Now let's hear from
the world's leading
humanitarian organization
that's harnessing
the power of digital
transformation to deliver
smarter, faster, and
more effective aid.
I'm Monica Bowie,
joined by Claudio Silva,
Chief Operations Officer
and Chief Financial
Officer, and Alfred
Archibong, Director of
Systems and Analytics
at World Food Program
USA. Welcome both to
Dreamforce. Thank you.
Thank you for being
here. So let's dive right
in. I first wanted
to start with who is
the World Food Program
and tell us a little
bit about the work you
guys do. Yeah. Well,
thanks so much for
having us. The World Food
Program USA is a
Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofit, and our mission
is to build awareness
and support for the
United Nations World Food
Program to create a
world without hunger.
The World Food
Program is the world's
leading humanitarian
organization providing
life-saving food
assistance for this
year. We hope to reach
123 million people
in 120 countries.
And that's in places
like Gaza, Sudan,
and Ukraine that are
facing conflict, but
also in places that
are impacted by
climate shocks, like in
Central America and
in Eastern Africa.
And so we're really
thankful for the support
of the American
public that helps to
step in and make this
happen. Wow. You guys
are doing important
work. Thank you for
doing that. So
fundraising, as we know, is
back at the top of the
list of some of the
challenges for nonprofits
in 2025, and this
is overtaking workload
issues for the first
time in four years.
So, Claudia, is this
in line with some of
your organization's
biggest problems? And
tell us about that.
With governments
and corporations
pulling back on their
humanitarian aid,
it's up to the private
sector to really
step up. And the gap
is staggering. We're
talking about hundreds
of millions of
dollars, at least
over the coming years.
But we also see an
opportunity for changing
the way we do what we
do, to reach people
with scale and more
personalized messaging.
And that's why we're
here, is to talk
about what we're doing
with data and AI.
And we think that
these initiatives will
drive more online
donations, will convert
more people to monthly
sustaining donors,
and will help us deepen
our messaging and
make impactful messaging
for major donors
and others. I know.
I really hope that
helps you all, too.
So, Alfred, that turns
me to you, which you
are helping to make
some of these changes
in the organization.
And tell us a little
bit about what those
changes are and why
they're important.
Yeah, absolutely.
We knew very
quickly that we had to
pivot to harnessing,
you know, the
power of technology
to drive our
business forward.
There are some
limitations, gaps,
challenges, some
of which include
limited visibility
into data trends.
shifting preferences
from our audiences,
having deeper
insights into donor
behavior, what
motivates them to give.
You know, addressing
challenges
with, you know, measuring
impact across
the organization.
And we knew very quickly
that we needed to
do something different.
We implemented Salesforce
Data Cloud, leveraging
the zero copy
integration with external
systems that allows
us to be able to fetch
into Salesforce on
structured data for
how we work day to day.
Wow, that's important. And
we know AI capabilities
are helping a ton
with that. So we know
that AI transformation
is going to play a
big part in this. So
just from both of you,
tell us a little
bit about how you're
incorporating AI into your
day-to-day operations.
Well, for us, first
was unifying our data.
We have great and vast
amounts of data, but
they're in different
applications. So it's
centralizing that data,
cleaning the data to
make it available for
AI, with the goal of
allowing our staff and
our people to be able to
query, transform the
data using natural
language to be able to
drive and deliver the
impact that Alfred was
talking about. And the
second piece is on
governance and controls
and building the system
to be safe, secure,
trustworthy, because
if stakeholders don't
trust it, they're not
going to use it. That's
a great point. Yeah,
what about you, Alfred?
it's 100% correct.
We need to do more
with the resources
that we have
because we understand
that we can drive
efficiency from how
we work. We have
currently deployed
a research agent,
a prospect research
agent that helps the team
to bring to the surface
and also organize
information that we
already collect. First
party, zero party
information, how our donors
give, what programs
they are interested in,
how they would like
to be reached. So once
we can have these AI
systems help us to
achieve this, it allows
the smaller teams to
focus on deeper
relationships and, you know,
build, be able to target
audiences at scale.
Yeah, I love that.
Being more efficient
right now is huge.
So the research
agent, I hope everyone
is learning how
they can also apply
that. So give us
some advice that you
can leave with our
audience today on
just building momentum
in a time like this
for nonprofits.
I would say that
AI transformation
is a journey and
there's going to
be an entry point
for everyone or
every organization
for that matter.
And so it's it's
worth, you know,
evaluating or checking
what your risk
tolerance is and be
able to start. Don't
wait because it's
moving so fast.
Start small and build
trust. I think that's
a big piece. Yeah.
Start small, build
trust, but get started.
it. Yeah, that's
right. I love that.
Thank you both for being
here and super excited
to have you join
us. Thank you, Alfred
and Claudio. And for
your insights and for
watching, everyone,
please make sure
to read the latest
Nonprofit Trends
report or scan the QR
code on your screen
by going to sforce
.co forward slash
Nonprofit Trends.
