Help Shape the Future of AI in Social Impact

Kate Averett Anderson · March 11

SURVEY CLOSED—Thank you for sharing your experiences!

The Blackbaud Institute is conducting a new research survey on responsible AI use in the social impact sector. It's designed to capture how AI is actually showing up in organizations like yours, and we'd love for your voice to be included.

We want to understand the full picture:

The places where AI is genuinely helping
The moments where it adds complexity or concern
The reality for teams who aren’t using it yet, or are still figuring it out

Your responses are anonymous, the survey takes about 15 minutes, and the first 500 respondents receive a $10 gift card as a thank-you.

Most importantly, your honest input will help us create research that reflects real conditions in the sector—not just ideal scenarios—and that we’ll share back with this community.

With gratitude,
Kate Averett Anderson
Research and Publications Lead, the Blackbaud Institute

Lindsey Walliser · March 11

Thanks for sending this out and getting our input.

AI can be a powerful tool for efficiency, but protecting data privacy and maintaining accurate, high-quality data should remain a top priority.

Art Bryman · March 11

We, Blackbaud clients and end users, really need Blackbaud to focus more on improving and fixing their core platforms and products, and focus less on implementing glitchy, unreliable AI. Not only does AI often deliver incorrect results, but it also creates more work by forcing us to double-check the data. When we do, the poor UX design and coding choices stymie us. Blackbaud staff have relied on "share it in the idea bank" to ignore our pleas for help - but all that postponing is now coming due. The product managers ignore decade-old requests for improved functionality throughout the idea banks. Blackbaud has a history of acquiring new companies to fill in functionality that's ancillary to their core products, instead of making the core product - and the support behind it - the best in the industry. And every industry that Blackbaud is part of is only growing, which will only make it more difficult.

Crystal Bruce · March 11

https://community.blackbaud.com/discussion/comment/311711#Comment_311711

@Art Bryman we're sorry to hear you are experiencing some frustrations. We've asked your CSM to follow up with you to learn more about your specific concerns.

Keith Wilson · March 11

I received an email today from Blackbaud Community that "Liz Sobansky Started a new discussion." I clicked on the link in the email I received today, and the survey is closed? It doesn't even look like this discussion was started by @Liz Sobansky? Perhaps this is prime example of the "glitchy, unreliable AI" @Art Bryman is referencing???🤔

Brandon Pollard · March 12

I'll keep it short and sweet. If you shove an AI in the products we are using I will immediately start looking for another product for our organization to switch to.

I am not writing this from a position of ignorance. I closely follow what is happening in the AI space and follow experts with a variety of perspectives. Right now the negatives of AI tools dramatically outweigh the advantages. It's not even close.

D DeRoche · March 12

I am in total agreement with Art Bryman. We put off migrating to NXT for years because no matter how each new account manager tried to pitch it to me, I couldn't see any benefit to switching from RE7, which was always complicated to use but it got the job done.

But after all these years, I am sorry to see that NXT still isn't fully functional, causing us wasted time and effort. Yes, there are some nice things about NXT Web View, but I'm mostly frustrated that everything takes longer to process in it because it is not designed for database administrators. I think we'd all be better off if Blackbaud would put effort into upgrading DBV and keep Web View as a 'view only' option for account managers and executives.

As for AI, I have not seen or interacted with one yet that has been helpful. AI generated thank you letters are a joke. Maybe they are acceptable in other countries, but they're way too flowery and vague for us in the USA. I have not yet found an AI chat support that was helpful. There are far too many variables in our constituent records and online donations for AI to ever process donations correctly without human intervention. It's faster for me to do all the data entry myself than it is to review and edit all the non-human entered records and donations. What we need is a product that saves us time and effort, not a less than fully functional virtual android. 😕

Help Shape the Future of AI in Social Impact

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