Tips for charities to make the most of AI and cloud storage

How we store our documents may seem like a simple matter, running in the background of our everyday lives. But the truth is documents are at the centre of everything we do.  

Meeting notes, campaign guidelines, donor information – these are the documents that allow charities to do their work properly.  As Cloud storage provider Box points out, “From grant applications, to donor appeals and program launches, every nonprofit runs on content.” The easier this content is to find, the more efficient a charity can become.  

Simply put, how and where we store our content matters. If charities want to have connected teams, fewer bottlenecks, and more time focused on the tasks that really matter (i.e. those that deliver charitable impact), filing documents securely in easily accessible, centralised locations is critical. Likewise, being able to find email attachments It is particularly important in a world where remote or hybrid working is the new norm, or for charities who work in disparate areas.  

The International Rescue Committee, for example, works with 13,000 staff, 10,000 volunteers, and 1,000 partner organisations across the world, all of whom need to be able to mobilise rapidly when global crises arise. Being able to find information quickly is critical to minimising that response time and connecting different parties on the ground. 

But there is yet more to our storage options than simply being able to find content quickly or access it remotely. Security is essential, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Sending or collecting documents via secure storage providers, such as Box, is more secure than sending or collecting via email, for example. Not only are forms kept in one secure location, there are more protocols in place to protect them, such as multi-factor authentication and user access controls. And you don’t need to search your emails for the latest attachments – it can all come through using one link.  

Finally, there are also advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) that can make cloud storage more useful than ever before. Charities can ask questions of Box AI, and let AI find the answers,  preventing users from having to scan lengthy text to do so.  

These services are especially important to charities who are notoriously strapped for time and budget. Cloud services don’t have to break the bank to be useful. Box’s social impact arm, Box.org, for example, donates $40 million annually in product discounts and donations, while it offers a minimum of 50% off all Business and above plans to nonprofits. You can find out more here. 

Below, we explore more around how cloud storage can help you boost productivity and ensure your charity’s time is spent on what matters: the communities they serve.  

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Making the most of AI 

Much has already been said about the potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise the way we work. But while much of that conversation centres around what it can do in the future, there are aspects of AI that are available now.  

One example is AI’s ability to speed read. Box identifies three main barriers to efficient content analysis: document length, job function knowledge, and gaps in situational knowledge. While manually scanning lengthy documents is time-consuming and error-prone, lack of job function and situational knowledge can mean that some charity employees or volunteers lack the information they need to make decisions.  

With Box AI, charities can remove these barriers, using it to analyse content within documents, extracting insights and detecting patterns within them. For example, it can summarise survey responses to uncover sentiment and identify areas where the charity can improve.  
 

Furthermore, Box Hubs allows AI technology to work across multiple documents collated in a single portal. Charities can use this to compare information and identify areas of crossover between different teams, giving them the wider context needed to get the answers they need. 

Finally, for charities that are hesitant to adopt brand new AI tools, it may also be helpful to work with AI that is built into pre-existing platforms, with the confidence that they are operating securely with their data. Box AI does not use user data to train its AI models without written consent, but charities can discover more precisely how the technology can support their mission. 

Prioritising security 

Charities often deal with sensitive subject matter and are home to lots of sensitive information. Meeting notes, funding information, and various types of form can all be housed within our cloud storage – and often are, in this increasingly digital and hybrid-working world, to ensure everything is in one easily accessible place. 

But this ease of access should not apply to cyber criminals. Charities are particularly vulnerable to cyber threats due to the funds and data they house and limited resources available to them to protect it. Charities must be confident in the security of their storage, particularly when working remotely.  

Cloud storage can offer the answer. Charities should research the security credentials of the providers they use and make the most of their in-built tools, such as access controls. Access controls, one of the five core measures to prevent cyber attacks according to the Cyber Essentials certification scheme, allows charities to define the level of access each user has to certain documents, limiting it to people who need it for their roles. These access levels can be reviewed at any time but by putting them in place, charities minimise the vulnerabilities through which cyber criminals can gain access.  

Similarly, charities may be receiving forms from service users or volunteers containing personal data. Emails are not always the safest way to receive these forms, depending on the level of encryption of your email provider. The impact of a cyber breach may also not be felt immediately - if emails are not cleaned regularly, such forms could be at risk for years sitting in email inboxes when a hacker gains access.  

Your cloud storage provider offers an alternative, secure way to receive documents. Charities using Box, for example, can share a File Request to give people a URL to a folder where they can drag and drop their files. It’s quick, simple, easy to find, and most importantly, secure.  

Keeping teams connected 

One of the core benefits of any cloud storage solution is its flexibility. It allows teams to collaborate and share information across different locations, at any time.  

This is where Box Hubs comes in again – content from different teams can be organised in portals where users can search for answers across all of them. Integration with tools charities are already using, such as Salesforce and Microsoft Office, means that collating the right information is seamless – a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about your charity and how to drive it forward.  

 
This can make grant funding easier, for example, providing teams with the details they need from different teams across the organisation to appeal to grant funds and meet their criteria. You can also integrate your cloud storage with your CRM platform to store donor information and use AI to find trends in their supporter behaviour.  

In essence, it’s about being able to find information as and when you need it. Humanitarian charity charity:water is another organisation that has to co-ordinate its work across hundreds of partners. Loading information into a system was easy but finding it later could be a different story.  

“The user experience had to be excellent. We wanted something staff would want to use while also providing multiple levels of access permissions and folder controls for collaborating with partners,” explained Ian Cook, Head of IT at charity:water. 

“Our partners are the eyes, ears and hands implementing and building on the ground. Having them use the same tool has made our work so much easier,” Cook added.