New and Now: Intelligent Impact

Main Takeaways:

• Pain: CSR teams are managing growing expectations across programs, regions, and data, often without added capacity.
• Innovation: AI introduces a new way to work by cutting down manual effort, strengthening insight generation, and making engagement more relevant for employees.
• Solution Delivery: With YourCause, responsible AI is built directly into giving, volunteering, grants, and reporting workflows, so CSR teams can drive more effective programs while maintaining oversight.

The Big Picture

CSR teams are being asked to do more, across more regions, for more stakeholders, and with more data, often without additional headcounts. We see this reality our customers face, and that’s why we’re on a mission to transform corporate purpose into global impact by connecting employees, nonprofits, and data using intelligent technology and responsible AI.

At YourCause, our approach to AI is simple: reduce admin burden, strengthen decision-making, and spark deeper employee engagement, without sacrificing governance and human oversight. In our recent Product Update Briefings, we shared how AI innovation is showing up across CSRconnect, GrantsConnect, and Impact Edge to help teams move from set-up and reporting to participation and impact. You can watch the full briefings on-demand here.

Below is a snapshot of our AI innovation, including what’s available today, and what we’re actively building next, to help you move faster, engage employees more meaningfully, and turn impact data into action.

What’s New: AI Features Available Today

1. Global engagement, with AI-powered translation

• Solution translations (CSRconnect, GrantsConnect): Instantly translate platform text into 26+ languages to support global participation.
• Custom content translations (CSRconnect): Translate your own program content directly in-platform so employees can engage in their preferred language.
• Applicant response translations (GrantsConnect): Translate applicant form responses so reviewers can evaluate submissions faster and more consistently across regions.

2. Grantmaking operations, made simpler

• Form intelligence (GrantsConnect): AI-powered grammar and clarity suggestions help grant managers build polished applications and collect more consistent information from applicants.

3. Conversational analytics for faster reporting

• Blackbaud AI (Impact Edge): An add-on to our reporting suite that lets you ask questions in plain language, generate analysis, and create exportable charts and graphs—so impact reporting is faster and easier to share.

What’s Next: AI Innovation in Progress

CSRconnect: Personalized, Proactive Engagement

• AI-powered charity search: Explore organizations based on the outcomes you want to drive, not just keywords, with smarter recommendations to help employees find more relevant causes.
• Offline matching review: When an issue is detected with receipts for offline matching, the user is alerted and prompted to fix it before submitting – but not prevented from submitting – so problems get resolved at the root cause, making it easier for admins downstream.
• AI-assisted event & content creation: Draft engagement elements and volunteer event content more quickly, helping admins launch campaigns faster and respond to moments that matter.

GrantsConnect: Faster, Smarter Reviews

• Application summaries: Surface key details across submissions—like objectives, funding requests, and alignment—so reviewers can get to the “so what” faster.
• Application scoring & recommendations: Evaluate submissions against your criteria to help prioritize review queues and identify high-potential opportunities.
• Agentic capabilities: We are exploring how we go beyond generative AI in GrantsConnect, moving us from insights into action while keeping decision-making firmly in human hands.

Impact Edge: Deeper Insights, Less Effort

• Expanded Blackbaud AI capabilities: We’re continuing to evolve Blackbaud AI to support more nuanced questions and more types of data, so you can move from reporting to insight with less effort.

1. Better support for complex, natural-language questions.
2. More insight from narrative and unstructured text (like event descriptions).
3. Added help for nonprofit context and data interpretation—so teams can act with more confidence.

• Role-Based Permissions: Control who can access AI features and dashboards, reinforcing governance and security.

Why It Matters

• Less manual work: Spend less time translating, polishing forms, and building reports.
• Clearer decisions: Use summaries, recommendations, and conversational analytics to move from data to direction faster.
• More capacity for strategy: Free up time to focus on program design, partnerships, and employee engagement instead of busywork.
• Built for global teams: Support participation and review workflows across languages and regions, without creating separate processes.
• Deeper engagement: Spark passion from your employees with recommendations and the ability to search with impact in mind.