Augmented Reality, Google Glasses and why is this so important?

Tech wearables are ubiquitous. More and more, they are even fashionable and used as status indicators.

Many people wear eyeglasses. When we see someone wearing eyeglasses, the reason ‘why’ this person wears eyeglasses hardly registers. Granted, if you saw someone wearing Google’s AR glasses, which are currently in development, you may pause for a closer look.

Staying with our theme of how we can leverage technology to improve the philanthropic sector, specifically when examining an agency or cause for an investment (read: grant), let’s consider the info we could quickly and seamlessly obtain by wearing Google AR glasses on our next site visit.

Using geocodes, the glasses can readily supply critical information relevant to any level of investment decision, including but not limited to:

Key expense ratios

Staff bio’s

History of the building (rented/owned)

Program impact 

Your words: 

“This is an invitation of privacy and irrelevant to the foundation/grantee relationship!” are heard. 

An aside: My favorite indicator is the cash reserve. If it’s large, there generally should be a plan for use of the funds. If it’s small, it generally may indicate a number of qualities that may or may not inhibit or hinder an organization’s ability to carry out their mission.

Nonetheless, this type of data is already out there on the internet. Many agencies list this info on their website, which the glasses can easily obtain by conducting a routine query of the agency’s website. 

Key expense ratios are a touch trickier. This data can be extrapolated from the agency’s Financial Audit and IRS Form 990, again, both available publicly. Once the IRS gets around to transforming their PDF files into a more searchable format, we’ll be well on our way to saving alot of time and obtaining a higher level of critical insight into agencys and organizations. 

Why is this important?

Now more than ever the problems and challenges we face on this earth are bigger than they have ever been. The list of problems which require urgent solutions is long and the scale of problems is global. If our solutions don’t evolve to the scale of the challenge, our work and efforts will never pay off. Incremental processes are not up to the task. We need a wholesale shift in philanthropy and the non-profit sectors. 

A digital transformation will allow for more rapid decision making, more targeted solutions and more relevant solutions to existing challenges and issues facing our world.