GoodDeeds

GoodDeeds addresses a critical inefficiency in the non-profit sector: the ineffective deployment of resources. Despite their noble intentions, many NGOs struggle to optimize the management of their donations, leading to misallocated funds and reduced impact.

Globally, there are an estimated 10 million NGOs, receiving hundreds of billions of dollars annually. However, it is estimated that up to 30% of this funding is wasted due to inefficient practices. This is a loss of tens of billions of dollars annually, funds that could otherwise be used to drive meaningful change.

The problem is particularly acute in small and medium-sized NGOs that lack the resources to hire additional staff or external advisors. These NGOs, which constitute the majority of the sector, often struggle to design and execute high-impact projects due to a lack of expertise and resources.

NGOs play a vital role in societal development, especially in underserved communities. They often bridge the gap between governmental action and community needs, advocating for the marginalized and promoting civic engagement. However, they face significant challenges in securing appropriate funding and optimizing its use.

Given the scale of the philanthropic sector, which is estimated to be around $410 billion in the U.S. alone and much larger globally, this problem affects countless organizations and, by extension, the communities they serve. It is also amplified in underserved communities, where NGOs are the primary catalysts for civic engagement and community improvement.

Moreover, there is a global issue of civic disconnection, where many individuals, especially the youth, feel detached from societal and political processes. This disconnection is more pronounced in the disadvantaged communities that NGOs commonly serve. By enhancing the effectiveness of NGOs, we believe we can also address this issue, enabling these organizations to better engage their communities, promote civic action, and foster a more active global citizenry.

We believe that technology, specifically AI, can provide a solution to this problem. By developing an AI platform that assists NGOs in accessing relevant capital and deploying it more effectively, we can help to boost the productivity of NGO teams, increase philanthropic ROI, and reduce the billions in wasted donations, thereby magnifying the positive impact on communities served by these organizations.

The implications of this work are far-reaching. Every dollar saved through more efficient practices is a dollar that can be reinvested in communities, improving lives and driving social change. In an era of increasing societal challenges, the need for such efficiency has never been greater.

GoodDeeds is developing an AI platform designed to optimize the operations of NGOs and maximize their social impact. The platform harnesses the power of AI to help NGOs access and deploy capital more effectively, ultimately enhancing their performance and increasing their impact.

Our solution works in two key ways:

1. Organizational Context Creation: We use AI to create and maintain an updated organizational context, drawing upon publicly available data as well as information provided by the NGOs themselves. This context includes information about the NGO's mission, goals, resources, and past projects, as well as the broader landscape in which they operate.

2. ImpactCopilot: This is a suite of AI-powered virtual consultants tailored to the specific role and tasks of each NGO team member. By interacting with ImpactCopilot, NGO employees can gain insights into how to perform their roles more effectively, boosting their productivity and enhancing the impact of their work.

By combining these two features, GoodDeeds provides NGOs with the tools and insights they need to design and implement high-impact projects, thereby increasing the return on investment for donors and magnifying the positive impact on the communities these NGOs serve.

Our technology leverages recent AI advancements to analyze data, generate insights, and provide actionable recommendations. We also use natural language processing to facilitate seamless communication between our AI platform and NGO team members.

Furthermore, by improving the effectiveness and reach of NGOs, our solution indirectly fosters civic action. NGOs, being deeply embedded within their communities, are instrumental in promoting civic participation. By bolstering their capacity, we aim to help them engage more effectively with the community members, thereby encouraging civic learning and action.

Our long-term vision is to empower everyone to expand and fulfill their goodness potential, and we believe our AI platform is a crucial step towards achieving this goal.

Demo link: https://copilot.gooddeeds.ai

Our solution primarily serves NGOs and civic organizations, particularly those focused on addressing community issues and fostering civic engagement. These organizations often struggle with resource allocation, project implementation, and tracking their impact. Moreover, they often lack the capacity to fully engage and educate their community members, particularly youth, on civic actions, social justice, and sustainable practices.

GoodDeeds impacts these organizations and their communities in several key ways:

1. Civic Action Learning: GoodDeeds' AI platform helps NGOs plan and implement projects that directly involve community members, allowing them to learn by doing. These experiential learning opportunities can be a powerful tool for civic education, fostering a greater understanding of social justice, sustainable practices, and collective action.

2. Skills and Knowledge Acquisition: Our Impact Copilot feature supports organizations in teaching key civic skills like assessing the credibility of information, engaging across differences, understanding one’s own agency, and engaging with issues of power, privilege, and injustice. The AI-driven platform can provide resources, suggest strategies, and provide feedback to organizations to help them effectively impart these skills.

3. Social-Emotional Learning: By supporting community-based projects, GoodDeeds indirectly promotes core social-emotional learning skills like self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Participating in a community project can be a transformative experience, fostering personal growth and community bonding.

4. Bridging Knowledge with Action: GoodDeeds' AI platform helps NGOs design and implement projects that translate civic knowledge into concrete action. By providing insights into real-world problems and offering tools for organizing collective action, we help community members bridge the gap between learning and doing.

By supporting NGOs and civic organizations in these ways, GoodDeeds aims to foster a more engaged, educated, and active global citizenry. Our solution leverages technology to amplify the impact of civic organizations, thereby empowering individuals to make a difference in their communities and the world.

Our team at GoodDeeds is uniquely positioned to deliver this solution due to our extensive experience in both the tech sector and social entrepreneurship, coupled with our deep connections to the communities we are serving.

I, Hasan Abo-Shally, have spent the last 15 years balancing work in tech startups and large corporations like Microsoft with a dedication to social entrepreneurship. I've witnessed firsthand the challenges NGOs face, particularly in terms of funding and resource allocation. My experiences led me to establish Hasoub, a grassroots NGO that raised over $10 million to foster tech entrepreneurship within the Arab/Palestinian minority in Israel, aiming to create a diverse and inclusive tech ecosystem.

My co-founder, Nazih Ahmed, is a skilled software engineer and full-stack developer with experience working on big data projects at Google Cloud. His technical expertise combined with a drive for social impact, makes him an invaluable asset to our team.

As a team, we are representative of the communities we aim to serve. We both come from minority backgrounds and have dedicated significant portions of our lives to social initiatives that uplift and empower marginalized communities. We understand the unique challenges these communities face, and this understanding shapes the design and implementation of our solution.

To ensure that our solution is tailored to the needs of the communities we serve, we have adopted a participatory approach in our solution development process. We regularly engage with community members, NGO leaders, and stakeholders to gain insights into their needs, challenges, and ideas. This input guides our solution design and ensures that it is aligned with the community's agenda.

Ultimately, our passion for social impact, technical expertise, and community involvement position us uniquely to deliver a solution that bridges the effectiveness gap between technology and social impact, contributing to improved civic action learning and engagement.

Applying to Solve is an opportunity for us at GoodDeeds to join a global community of innovators, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders. We see Solve as a platform that can help us overcome several key barriers and accelerate our journey towards our goal of optimizing the efficiency and impact of NGOs through technology.

1. Technical Barriers: While we have a robust technical team, the application of generative AI models to civic engagement and education is a complex task. We hope to leverage the technical expertise within the Solve community to refine our AI models, optimize their performance, and ensure they are ethically sound and equitable.

2. Market Barriers: As a social tech startup, we face the challenge of getting our solution to the NGOs and communities that need it most. We believe that Solve can help us connect with potential partners and stakeholders, thereby increasing our solution's reach and impact.

3. Cultural Barriers: Our solution aims to serve diverse communities across the world. Understanding the cultural nuances and unique needs of these communities is crucial to our solution's success. We hope that the global perspective and diversity within the Solve community can provide us with insights and guidance on cultural considerations.

4. Financial Barriers: While our primary goal in applying to Solve is not to raise funds, the financial support provided can help us scale our operations, invest in further research and development, and extend our reach to more NGOs and communities.

Finally, we look forward to learning from the experiences of other Solver teams and sharing our own experiences and insights. We believe that collective learning and collaboration are key to addressing global challenges, and we are excited about the possibility of being part of this vibrant and impactful community.