Roundup for charity on the rise & Slack AI Policy Fail (news)

Would you like to round-up for charity?

Point-of-sale donations, especially "round-up" campaigns, have seen a significant surge in recent years, raising millions of dollars for various charitable causes. In 2022, these campaigns brought in $749 million, a 24% increase from 2020. A recent survey conducted by Binghamton University faculty revealed that 53% of Americans give impulsively to charities at the checkout, with certain demographics being more likely to donate. Women, Black respondents, and middle-class individuals under 50 who have not attended college were found to be the top-giving demographics, contrasting with traditional donors who are usually older, higher-earning college graduates.

The success of round-up donations can be attributed to several factors, including the perceived lower "pain" of donating spare change, the human preference for round numbers, and the subtle guilt induced by declining a low-cost request. Taco Bell Foundation, for example, doubled its annual fundraising by switching from asking for $1 donations to a round-up strategy. Similarly, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raised $138 million in 2022 through point-of-sale campaigns, accounting for a third of its total fundraising.

However, the ubiquity of these requests may lead to donor fatigue, and some consumers express concerns about the transparency of where their donations are going. Despite these potential drawbacks, the success of round-up campaigns is undeniable, and they have become a significant source of funding for many nonprofits, raising the profile of local organizations doing fantastic work in customers' own communities.

Melinda French Gates says she's donating $1B to women's rights | NBC News

Melinda French Gates is committing $1 billion over the next two years to support women's rights, including reproductive rights, through her organization Pivotal Ventures. This decision comes amid growing political violence against women and maternal health issues, with Gates highlighting that only a small fraction of charitable giving supports women-focused organizations. Her initiative aims to improve mental and physical health for women and girls and includes a $250 million grant for grassroots groups. How might this significant funding shift the landscape for women's rights globally?

Slack users horrified to discover messages used for AI training | Ars Technica

Slack users were shocked to find out their messages were being used to train AI models, sparking a backlash that has the company scrambling to clarify its policies. Despite reassurances from Slack engineers that customer data isn't used for training large language models, the existing policy's ambiguity has left users uneasy. Salesforce, Slack’s parent company, promised to update privacy principles to better explain data usage, but the lack of an easy opt-out mechanism adds to users' frustrations.

Current Policy: Privacy principles: search, learning and artificial intelligence | Legal | Slack

Updated AI statement:  How Slack protects your data when using machine learning and AI

How to opt-out
Contact slack to opt out. If you want to exclude your Customer Data from Slack global models, you can opt out. To opt out, please have your org, workspace owners or primary owner contact our Customer Experience team at feedback@slack.com with your workspace/org URL and the subject line ‘Slack gl