Session Topics

Jacob Talbot, Director of Campaigns,  and Emily Miller, Senior Impact Fund Manager, Twilio.org

Paul Lutton, Vice President, ViequesLove

In 2021, ViequesLove was granted a Technology Innovation Award to help implement their Emergency Asset Mapping Development Project – a web-based software project designed to provide emergency responders and organizations a planning and operational tool to locate and track gaps in a wide range of critical resources required for preparation, response, and relief from emergencies. Hear updates on the implementation of this GIS map and integrated database that allows entities to share and access data with a full range of digital devices from the office or in the field.

Puff Story, Co-Founder, 3 Sided Cube USA

How can nonprofits meaningfully assess whether an app is an essential element of their digital transformation journey? How can they evaluate the potential buy-in from the communities they serve? Through multiple case studies and examples of nonprofit mobile app use, this session with 3 Sided Cube will share stories of organizations successfully balancing the benefits and challenges of mobile apps, what the process looks like and how to keep its users at the heart. Hear creative and innovative ways nonprofits can use apps to reach their constituents – whether that’s community, board, funders, or the public, and work through framework to evaluate whether a mobile app can help enhance your organization’s impact.

Taki Hasegawa, Senior Machine Learning Engineer, The Trevor Project

According to The Trevor Project’s research, 1.8 million LGBTQ youth in the U.S. seriously consider suicide every year. To address the very real public health crisis that is LGBTQ youth suicide, The Trevor Project provides intensive counselor training to expand their crisis services, empowering over 1,000 counselors to provide life-saving support.  Learn how over the past two years Trevor has developed and implemented the use of proprietary AI and machine learning technology to create the Suicide Risk Assessment tool and the Crisis Contact Simulator (CCS). CCS has enabled the organization to train over 1,000 digital volunteer counselors in 2021 alone, and support more than 200,000 contacts across its 24/7 lifeline, text and chat crisis services.

This advancement and implementation of this unique technology has allowed the organization to serve more youth, at a faster rate, with a consistently high quality of care. Learn the process of developing AI models and ethics surrounding it, how to ensure crisis services are available to those most in need and how a thoughtful, human-centric approach to AI can help organizations build trust and scale operations to help more people.

Corian Zacher, Senior Policy Counsel , Next Century Cities

As new technologies become further ingrained in our society, high-quality home Internet is more important than ever. For the millions of people living across the US without reliable Internet access, technology gaps exacerbate existing inequalities. It will take a myriad of solutions to bridge the digital divide, and through collaborative teamwork, we can bring a wealth of opportunity within reach for those who remain disconnected. Hear Next Century Cities share nationwide examples that showcase the role that nonprofits from any sector can play a role in connecting their communities with affordable broadband.

Josh Ross, Co-Founder, Humanitix

Imagine if the world’s most powerful technology companies existed to solve social problems, instead of simply enriching shareholders. Technology is the world’s biggest driver of change, and as an industry it’s accruing more money and power than any other industry. Unlocking this power for good is imperative if we are to both generate the resources and innovation needed to solve social problems at scale. Hear from Humanitix, one of the worlds first technology charities, and how they are executing their vision to create a world whereby all businesses, structures and systems work in harmony with humanity to serve the best interests of all people and our planet.

Rina Edelstein, Vice President of Partnerships, TaTiO

AI is a hot topic today, and understanding the challenges and opportunities it presents can be difficult. While some companies swear by AI’s ability to eliminate bias, others aren’t convinced as it’s still a system fundamentally built by people. Where do you stand?

Join us as we discover what your zip code has to do with AI and why it should matter to you.

Norwin Herrera and Matthew Eshleman, Community IT

What happens when an organization’s technology needs are so different, that a single platform is not the answer? This session will discuss what situations could warrant a deliberate hybrid solution between platforms like Microsoft and Google. Using a case study of The Social Justice school’s hybrid environment setup, we’ll discuss what running IT support might look like, its impact on aspects like security and remote tools, and ways to combat logistical challenges.

Jeffery Wheat, CTO, Lumu Technologies

As of July 31, 2021, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center saw a 62% increase in reported ransomware incidents and a 20% increase in reported losses, compared with the same time frame in 2020. Ransomware is a masterful crime that cybercriminals cannot get enough of and organizations continue to be ever more challenged by this reality. However,
ransomware does not appear out of thin air. In this session, our speakers will take you on a deep dive into the vicious cycle that enables complex ransomware schemes, common denominators of ransomware incidents, and practical advice to stop ransomware in its tracks regardless of your vertical or resources.

Marnie Webb, Chief Community Impact Officer,  TechSoup and Cameron Jones, Vice President, Solutions and Services, TechSoup

Learn what makes organizations successful in adopting and using new technologies, including the importance of assessment tools with clear frameworks for evaluation and establishing a digital “upgrade” plan. We’ll overview which technology areas (such as security, automation, and data handling) where we see that organizations need help, and what effective recommendations are for addressing them to become more resilient and effective.

James Gadsby, Chief Operating Officer, Desire Street Ministries

Migrating to a fully cloud-based environment allowed Desire Street Ministries to provide seamless work-from-anywhere advantages and a more secure workplace, but more powerfully, the ability to automate operational workflows. Join COO James Gadsby as he shares how he led his organization through the process of identifying, building, and running automations and integrations, and explore the steps and framework he used to ensure success.

Lavonne McLean, Chief Programs Officer, Apparo

Does your team still manually complete routine tasks? Do you have a small staff that wears multiple hats? Do you find yourselves very reactive when it comes to technology? In this session we will learn how slowing down to evaluate your business processes and technology foundation can create operating efficiencies, free up precious time and speed up your impact, so that both your staff and constituents will benefit.

Jahzeer Terrell, IT Security, Tech Impact

Security requirements to keep organizations safe can feel like a moving target. What was good enough just a few years ago – complex passwords and even Multi-Factor Authentication – now are no longer enough. How has the industry been changing and what do we expect in the future? Join this session to discuss what we can learn from past evolutions and how to use that knowledge to prepare a stronger, more robust, working environment.

Corey Newhouse, Principal, Public Profit

Most mission-driven organizations are committed to creating a more equitable, inclusive future for their communities. Yet the ways they collect and interpret data can reinforce the same oppressive systems they seek to change. In this session, we’ll explore the ways that mission-driven organizations can shift their data collection and analysis to be more equitable and inclusive, ranging from relatively quick fixes to more substantial shifts.

Kate Keaton, Data Lead, WEPOWER

In an effort to inspire and activate a community’s voice, WEPOWER co-created the Power Index, a measurement tool which supports individuals in understanding their power to create change, take action, and support positive outcomes in their communities. Hear from WEPOWER’s Director of Data Strategy, Kate Keator, on how they developed the Power Index, the importance of strengthening individuals’ and communities’ influence, and their goals for using data created & managed by community members to contribute to systems change in the St. Louis region.

Héc Maldonado-Reis, Director, Research Development & Analytics, Data Innovation Lab

There is a difference between the statements “We trained and job placed 10 new persons in our programs” and “We trained and job placed 10 new persons among the 300 residing in the census tracts we serve.” Nonprofits rely on outcomes to guide how they operate, and they rely on impact to guide why they operate. Nonprofits ability to enhance outcomes to tell their unique stories are driven by the use of data warehousing, data sourcing, analytics, funding and more. It’s now paramount that we view organizational data and population-level data as complementary to each other, allowing neighborhood focused and relevant evaluation of impact.

 Join this session to discuss how administration, data and technology considerations play a key role in establishing a successful foundation for developing impact models and walk through a case-study to help explore the projected value and applicability of impact evaluation. 

Taj Carson, Chief Executive Officer, Inciter

You’ve got data. A lot of data. And you’ve decided that a data engineer might be just what you need to get those critical reports. Whether you are working with a consultant or working with data engineers in your organization, it can sometimes feel like you are from different planets speaking different languages.

Data engineers and non-data professionals lack a common language and mental model regarding data problems. What if you could get exactly what you need from your data engineer, without feeling like a visitor to a foreign land without a dictionary (or google translate)?

In this session, we will give you some tips on how to work with data engineers in a way that is collaborative, effective, and doesn’t make you feel dumb. Or make them think you might be dumb. We will help you to become a better translator when working with data engineers.

Imagine having a data engineer who can create pipelines, automate data cleaning and integrate your data without you lifting a finger – and you are confident asking for what you need, clarifying the results you want, and asking and answering questions so that both sides can be effective, efficient, and successful. And not frustrated!

Jamie Gluck, Sr. Global Program Manager, AWS Nonprofit

At Amazon, problems are solved by starting with the customer and working backwards, which can directly relate to nonprofits and the communities they serve. In this session, take part in a workshop that dissects Amazon’s process for developing ideas and bringing solutions to life. Through a series of activities to kick start innovative thinking and form new ideas, learn how this approach can drive impact and create change in your organization. You’ll walk away with an understanding of Amazon’s customer obsession leadership principle and methodology to develop ideas worth investing in.

Marnie Webb, Chief Community Impact Officer, TechSoup

How can communities of practice support each other with tech? Hear how TechSoup uses membership models, how they build value for members, and how communities can be leveraged to solve problems. Leave with tangible insights on how to build a community around a common purpose, and how to manage, and improve, a community of support for like-minded organizations.

Trice Johnson, VP Strategy & Innovation, Customer Success, Salesforce

As digital technologies continue to advance more rapidly than any innovation in our history, Nonprofit leaders are seeking new ways to scale their impact and value through their own digital disruption. Join Trice Johnson as she shares insights on her work empowering nonprofit leaders with practical data-driven strategies that optimize an organization’s digital competencies, capabilities, and capacity, so that they can accelerate their work to leapfrog the skills of the underserved being left out of the digital economy across disinvested communities. Walk through a powerful innovation framework that helps nonprofit leaders to ideate, design, and execute a unique digital scale & impact strategy, equipping them to respond in real-time to patterns of disruption, create value from their digital investments, and generate new sources of growth as we partner collaboratively across ecosystems to build inclusive digital economies that leaves no one behind.

Jasmine Crowe, CEO and Founder, Goodr

Goodr, a sustainable waste management company that leverages technology to combat hunger and reduce food waste, has a mission to feed more and waste less. Goodr has redirected over 20 million pounds of surplus food from event centers, airports, and businesses to people that are food insecure. Jasmine will share her journey of building a  model using innovative technology to manage and track logistics, analytics, and impact to meet the needs of communities across the country.

Adam Miller, CEO and Founder, Instil

There is no doubt that the philanthropic landscape has been revolutionized by the rise of new technology in the last 20 years. While tech developments in the nonprofit sector have brought many benefits, there have also been unintended consequences. In this keynote address, Adam Miller, founder and former CEO of Cornerstone On Demand and now CEO of Instil, discusses the ways in which technology has transformed the nonprofit sector for better and for worse, and how nonprofits and technology providers can work together to chart a course forward.

Rachel Worthington, Director of Operations, National CARES Mentoring Movement

What is it like to champion a technology change, just for it to fall flat on its face in a gruelingly public way? Hear the cringe-worthy, yet heartwarming story on how an epic tech failure completely changed how Rachel Worthington and her team approach leadership and support.

Marcus Iannozzi, Founder and Principal, Message Agency

Whether your are engaging donors, volunteers, or program participants, knowing where to find audiences and participants is only part of the solution. You need to determine ways of getting them more involved with your organization over time. This workshop will focus on how to design the steps that you want a target audience to take toward a goal (or conversion) and how to persuade them to take action with compelling content, as well as measure your success.

Organizations are evaluating ways to streamline processes and reduce manual tasks through automation. In this TechLabs workshop, we’ll talk about what automation means operationally in simplifying processes such as approvals and data collection. We’ll focus on how automation can target programming and help your organization transition from outputs to impact by looking at aggregating and reporting on data from disparate internal and external sources. Included will be a demonstration on how workflow automation can change the manual process of collecting, cleaning, analyzing, and reporting data into a single click-to-run process. We’ll explore a couple of the options available to take advantage of this functionality.

This workshop will cover:

• Common use cases
• How automation influences impact reporting
• Demonstrating a common use case – overlaying program outputs against relevant demographic data available from the US Census
• Tools available – pros, cons, and pricing for each

• Uses and benefits of building an intranet site
• Intranet design considerations
• Content management strategies

• Assess your current level of technology maturity and determine focus areas
• Write a strategic technology plan
• Identify learning needs and build staff technology skills
• Pitch technology improvements to your boss, board, and funders
• Evaluate return on investment for current and potential technologies