Giving Tuesday: Customer service technology helps nonprofits and others to amplify impact this holiday season

After the shopping frenzy of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday turns our focus from purchasing to philanthropy. Behind every donation button and volunteer sign-up form is growing momentum for non-profits and government agencies to continue serving people in need and broaden their reach.

Imagine a food bank manager navigating through a maze of spreadsheets to coordinate thousands of holiday meal deliveries or a social worker using an outdated phone system to manage urgent housing assistance requests. These everyday challenges often hinder the momentum of goodwill, highlighting the critical need for modern technology to assist in providing service.

What if the same cutting-edge customer service technology that has revolutionized the retail sector during this bustling holiday season could also innovate how organizations address community needs?

In celebration of Giving Tuesday, we shine a spotlight on trailblazing organizations leveraging AI platforms to bridge the gap between their mission-driven work and superior customer service. By integrating unified workflows, empowering agents, and centralizing critical knowledge, these innovative nonprofits are making a significant impact and reaching more individuals in need.

United Way of Connecticut builds award-winning contact center

United Way of Connecticut leads operations for the state’s 211 contact center, 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline Center and Care4Kids program, which connects people to affordable childcare options.

In 2022, the launch of the federal suicide crisis phone number 988 gave United Way of Connecticut a new mission. 211 previously offered a suicide hotline and would need to again scale up to meet the needs of 988. United Way CEO Lisa Tepper Bates estimated the team increased by two-thirds just weeks to meet the increase in call demand.

Thanks to its new AI-powered platform, United Way of Connecticut won a crisis hotline award in 2022.

United Way of Connecticut is now looking at how to align with healthcare entities more tightly in every corner of the state. With a lack of access to basic support needs driving up healthcare costs, 211 can help streamline expenses by providing connections to government, non-profit, utility and other assistance that can keep people healthy. Its AI customer service solution can build and strengthen critical relationships with hospitals in the state, enabling them to join forces to eliminate barriers to access.

“Our agents provide huge value by asking questions beyond what the caller initially asked about, connecting people to helpful resources they might not have known to ask for,” Tepper Bates said. “This is how they uncover the true needs of the caller, and we see the potential for AI to support them in asking the right questions at the right time.”

Read the United Way of Connecticut case study. For Giving Tuesday, visit the website for details on how the United Way of Connecticut is connecting people with the support they need to secure housing, cover home heating costs and feed their families.

Alzheimer’s Society delivers crucial services

Alzheimer’s Society, which is based in the United Kingdom, assists people affected by dementia, providing help and hope to both caregivers and those living with the condition. As dementia affects so many UK citizens (one in three will be touched by the condition), the Alzheimer’s Society realized that the limitations of its previous contact center solution were more than irritations—they were actively interfering with the organization’s mission.

Alzheimer’s Society needed to leverage state-of-the-art customer service technology to solve its most pressing challenge: benefit those living with dementia and to assist its support and fundraising teams by creating the best possible work environment for difficult but necessary tasks.

The solution design and rollout resulted in strong and immediate user acceptance, enabling higher daily call volume handling without compromising its service-first principles and creating headroom for further growth. Post-call work and overall workflows are streamlined, reducing the amount of time agents spend on administrative tasks. Unifying support and fundraising teams on the same platform also gives the Society more consistency in operations and insight.

With sentiment analysis that quickly identifies highly vulnerable callers in need, it has achieved priority routing. Sentiment analysis is also now used in email and digital communications, unearthing more opportunities for donor growth. Improved PCI-compliant payment capture means that more potential donors can quickly and easily commit to their contribution, supporting the Society’s overall mission.

With a globally-proven platform solution, the Society believes it is well-positioned to meet future challenges. “By harnessing the right technology for our needs, taking on expert advice, as well as input from people living with dementia, we expect to be able to reach more people than before, offering a more bespoke and exceptional experience for our supporters and service users alike,” Hogan said.

Read the Alzheimer’s Society case study for more information. In honor of Giving Tuesday, see how donations to the Alzheimer’s Society have helped people during their most challenging times.

211 LA boosts agent capacity

Available around the clock, 211 LA serves as a constant beacon of support in Los Angeles County, California.

While 211 LA found hybrid work options contributed to improved agent satisfaction and retention, its operations were saddled by third-party solutions that strained system management and cost of ownership.

A new unified AI-driven customer service platform established the digital foundation for 211 LA to refer to and track underserved citizens across a network of mental and physical healthcare providers, emergency shelters, U.S. veteran services, food resources and hate crime-response organizations. The solution’s text/SMS features relieve 211 LA’s voice traffic with the automated distribution of news and updates, delivered to citizens based on opt-in criteria. And sophisticated journey orchestration and routing features help reduce redundant data input, giving community resource advisors (CRAs) more time to build relationships with their underserved clients.

When hurricane season strikes in North Carolina, for example, 211 LA is on point to connect North Carolinians with community-based services from the safety of California.

To fulfill 211 LA’s mission to make essential services accessible to all—especially in times of crisis response—it needed a solution that could guarantee near-perfect uptime and the ability to flex with demand.

And most importantly, it needed all that functionality to be deployed with imperceptible interruptions to its around-the-clock service.

211 LA is digitally preparing for the future, with plans to equip CRAs with AI-powered agent recommendations based on real-time transcripts and historical user interactions, taking one more step toward automating routine tasks to unleash human connection. “Each second a CRA spends manually searching is a second less spent building an authentic relationship with our clients,” said Latzer.

See the 211 LA case study to learn more. For Giving Tuesday, discover more about the myriad resources provided by 211 LA.

Goodwill Industries of San Antonio gains agility, flexibility and functionality

To expand its contact center services to new commercial clients, Goodwill Industries of San Antonio Business Services knew it needed to move to the latest technology. With three contact centers located in San Antonio, Texas, its 200 agents handle 2.2 million interactions annually.

The organization’s move to a unified AI-powered platform has provided agility, flexibility and functionality that have led to opportunities for new business and for more jobs for those who rely most on Goodwill.

Added omnichannel capabilities give the community the ability to offer more communication choices. “Incorporating additional channels, such as chat, email and social media, is a value-add service for our clients and a strong differentiator for us,” said Joshua Gomez, vice president, business services, Goodwill Industries of San Antonio.

Goodwill Industries of San Antonio now has a contact center solution that’s easy for all its employees to use and offers more accurate forecasting to propel productivity and drive efficiency gains. “We reduced a client’s workforce requirements from 40 agents to 29,” he said. “And we’re still satisfying our service level agreements.”

Improved workforce management is particularly critical for scheduling staff to satisfy service level targets and helped reduce after-call work time that had skyrocketed under its old system.

Read the Goodwill Industries of San Antonio case study for additional details. For Giving Tuesday, visit the Goodwill Industries of San Antonio website to discover stories of its transformative impact.

NiCE team leads holiday drive for children in Zambia village

The spirit of giving back is contagious at NiCE for Giving Tuesday. After recently visiting Chief Mukuni’s Village in Zambia, Africa, Chris Irwin-Dudek of NiCE was inspired to lead a drive for instruments and bicycles.

On LinkedIn, he urged his connections to find generosity to come together to make a difference in the lives of young people in the village that’s home to 7,000 Leya people.

“After visiting Zambia there is a lot of need that comes with no ask and a boat load of humbleness. This list includes items that will improve their lives and delight some children, including bicycles and instruments if you can support,” said Irwin-Dudek, NiCE vice president, marketing communications.

For more details, see the list of items being sent to the children of Zambia.