isn’t that these new tools can’t be used, but that they need to come with active anti-bias work inside organizations.”
―AMY SAMPLE WARD, CEO of NTEN and co-author of The Tech That Comes Next

“The Smart Nonprofit delivers actionable insights and approachable, real-world advice that can help anyone in the C-Suite of a nonprofit update their organizational strategy for the 21st century. This is a must-read for smart leaders who plan to ensure their organizations remain both human-centered and impactful within this fluid, innovative era of AI and automation.”
―CHERYL CONTEE, CEO of The Impact Seat Foundation and Founder of Do Big Things

“The Smart Nonprofit is essential reading. It takes on key trends and technologies that are changing all of our lives…for better and worse. This book will help you keep ahead.”
―HENRY TIMMS, President of Lincoln Center, Co-founder of #GivingTuesday and co-author of the bestselling New Power