In 2022, Seer Founder and VP of Innovation, Wil Reynolds, set a lofty goal: Seer will give $15 million back to the community by 2032. I joined the team in April 2022, and since then, I’ve been proud of the program we’ve built. Our team volunteers regularly, we make financial contributions to nonprofit organizations, and we even provide pro bono digital marketing services to nonprofits that wouldn’t be able to afford Seer’s services. It seems like we’re doing great, doesn’t it? But, when I started crunching the numbers, I quickly realized that we had a lot of ground to cover.
The Plan for 2024 Didn’t Really Work
At the end of 2023, we were only 10% of the way to our goal. In my 2023 Community Impact Report and blog post (Note: If you aren’t sure how we monetize and categorize our giving, definitely check out that 2023 Report!), I identified that scaling our pro bono work was the way forward. Pro bono work has a high monetary value, as we donate high-quality services that are scoped just as we would for paying clients. Therefore, it made sense to ramp up these efforts. I dreamed of offering pro bono services in every department. Surely, we would make up the gap in no time!
It turns out, that didn’t really work. Our 2024 started off strong, with lots of sales, and our team was busy! Of course, this is a good thing—Seer is a for-profit company, and we need to generate revenue. Without that profit, we can’t live into our values of supporting the community. However, it also meant that we didn’t have the capacity to take on pro bono clients. In 2022 and 2023, thanks to sales volume and headcount, we had more capacity to keep pro bono projects rotating regularly through the divisions. But in 2024 Q1, we completed zero pro bono projects, and consequently, made no real progress toward closing that giving gap.
Back to the Drawing Board
So, how do we solve this? Over the summer, I mapped out some financial projections to see how we could reach the $15 million goal, and the data was clear: it’s unlikely that we’ll grow our volunteer hours or financial contributions exponentially over the next eight years. And while pro bono work is definitely the fastest vehicle to get us to our goal, 2024 Q1 proved that we can’t (and don’t want to) rely solely on that.
Instead, we need to create a line item that I’m calling “passive giving.” We need something that’s a lighter lift for our team but has a high impact. My initial vision was to develop coursework on digital marketing that could be used by underrepresented youth looking to break into the tech industry or by a jack-of-all-trades marketer at a small nonprofit. However, with the advent of AI, my ideas are changing. I now envision content, created by Seer team members on the cutting edge of AI, being made available to nonprofit partners at an extremely discounted rate. Each discount would contribute toward that $15 million goal.
Imagine if Seer could help train nonprofits to use AI to improve workflows, create graphics and content, or think through old problems in new ways. Anyone who’s spent time working for a nonprofit, myself included, knows that time, resources, personnel, and money are often in short supply. This could be one way to help solve that problem.
So, what do you think? Are you a nonprofit who would benefit from AI trainings? What would you want to learn more about? Fill out this form to help us brainstorm and stay updated on this project!
