The following is a guest article by Nisha Kadaba, Director, Global Impact at PagerDuty
AI is transforming business operations across industries, yet nearly half of nonprofits struggle to adopt new technologies. The reason is straightforward: most of their funding and resources must go directly to serving their communities, leaving little for technological advancement. Technology companies are uniquely positioned to bridge this gap. Beyond traditional funding, they offer specialised expertise, scalable platforms, and innovative solutions that can amplify nonprofit impact in ways that standard grants cannot.
“Tech-for-good” represents a strategic shift in how technology companies approach social responsibility. Rather than simply writing checks, this movement combines financial support with direct access to cutting-edge tools and expertise, and when combined these resources can help address key problems mission-driven organizations face. For healthcare nonprofits specifically, this means gaining access to AI tools and advanced technologies that can streamline operations, improve communication, and enhance community service delivery.
This approach strategically deploys core technological capabilities to address urgent social challenges. Rather than adopting AI for its own sake, successful implementation requires a problem-first methodology—identifying specific, well-defined issues before selecting the appropriate technological solution. For healthcare providers, the stakes are particularly high as better technology can reduce response times and potentially save lives. The most effective tech-for-good initiatives leverage a company’s strongest assets: their technology, expertise, funding, and industry influence. This comprehensive approach, which we might call “technology-driven transformation,” creates sustainable value that extends far beyond traditional charitable giving.
In this article, I’ll explore how PagerDuty applies this framework to support healthcare nonprofits and why tech transformation programs represent advancements in corporate social responsibility.
How Healthcare Nonprofits Can Leverage Tech for Good
Organizations want to give back and employees want to work for employers that make a difference. According to a recent survey, 81% of employees state that it’s important to work for a company that integrates corporate giving into its business practices. Success isn’t just measured in dollars donated or volunteer hours – it’s about concrete outcomes like reduced response times in emergency healthcare settings or increased operational efficiency.
In healthcare settings, every minute counts. Success is measured in life impact. For example, Trek Medics International uses AI to support rapid emergency response coordination globally with the Beacon crisis response software, allowing first responders to alert, coordinate and track emergency response networks. Whether it’s operating a suicide hotline, delivering disaster relief, facilitating time-critical healthcare delivery, or monitoring safe water levels, reliability, efficiency, and availability are essential.
Another example is in India, where the healthcare landscape has seen remarkable advancements, with a growing emphasis on enhancing delivery and outcomes. While most of the attention in India has historically been on urban healthcare, most of India’s population resides in rural and rural-urban areas. Telemedicine has emerged as a transformative solution. Intelehealth has facilitated 3 million consultations this year, marking a significant milestone in bridging healthcare gaps and extending vital services to underserved populations.
Tech for Good Programs + Healthcare Nonprofits for the Win
By partnering with a like-minded technology organization, nonprofits can keep up with the fast pace of the tech industry like their for-profit counterparts. Some key considerations include:
- Alignment: Focus on areas where the technology partners’ capabilities can make the biggest difference— this alignment between capability and need creates optimized impact. Nonprofits often possess valuable data that remains isolated within organizational silos, limiting their strategic application. The most impactful AI solutions will break down these barriers and integrate data with human expertise to facilitate critical decisions that can fundamentally improve lives and outcomes.
- Multidimensional Value: Full-spectrum support combining software, technical volunteers, advocacy support, and unrestricted funding has the biggest effect. This comprehensive approach helps organizations transform their operations and scale their impact.
- Empowerment: By providing unrestricted funding and trusting local leaders to make decisions, nonprofits innovate and achieve outcomes that rigid grant requirements might have prevented. One partner used this flexibility to quickly pivot their healthcare delivery model during the pandemic.
- Community Impact Metrics: Behind every organization supported is a story of transformation, but it’s not without risks. AI development moves faster than traditional nonprofit grant cycles and decision-making processes. Organizations can embrace rapid experimentation and collaborate with their funders —piloting solutions, learning quickly, reporting outcomes and best practices, and accepting occasional failures as necessary steps toward meaningful innovation.
Impact isn’t just about immediate results – it’s about sustainable transformation. Organizations report that technology and support have fundamentally changed how they operate, creating lasting improvements in their ability to serve communities. For example, SIRUM connects people with surplus medicine. They help hospitals, pharmacies, and nursing homes donate their unused, unexpired medicine and get it to where it’s needed most.
For medicine donors, the program works like recycling. Using custom technology, they divert the unexpired, life-saving medicine from being dumped, flushed, or burnt and get it to people in need by automating a courier pick-up and logistics. For patients, the program provides life-saving medicine that they otherwise couldn’t access for free or at a low cost. As the nation’s largest redistributor of surplus medicine, SIRUM has redistributed $300M+ of medicine to more than 500,000 patients.
Ultimately, tech for good programs drive mission impact through nonprofit digital transformation. When technology companies offer nonprofit pricing, global reach, and AI technology to resource-constrained nonprofits, these healthcare organizations deliver critical services when people need them most.
About Nisha Kadaba
Operating at the intersection of technology and social change, Nisha Kadaba has spent over 15 years architecting transformative solutions across nonprofit, social enterprise, and corporate sectors. As Director of Global Impact at PagerDuty, she leads initiatives that fuse business excellence with social purpose and mobilizes critical resources to amplify the impact of mission-driven organizations worldwide.
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