{"id":5763,"date":"2025-01-18T05:36:54","date_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/?p=5763"},"modified":"2025-01-18T05:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:36:54","slug":"machine-learning-and-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/?p=5763","title":{"rendered":"Machine Learning and Philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt is more difficult\u00a0to give money away intelligently<\/strong>\u00a0than to earn it in the first place.\u201d – Andrew Carnegie<\/p>\n

If you want to invest your money in stocks, there is no shortage of companies, experts and advisors with opinions of how to invest your money. If you want to donate to a charity, there is a shortage of experts and advisors advising\u00a0to whom or what<\/em>\u00a0you should donate. Of course, most organizations have websites with pictures and statements enticing you to donate or become involved. Some even employ fundraisers who are specifically charged with finding donors to support the organization.<\/p>\n

But what if you can\u2019t decide where to donate your money? What if, at the end of the day, all the websites and noise about who produces the greatest impact just end up becoming a giant distract? What if all the nice pictures and smiling faces start to look the same, and eventually organizations themselves start to look the same? Where do you put that money? What if you\u2019re not one of the smartest philanthropists out there:\u00a0Bill Gates<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and you can\u2019t afford 1,000+ people with PHD\u2019s to assist you in identifying the most impactful use of your dollars?<\/p>\n

So many diversions and so many questions to ponder for the potential donor. Enter machine learning. Machine learning (ML) is\u00a0a type of artificial intelligence (AI) that allows software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so<\/strong>. Machine learning algorithms use historical data as input to predict new output values. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Machine learning is already being used in multiple domains and industries with alot of money at stake. Not so much in the philanthropic sector though. Even so, for the charitable donor, it offers enormous potential as a way to help break through the noise. In doing so, it can serve as a means to amplify the impact of your charitable dollar. Though a few years away yet, let\u2019s observe three ways machine learning can advance giving and ease the donor burden.<\/p>\n

1. Machine learning can tell you\u00a0which agencies<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0support your chosen cause. It\u2019s easy to align cause with agency through machine generated insights from all the online activity out there.<\/p>\n

2. Machine learning can give you an idea of\u00a0who is supporting<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0your chosen cause. While you may stumble across an interesting page online with what looks like a worthy cause, why not rely on the past actions of donors and perhaps even your friends for your next giving decision? With no shortage of social media posts from people showcasing their attendance at a fundraiser or posts bringing attention to recent donations via gofundme.com, machine learning can easily tap into social media platforms to guide you.<\/p>\n

3. Last, you may\u00a0hone in on quality<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0by quickly ranking local agencies via online ratings.\u00a0Guidestar<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Charity Navigator<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0actively promote their rating systems. While the basis for these ratings always sparks discussion, outliers (good and bad) on their scales will stand out in any machine learning generated findings.<\/p>\n

Many of these solutions require development of new but quite simple algorithms and there are quite a few barriers, some of which are eroding as you read thanks to efforts like\u00a0Guidestar\u2019s Financial SCAN (Situation and Comparable Analysis)<\/strong><\/a>. Geocoding and the new\u00a0IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search<\/strong><\/a>, which kicks off whenever the IRS can fix its website, offer new unlimited potential for donors to target their dollars to effective programs and initiatives.<\/p>\n

But more and more, donors probably do not want to have to wade through multiple platforms and IRS legalese just to figure out an answer to the simple question:\u00a0who is worthy of my support?<\/em>\u00a0More and more, new donors want faster insights and more rapid feedback. Considering the possibilities to inform donors, the application of machine learning to philanthropy is inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt is more difficult\u00a0to give money away intelligently\u00a0than to earn it in the first place.\u201d – Andrew Carnegie If you want to invest your money in stocks, there is no shortage of companies, experts and advisors with opinions of how to invest your money. If you want to donate to a charity, there is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-strategy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/randyscheid.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}