How Good Things Australia uses Agentforce in mission to close digital divide.

Good Things Australia is a national charity that works to ensure no one is left behind in the digital world. It carries out its purpose by providing grants, training, resources, and support that enable community organisations across Australia to run digital inclusion programs.

Empower team and partner network to increase digital inclusion.

Good Things Australia has a vision where everyone benefits from digital. However, in Australia, one in four people is digitally excluded, which means they don’t have the skills, confidence, or access to affordable technology needed to participate in today’s society. The organisation has built a network of over 4,000 community partners to deliver digital inclusion programs to those in need. These include libraries, community centres, disability advocates, refugee organisations, and member organisations like the Country Women’s Association.

As Good Things Australia matured and built out its technology stack, it sought a solution to make it easier for partners to access information and support. It also wanted to empower its team to effectively support partners and manage the planning, distribution, and reporting of grants.

Nonprofit Cloud helps Good Things Australia fund, deliver, and measure impact.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud provides a unified platform to help Good Things Australia’s team of 20 efficiently support 4,000 community partners. The solution includes Nonprofit Cloud’s grantmaking software which has streamlined the grant lifecycle, from planning to reporting.

Partners now have access to a portal on Experience Cloud where they can manage and report on all their activities. They can also access learning content and administrative information, such as when their grant acquittal or final report is due. This is already making a difference within the organisation, reducing the number of helpline calls and freeing up the Good Things team to focus on more complex support queries and strategic tasks.

“In any given year, we have up to 1,500 organisations using our grants, which is a lot for us to keep up with. Having Nonprofit Cloud has made it easier for us to see how they are tracking against their goals and provide them with a central place to access information and support,” said Jess Wilson, Chief Executive Officer.

Agentforce provides always-on support to community partners.

Good Things Australia’s partners are largely volunteers or community workers who are balancing many responsibilities in addition to delivering digital inclusion programs. So when partners have a question like how to apply for a grant or better manage their existing one, the organisation wants to provide a response right away. Agentforce enables this immediate, always-on support via an AI agent named “Grant”.

The agent sits on Experience Cloud where partners can log in and ask general questions as well as questions specific to their grant. The agent uses Retrieval Augmented Generation to search across grant information and knowledge articles and deliver fast, accurate responses.

This not only increases the efficiency of support but also means that volunteers working outside of business hours can get their questions answered promptly. If they need more information or would prefer to speak with a team member, the agent can raise a case, and someone from the organisation can reach out as soon as possible. Community organisations are reporting that the agent is already saving them time. “I used to try to get a few minutes in the day to call Good Things about where my grant was up to, but now I just get the information I need directly through the portal,” says one community partner. “This means I have more time between sessions to chat with the people I’m helping to learn digital skills.”

“One of the benefits of Agentforce is that it is integrated with the Einstein Trust Layer of Salesforce and the secure space where our data is already stored. So we can experiment with agentic AI in a safe and trusted environment, supported by Data Colada, which has been a fantastic implementation partner given the team’s experience working with nonprofits and their understanding of our challenges,” said Wilson.

Applying the benefits of AI to digital inclusion.

Good Things Australia sees significant potential to enhance digital inclusion through the use of AI. These opportunities range from simple applications, such as helping candidates generate resumes, to more advanced applications like speech-to-text, which can enable individuals with certain disabilities to participate more fully in the workforce.

So, while being mindful of biases and ethical considerations, Good Things Australia is excited to embrace AI within its own organisation and facilitate discussions on how the technology can be developed and applied to serve the needs of diverse communities. The organisation is also focused on ensuring that those most likely to be digitally excluded are a part of these discussions from the start. This includes Good Things’ Digital Champions. These ten individuals with intellectual disability have been employed by the organisation to share their stories and teach others to help people with intellectual disability to be safe and confident online.

“We see incredible opportunities for AI to promote digital inclusion, which is why it is important for organisations like ours to have the opportunity and funding to start using it ourselves and apply our learnings and insights to benefit the community,” said Wilson.

Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud provides Good Things Australia with a unified platform to support its purpose of improving digital inclusion. Together with Experience Cloud, Nonprofit Cloud streamlines collaboration with partners and centralises the resources and information they need to deliver community programs. Nonprofit Cloud’s grantmaking software provides a unified view of all funding programs, helping the organisation better track outcomes against goals.

Agentforce enables Good Things Australia to provide always-on support to its partners, including quick responses to questions about their specific grants. Automating responses to these questions also frees up the organisation’s team to focus on activities that help partners make a greater impact.