Charities can use emerging technology to support engagement and donations

So, we know charities don’t have it easy. With all the noise, news, social and giving platforms to fight against to be heard, it’s tough to stand out — and let’s face it, it’s really not getting any quieter out there

So what to do? Double down on the known knowns — street teams, big events celebrity patrons, JustGiving or innovate to keep competitive? The (relatively) new channels of conversational AI, and in particular, voice, is an area that is worth exploring for charities.

There are a few reasons for this. One of the big ones is the fact that voice platforms are less rubbish than they used to be – and over the last couple of years AI assistants actually understand the questions they are being asked — and have upgraded their ability to return useful information more regularly.

The user experience is getting better as well, not perfect, but definitely improving. Being able to have voice interactions and search, giving information about their mission and information or even automated donating are possible. Amazon is also continuing to act as an ‘official’ aggregator of voice advice for certain charities (more on this in an upcoming article) giving advice on services or conditions with ‘native’ intents — A good thing.

The data around the adoption of voice assistants, devices and channels — Alexa Google Assistant, Bixby — is also a factor. After all, more users mean more data(despite the potential data and privacy questions, something charities and health providers should be well versed in) and that should equal better and more useful experiences for everyone

So, should charities create their own voice and chat Valhalla?, and develop their own voice interactions and channels (i.e. easier and more donations, millions of interactions from users on voice) immediately?

Whoa, Sister. Hold them horses.

Let’s take a gander at some more practical examples of how charities are using voice and chat strategies and applications — what they are up to, which channels they’re launching on, and common themes and patterns.

Stand up To Cancer

Cancer Research UK launched the ‘Stand Up to Cancer’ campaign in conjunction with Channel 4 and comedian Joe Lycett. As part of the initiative, they created a quiz based on Alexa. The premise is that by getting groups of people together, they can have their own fundraising event to raise donations for Cancer UK and have a bit of fun, to boot.

The overall idea is a mix of physical (get your mates around IRL) digital (the quiz is on Alexa devices) and a neat way of getting their celebrity influencer (Joe, the comedian) to use their audience-pulling power in an interactive way.

The skill has 4 rounds to test knowledge, entertainment, anagrams and a round about Cancer Research (Double points, woop 🙂 with audio from Joe and Alexa combining voice duties.

Theres a quizmaster pack that can be downloaded and printed off, with answers, instructions on how to play, info and tie-breakers. (bit old school, but I guess so is doing a quiz with actual people)

The mechanics of the game are that users should donate the suggested £5, £10 or £20 to play the quiz and they can do that by texting Quiz5, 10,20 etc to a dedicated short code number. players can also pay in cash (blimey, novel one) or the host can get everyone to donate on their JustGiving/donate page as well.

Key takeouts for charities thinking about voice and Conversational AI initiatives

Well, it’s a tidy skill with some nice touches around how you play, incorporating some actual people getting together to test their knowledge (never a bad thing in our distributed world). Our suggestions on possible enhancements would be to make it more playable interactive gameplay and integrations for easier donating.

The most obvious enhancement would be to integrate donations. Currently, it’s a bit of a faff to have to get everyone to donate by JustGiving or texting the number in. Other charities like British Heart Foundation have done this, where users can donate within their skill (albeit through a slightly annoying opt-in through the Alexa app first)

What would be good is to have donations tied to the lowest score or losing team so incentivising gameplay to create the opportunity for more — and larger donations as part of the fun.

Simple gameplay mechanics like a team and individual names would make it more personal for users and could be part of a more structured quiz/information strategy where users are encouraged to come back and play another quiz or game. The addition of leaderboards would also be interesting in playing against other teams (i.e. Words with Friends)

Running the quiz as a series tied to a longer campaign would work, without adding huge amounts of additional effort — with extra rounds, more levels or even a ‘beat Joe’ round to make it more engaging

There could be a finance element where the game is say 99p to access the first round in a freemium model then an additional £2.99 — small changes could increase the amount raised substantially.

There could be a finance element where the game is say 99p to access the first round in a freemium model then an additional £2.99 — small changes could increase the amount raised substantially.

Adding translations would help as well, though obviously, it’s a UK skill for a UK charity currently — the game mechanic could work well for other localised Cancer research charities. Though replacing Joe Lycett/Hugo Boss would obviously be a factor in cost/effort)

Some other more general physical/digital voice skills and games are available such as When in Rome– this area could also be a partnership opportunity for forward-thinking games/development companies and platforms.

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If you work for a Charity, drop us a line at hello@thesynhetic.co we have a range of cost-effective initiatives to help you win — we also run roundtables, specifically for charities looking to power their engagement and fundraising with AI.

We partner with a range of forward-thinking businesses — from global healthcare corporates and enterprise technology giants to innovative charities and edu-tech startups, on conversational AI initiatives — chatbots, voice UI, digital assistants, and emerging technologies.

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