A taste of what caught my attention recently includes scoops of AI, Annual Reports, Digital Threats, Engagement, Responsibility, Content, Engagement, Experience, Satisfaction, Climate Change, Water, Audits, Internal Controls, Risk Management Succession Planning, Economic Development, Outdoor, SGE, Deepfake, Creativity, Rural, Branding, and Fundraising.
One of these scoops might be the inspiration you did not know you needed or have been looking for.
01)
Artificial Intelligence: Who Are the Leaders in Personalized Recommendation AI for the Retail Industry?
What Caught My Attention: “By scrutinizing extensive datasets encompassing user interactions, purchase records, and social media engagement, this technology gains insights into individual tastes and can make precise forecasts regarding users’ preferences for diverse content, products, or services. The integration of personalized recommendation AI holds the potential for businesses to elevate customer satisfaction, boost engagement levels, and drive sales, all by catering to users on a highly individualized basis.”
- Author(s): GlobeData
- Published: 2023-09-08
- Source: Retail Insight Network
- Tag(s): AI
02)
Telling Your Nonprofit’s Financial Story: Key Elements for an Engaging Annual Report
What Caught My Attention: “Contrary to what the name may imply, an annual report is not just to report on the previous year’s activities and statistics. It’s an opportunity to celebrate milestones, thank your supporters, and get excited about what’s coming up in the next year. As a finance leader at your organization, you get to plug into all that goodness of the whole report—not just contribute to the previous year’s stats.”
- Author(s): Marie Moriarty
- Published: 2023-09-07
- Source: Blackbaud Blog
- Tag(s): Annual Reports
03)
China, North Korea Pursue New Targets While Honing Cyber Capabilities
What Caught My Attention: “Today, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) is issuing Sophistication, scope, and scale: Digital threats from East Asia increase in breadth and effectiveness, as part of an ongoing series of reports on the threat posed by influence operations and cyber activity, identifying specific sectors and regions at heightened risk.”
“The report also details how China has continued its global efforts to spread state-sponsored propaganda and soften the country’s image abroad. The Chinese government is investing resources in messaging to audiences in more languages, on more platforms, while evolving its techniques. For example, we know China employs more than 230 state media employees and affiliates who masquerade as independent social media influencers across all major Western social media platforms.
These influencers, who are recruited, trained, promoted, and funded by China Radio International (CRI) and other Chinese state media outfits, expertly spread localized CCP propaganda that achieves meaningful engagement with audiences around the world, reaching a combined following of at least 103 million people across multiple platforms speaking at least 40 languages.”
- Author(s): Clint Watts
- Published: 2023-09-07
- Source: Microsoft on the Issues
- Tag(s): Digital Threats
04)
7 Ways to Win at Sports Marketing by Rewarding Your Fans
What Caught My Attention: “So why not go the extra mile for them?
Sure, t-shirt tosses and kiss cams are exciting for a minute, but what about all of the fans that don’t catch the shirt or smooch their honey in front of a bunch of strangers? Why not try engaging them online?
It’s a safe bet that almost all sports fans have their phones on them while watching the game, whether they’re at home or in the stadium. That’s easy access to the good ol’ world wide web. Put those phones to good use and improve engagement at the same time with these online campaign ideas for rewarding your fans.”
- Author(s): Jane Vance
- Published: 2023-09-07
- Source: ShortStack
- Tag(s): Engagement
05)
8 Steps Nonprofits Can Take to Adopt AI Responsibly
What Caught My Attention: “The breakneck rate at which people have adopted the generative AI writing tool ChatGPT has been astonishing. ChatGPT, which creates new text based on user prompts, surpassed 100 million monthly active users in just two months, according to data compiled by UBS. Compare that to TikTok and Instagram, hit platforms that took nine and 30 months, respectively, to reach that same benchmark.”
- Author(s): Beth Kanter, Allison Fine, and Philip Deng
- Published: 2023-09-07
- Source: Stanford Social Innovation Review
- Tag(s): AI, Responsibility
06)
Customer Engagement vs. Customer Experience vs. Customer Satisfaction – Meaning, Importance, and Examples
What Caught My Attention: “Without proper strategies for each of these pillars, you will find it tough to grow your business and build brand loyalty. So, let’s take a closer look at what these aspects entail and how you can ensure long-term growth and success by implementing them.”
- Author(s): Ashley Bhalerao
- Published: 2023-09-06
- Source: VWO
- Tag(s): Content, Engagement, Experience, Satisfaction
07)
Declining Groundwater
What Caught My Attention: “The New York Times analyzed water levels across the country since 1920. In more recent years, the levels aren’t looking great if we want to keep growing crops. An animated map using angled lines shows the fluctuations and decline.”
- Author(s): Staff
- Published: 2023-09-06
- Source: Flowing Data
- Tag(s): Climate Change, Water
08)
4 Strategies for Proactive Risk Management at Your Nonprofit
What Caught My Attention: “When everything is going well at your nonprofit, risk management may not seem like a priority. It’s easy to become comfortable in your organization’s day-to-day practices and relationships without giving a second thought to difficult situations that might come up. However, if those challenges eventually arise, a solid risk management strategy can help your nonprofit recover more quickly.”
- Author(s): Jon Osterburg
- Published: 2023-09-05
- Source: Blackbaud Blog
- Tag(s): Audits, Internal Controls, Risk Management
09)
From Crisis to Clarity: Five Steps to Demystify Succession Planning
What Caught My Attention: “Our family dog died the morning I received the phone call no one can prepare for. I was driving across the bay to deliver the news of our beloved pet to our university freshman daughter when my phone rang with an unfamiliar number — a community partner calling to let me know that my boss, beloved colleague, and our Executive Director had been hospitalized after experiencing a seizure. I was to contact his husband to let him know.
The next day, I began the communication to our Board of Directors, funders, and employees. Our Executive Director was diagnosed with glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer with only a 5-10% survival rate. As Associate Director who had only recently begun my doctoral program, it was my responsibility to step into our ED’s shoes.
In the year that followed, I came to realize how ill-prepared our 40-year-old organization was for this transition. Eventually, this became the topic of my dissertation, as I wanted to help other nonprofits avoid the challenges we experienced, such as the risk to our organization’s stability and our mission.
While the specifics of our situation were unique and heartbreaking, every nonprofit is guaranteed to face executive transition. One of the most significant transitions for nonprofit organizations, executive transition has an impact on the organization’s finances, including donors and funder perception of the organization’s stability. Executive transition also affects employee engagement, to the degree that a poorly handled leadership transition can have detrimental impacts on the nonprofit’s programs and services.
But despite how crucial the smooth transition of leadership is to the stability and longevity of an organization, few organizations have a succession plan in place.”
- Author: Dr. Amy Haile
- Published: 2023-09-05
- Source: Blue Avocado
- Tag(s): Succession Planning
10)
Outdoor Recreation Leaders Back Bill to Bolster Rural Communities
What Caught My Attention: “As evidenced by the hundreds of rural communities who have applied for federal technical assistance to support economic development through outdoor recreation in recent years, as well as the unprecedented numbers of Americans flocking to the outdoors, we have an outstanding opportunity to meet the moment through the Rural Outdoor Investment Act,” said Jessica Wahl Turner, president of Outdoor Recreation Roundtable. “The ROI Act is aptly named as it will help bring rural communities a big return on outdoor recreation investments in the form of social, economic, and environmental benefits for locals and visitors alike. We applaud Senators Bennet, Schumer and Congresswoman Stansbury for introducing this commonsense and essential legislation that will support our nation’s rural communities and residents.”
The ROI Act will provide:
$30 million for public works through the Economic Development Administration (EDA). This would fund necessary infrastructure improvements from signage to boat ramps and new trails.
$5 million for grants through EDA for communities to create recreation economy plans that optimize their natural spaces including marketing, branding, business development, fundraising, and tourism management.
$2.5 million in university partnerships to promote place-based research, education, and technical assistance to local stakeholders and businesses for this high growth sector.
$12.5 million for the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) grants program for main street revitalization through outdoor recreation.”
- Author: Staff
- Published: 2023-09-05
- Source: Boating Industry
- Tag(s): Economic Development, Outdoor
11)
Which Types of Content to Lean into Ahead of Google’s SGE — and What to Avoid
What Caught My Attention: “Once Google releases its search generative experience, one thing is for certain: The types of content that encourages traffic to your website will change tremendously.”
- Author: Caroline Forsey
- Published: 2023-09-05
- Source: HubSpot
- Tag(s): Content, SGE
12)
AI Deepfakes in Campaigns May Be Detectable, But Will It Matter?
What Caught My Attention: “‘Shocking how good it is’
Replicating someone’s voice in a believable manner was nearly impossible a few years ago — even the best impressionists could only get close. Today, companies like Respeecher only need to analyze a few minutes of a person’s voice to generate a convincing sonic replica. And that fake can be directed to say anything. “It’s shocking how good it is,” said Farid.
While computers alone can’t produce an eye-fooling video yet, someone with the requisite editing prowess could polish AI’s work product enough to create something that seemed real in a video viewed on a phone or other small screen, Farid said. And given computing power’s long trend of exponential growth, it’s only a matter of time before an AI text-to-video platform’s movie magic alone will be able to trick us. “There’s no putting the generative-AI genie back in the bottle,” Farid said. “It’s coming.”
13)
Does Artificial Intelligence Pose a Threat to Creativity? A Boston-Area Artist Says Yes
What Caught My Attention: “A professor of computer science and AI developer at MIT, Regina Barzilay, and her team have created a tool powered by artificial intelligence that they say can predict the likelihood that cancer will develop in a patient in the next five years. Though not yet at the clinical trial stage, doctors at Mass General Cancer Center have partnered with Barzilay to test the technology.
Doctors at Mass General Brigham are using generative AI to record patient visits instead of typing in notes. Doctors say the technology not only saves them hours in administrative work, allowing them more time with patients, but they are able to focus on a patient’s social cues during appointments.
According to AAMC.org, in 2019, one-third of all Massachusetts doctors were over the age of 60.
Dale Stephanos has been a professional artist for over 30 years. His work has been published and posted around the world. He speaks to Nicole Estaphan about how AI programs facilitate the use of copyrighted work to generate images – without the consent of the original artists.
Local schools, including Nipmuc Regional High School, are now grappling with the increasing use of generative AI in the classroom. Students have been using the applications to complete assignments both without permission and with it. While many districts are banning the technology, one local teacher is embracing its educational value.”
- Author: Staff
- Published: 2023-09-07
- Source: WCVB5
- Tag(s): AI, Digital Threat, Creativity
14)
CORI’s 2022 Impact Report
What Caught My Attention: “The report below details our team’s activities in 2022 to advance economic prosperity in rural America. From tech workforce development to broadband advocacy, CORI continued to partner with local leaders to demonstrate what’s possible when we invest in rural communities. Highlights include unprecedented success in securing federal funding, adding nine new communities to our Rural Innovation Network, and releasing two robust research projects that examine rural America in a new light.”
- Author: Staff
- Published: 2023-09-01
- Source: CORI
- Tag(s): Economic Development, Rural
15)
Brand or Bucks: Understanding When to Focus on Brand Awareness vs. Fundraising
What Caught My Attention: “If you’ve spent any time in nonprofit communications and marketing, you’re familiar with the competing priorities of building awareness and raising money. Brand building, the low and slow burn of engagement often gets lumped in with urgent, immediate fundraising efforts—resulting in subpar metrics and burned-out staff. Deciding where to invest limited marketing resources can feel like a shot in the dark.”
- Author: Joi Bass
- Published: 2023-08-01
- Source: Mighty Citizen
- Tag(s): Brand, Fundraising
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