Orlando, June 4
By Avani Desai

Even when the developments might’ve been considered primitive by modern standards, technological progress has always been a definitive characteristic of humanity.  Like any new tool, technology has infinite capacity to be used in all the wrong ways—in this, atomic and biological weapons come to mind.  And even with better intentions, sometimes technological impact can still skew negatively, such as when society’s immense reliance on it harms our environment, health, or thought patterns.

Yet there is a second face to this coin, with just as boundless potential—use for good, in intentions and impacts alike.

There is the side of technology where good ideas and honorable intentions do indeed produce spectacular results and, in turn, help humanity evolve positively.  These developments enable citizens to succeed more easily while upholding the most harmonic, peaceful, and visionary values and ethical standards.  While in pursuit of this bright side of technology, we may never actually reach the end of the road with the possibilities and benefits—it’s both exhilarating and endless.  One thing we can be certain of, however, is that technology has the ability to consistently affect transformative social reform.

In fact, within the series of articles entitled “The Network Revolution,” AIMatters chief executive officer (CEO) Barry Libert and his three co-authors argue that embracing this social change is a theory of being rather than one of change—“one that places a virtual network of individuals seeking social change at the center of everything and leverages today’s digital platforms (such as social media, mobile, big data, and machine learning) to facilitate stakeholders (contributors and consumers) to connect, collaborate, and interact with each other to exchange value […] to effectuate exponential social change and impact.” Though technology has already gained some ground in the improvement or eradication of certain community and social issues, including those outlined below,  there is a ways to go yet.

1.      Global Poverty and Hunger

It’s estimated that 11% of the world’s population still goes to bed hungry each night, but with any luck, that won’t always be the case—especially given technology’s impact already in genetic engineering advancements and improved farming methods.  More “smart farming” solutions have been made possible thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), and upgraded livestock monitoring and soil measurements, among other improvements, are helping to upgrade the efficiency, quantity, and affordability of food sources. In addition, technology on a wider scale has also created more jobs and extended job markets across the board, especially through remote work; now, thanks to the Internet Age, promoting digital literacy and internet access ensures greater opportunities for people to support themselves and elevate their financial status. As more advancements like these continue to expand resources, that 11% number will hopefully continue to steadily dwindle. 

2.      Modern Slavery, Child Abuse, and Local Crime

The statistics are sickening: modern slavery exists in over 165 countries in the world and annually generates $150 billion in profit. According to the 2018 Cocoa Barometer, as many as 2.1 million underage children are forced to work in West Africa alone. Unfortunately, technology has played its own ugly part in allowing for the exploitation of these children, along with those others that have been sexually abused across the world and had their images spread. Nonetheless, it’s also had a hand in trying to curb these terrible industries.  The non-governmental organization, Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, fights back with deep learning and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to identify the most vulnerable victims of child abuse and upend the platforms spreading illegal content, all while developing awareness campaigns in order to hamper abusers.  Its flagship product, Spotlight—a data archive containing escort ads, photographs, and forum data gathered off the internet—uses algorithms to analyze and proactively generates leads and potential profiles, helping law enforcement find kids faster.  Since being founded in 2006, Thorn has identified nearly 10,000 victimized children in total.

Further efforts must be made to continue eliminating such treatment of fellow human beings—both children and adults trapped in these unconscionable conditions.  New smart procurement technology has proven a great tool, as it enables major companies to more comprehensively analyze supply chains while pairing with third-party data for better evaluations and increased transparency. Amit Mondal, vice president of Software Development at PowerSchool Group, also points out how technology also helps to foil policy brutality, kidnappings, and incidents of rape: “Glasses or IoT-enabled personal devices with face recognition technologies connected to a database of criminals may be able to proactively warn when known offenders are in close proximity; peer-to-peer, location-based emergency communication technologies can enable victims to seek help from law enforcement or others nearby.”

3.      Climate Change and the Green Revolution

While the use of some technologies has been paralleled with our abuse of the earth’s resources, the other side of that coin has also given us options for fighting against the mammoth problem we’ve brewed up—climate change.  “Technology can help out in myriad ways,” points out Forbes Technology Council member Leah Allen, “From making electric cars mainstream and building alternative sources of energy to replace coal to creating more efficient buildings, non-polluting air conditioning systems, and desalination systems.” Back in 2016, solar energy became the world’s cheapest energy source, made possible by the evolving technology that drove costs down. As it represents a more economical and environmentally friendly choice, the switch to renewable energies wherever possible should be a no-brainer.

4.      Education and Employment

Richard Margolin, chief technology officer (CTO) and founder of RoboKind, points out that apart from mere accessibility, technologies like online courses and classroom robots “allow for a higher-quality and standardized delivery of curriculum by experts who really understand the subjects being taught,” which in turn “dramatically increases access both for urban and rural classrooms that lack the resources to maintain a well-trained staff.” And it’s not just important for educating children—Siddharth Banerjee, of Indusgeeks USA Inc., commends the potential of virtual reality, showcasing it as a transformative tool for training workers displaced by automation, as it enables them to learn new skills more efficiently and effectively, with “VR-Cades” circumventing expensive trainings to save money and time.

Yes, smart classroom technology eliminates physical boundaries and limitations for both students in school and those already in the workforce.  It opens a world of possibilities with developments in cloud, video conferencing, faster internet, advanced network coverage, budding virtual reality, and wireless technology that allows people—especially those in more remote locations—unprecedented access to a greater quantity, quality, and personalization of classes, schools, and subjects.  Those who can’t afford or are otherwise unable to enroll in a school also have access to a plethora of cheaper or free online material, including self-teaching courses via YouTube, Wikipedia, and digital libraries.

5.      Health Care

Smart and strategic use of technology in the health care sector can do, and already has done, wonders for patient outcomes, hospital savings and efficiency, and research across a plethora of fields.  It begins with a better understanding of biology and genomics, which then leads to better drugs and preventive measures.  With further enough advances, we may soon discover cures for currently incurable diseases—we’ve done it before (goodbye smallpox), and we can do it again.  In fact, many diseases, including hookworm, malaria, measles, and rubella, among others, are already well on the way out the door completely, having already been eliminated from large regions of the world.

Furthermore, blockchain technology can be used to resolve security, scalability, transparency, and privacy issues within the sector.  IoT wearables can provide user-generated health data to detect issues earlier and alert emergency services faster. With tools such as artificial intelligence and robot-assisted surgery (improved diagnoses and performance), virtual health care (improved accessibility, efficiency, and speed of care), nanomedicine (improved and more precise targeting and delivery systems, helping combat more complex conditions like cancer), virtual reality (improved worker training and offering patient therapy and rehabilitation), and 3D printing (improved prototypes and revolutionized transplants and tissue repair), technology is already breaking barriers at every turn, and will continue to do so as we progress.

Today’s world is in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or what World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab defines as the fusion of technologies blurring the lines among the physical, digital, and biological spheres. Unlike any of those before it, this revolution is one in which digital networks are upending traditional business models, enabling new ways of sharing, distributing intelligence, and creating value.

Even with the change already wrought, there’s still a vast frontier of opportunity on the technological horizon.  As with any tool, however, it’s important to remember that our attitude and approach counts as much as—if not more than—the potential that tool has in and of itself. As eloquently noted by T.J. Cook, the CEO of CauseLabs, “in order to truly solve big problems related to the environment, sanitation, education, poverty, and other health and social issues, the goal must be to change human behavior, awareness, and attitudes.  The role of technology is to serve as a catalyst to jump-start these changes.”

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/technology-can-help-solve-societal-problems/

https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/tech-solutions-global-problems

https://www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/child-labour-cocoa-production

https://www.thorn.org/our-work-to-stop-child-sexual-exploitation/

https://freedomtech.solutions/solving-social-problems

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/10/02/solving-social-problems-11-ways-new-tech-can-help/

http://fortune.com/2016/12/15/solar-electricity-energy-generation-cost-cheap/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/10/02/solving-social-problems-11-ways-new-tech-can-help/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/10/02/solving-social-problems-11-ways-new-tech-can-help/

https://www.optus.com.au/enterprise/accelerate/technology/how-is-technology-helping-to-solve-global-challenges

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/5-ways-technology-healthcare-industry/

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/technology-can-help-solve-societal-problems/

https://www.wired.com/insights/2014/04/great-technologists-can-help-solve-worlds-problems/

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Seattle, April 1-4
By Paula Liang

After four days in Seattle, three at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and one at the Seattle Foundation, I find that my primary feelings are wonderment and gratitude.  After being a part of this movement in a nearly full-time volunteer capacity since 2012, to have such influential philanthropists take notice, lift up the work, support it, and suggest to a room full of philanthropy tech platform folks  that lots more people should be both participating and supporting it is nothing short of amazing. And to the 82 people who came from around the country, to give us feedback on how we should structure that support, we are so grateful for your time, your stories and your generosity of spirit.

But to start at the beginning: On Monday and Tuesday, April 1 and 2, through the incredible generosity of the Gates and Seattle Foundations, we convened individuals from across the country and the movement, including many funders and other key opinion leaders to sketch out the Co-Design team’s (and 6 working groups’) thinking regarding the structure for an infrastructure organization (IO). The Team includes myself, Hali Lee, also a Catalist member and co-Director of Donors of Color Network, Liz Fisher and Felicia Herman of Amplifier, which supports Jewish Giving Circles, Marsha Morgan of Community Investment Network, a network of African American Giving Circles, and Masha Chernyak of Latino Community Foundation.

Catalist participants from L-R: Buffy Beaudoin-Schwartz of Women’s Giving Circle of Howard County, Laura Midgley of Washington Women’s Foundation (WaWF) & Catalist Board, Colleen Willoughby, Founder of WaWF & Catalist, Jenny Berg, Catalist Chair & Impact 100 Cincinnati, Paula Liang, Vice Chair & Women’s Giving Alliance, Jacksonville, FL, Virginia Mills, Catalist Board & Giving WoMN, MN, Susan Benford, The Philanthropy Connection, Boston, and Hali Lee, Asian Women’s Giving Circle, NYC, also a colleague on the Co-Design Team.

To an incredibly diverse group, across all ways of thinking about that—zip code, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, class—we started to roll out how we were thinking about what issues the IO would address, what its mission and vision would be, and how it would be structured.  And we got a LOT of feedback, all of it incredibly valuable--too much to have been distilled overnight. IO Version 2.0 is very much a work in progress, but a few key takeaways for me:

We didn’t solve everything, but we made a good deal of progress, heard some great stories and recorded some others on video. Laura Midgley told a powerful story about how her own approach to her personal philanthropy was changed by a grant process she participated in with WaWF.

As at any gathering of folks who practice collective giving, there was a good deal of hugging and crying; new alliances were formed, information was shared, I think Catalist may have picked up a few new affiliates. My favorite new friend from this gathering just might be Pastor Joseph Frierson of Greensboro, NC, who started the Young & Dangerous Giving Circle Fund at the Mount Zion Baptist Church’s Young Adult Ministry as a way to get his parishioners from ages 18-35 to become more civically engaged beyond the church walls.  He even had T-shirts that said “Young and Dangerous”.  I told him he should trademark it—he said he was working on it!  This is just one of many ideas we heard that could be radically and easily scaled—the group, not the T-shirts.

After saying goodbye to most of the group on Tuesday afternoon, about 15 of us, including the Co-Design team stayed on for Wednesday and Thursday to participate in the Gates Greater Giving Summit, which convened 170 people under their Giving by All Initiative.  Turns out, Giving Circles are one of their “Giving Channels of Focus”.   Seriously, who knew? 

These 36 hours were much more tech and data-driven, but we all met some interesting people and learned a lot.  The first guy I introduced myself to works for Paypal and lives in Portland, OR.  When I started to tell him about 99 Girlfriends, he stopped me and told me his wife is a member!  The conference was using a technology called Slido to let attendees react and ask questions, and we got #givingcircles trending as often as possible.  We spread ourselves out, talked to as many people as we could, soaked up whatever was offered, but we generally felt a lot less relevant in this environment. 

But at the end of the day on Thursday, a sort of miraculous thing happened.  In the closing panel, there were three people talking about their amazing philanthropic web platforms, including one in China, and a woman named Lucy Bernholz from the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.  When it was Lucy’s turn to talk, she gave everybody a bit of a scolding about data privacy, which they pretty much expected, and then she exhorted them to stop talking about “the technology” and start talking about “the work”. When the moderator from the Gates Foundation asked if she could possibly end on a high note, she said “Sure, how about the Giving Circles and the fabulous work they are doing? We should all be focusing on that!” 

I introduced myself to her afterwards, and when I told her how many members are represented by Catalist affiliates, her jaw literally dropped.  We exchanged cards and promised to be in touch.  Something about a book she’s writing? More to follow. . .

Brooklyn, NY November 25-26, 2018
by Paula Liang

I’m delighted to report we have a much better idea of where the Co-Design project is headed and the five Co-Design partners are united in our belief that we are aligned around a set of big picture dreams for the field. 

To sketch out the broad strokes for those who are just hearing about this, or who have heard just a little bit, the headline is that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has taken an interest in our sector, and their interest typically comes with support and resources and eventually a ton of national attention.  They have invested $250,000 in a 12-month process to enable 5 leaders of networks to work together to design an infrastructure organization to provide support for the collective giving ecosystem.  They challenged us to raise the additional $120,00 that would be required. We were able to do so through appeals to private foundations, some of whom, like W.K.Kellogg Foundation, have supported these networks for years,  some support from the networks themselves, some good old-fashioned collective giving, and investments from US Trust and Schwab Charitable, which have generously sponsored Catalist conferences.

The five Co-Design leads are:

And none of it would be possible without Isis Krause of Knead Partners who keeps us on task and makes sense of the hundreds of Post It Notes. 

We have been meeting for months remotely via Zoom and have conducted 40 something interviews with members of other networks, funders, members of the broader philanthropy field, some grantees, and other stakeholders as part of the “Needs Assessment”.  When read a list of the possible supports that might be provided (i.e., technology, capacity building, funding, impact evaluation, staff support, communications/branding and on and on) almost everyone said, “Can I choose them all?”  Clearly, there are many needs.

But the organizing wisdom came from Hali at about 10:30 on Day 1.  As I recall, what she said was, “This doesn’t have to look like anything that already exists.  Let’s build the party we want to go to.”  The work we all do is so essentially hopeful, we want to lift it up without organizing the joy out of it.  There may have been a group hug at this point.

So, we have an idea of what we think this party should look like, we have a bit more time to refine our ideas through a series of working groups that will involve many of those we have interviewed, a series of pilot projects and a field-wide convening, April 1-2 in Seattle. The Gates Foundation has invited us to use their space on April 1.   

Stay tuned. Watch this space.  If you know of anyone, man, woman or child, who is thinking of starting a giving circle, please give Paula a shout at pliang@catalistwomen.org  One of the pilot projects could be an incubator—we would like to see if we can stand up a bunch of new organizations before the end of the project in September 2019, to prove to the Gates Foundation and our other partners that we can deliver the goods.

To those of you who donated to this project, many, many thanks! Catalist itself, as well as several individual members of our Affiliates made investments, all of which were much appreciated.