Stories

Tech Rising, an initiative led by the AvidXchange Foundation in partnership with 20+ local corporations, strives to create Digital Equity in Charlotte through strategic engagement with the Center for Digital Equity,  as well as other local government, academic and nonprofit partnerships.  

The  fourth annual Tech Rising  Summit presented by AvidXchange and Ally Financial on April 23, 2024 at Ally Financial headquarters brought these parties together again to provide a framework to keep all parties involved and moving forward towards making Mecklenburg County the most digitally equitable community in America.

The focus of the Tech Rising Summit this year was on the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Equity.

In an effort to help foster innovative ideas from nonprofit organizations that are helping to create digital equity, the “Tech Idea Incubator” Fund was created as part of the Tech Rising Summit to seed creative and innovative ideas that could eventually become larger initiatives in the future. 

Over the past three years, the Tech Idea Incubator Fund has provided $103K in grants to 21 organizations in the form of $5K  grants to seed creative ideas to foster digital inclusion.

This year we are modifying the grant slightly:

• Increase the funding from $5K grants to larger grant pools of $10K each.
• Preference will be given to seeding ideas that include an element of utilizing  AI to create Digital Equity.

There were three, $10K grants provided  and funded by the following corporate partners: AvidXchange, Ally Financial,  Google Fiber, LendingTree,, Duke Energy, and Honeywell.

These are ideas born from the participation in the Tech Rising Summit and through ongoing work among nonprofits who are focused on creating digital equity in our community.

Below is an overview of the three  grantees who received Tech Idea Incubator funding and their results:
 

Apparo: Apparo amplifies nonprofit impact through technology and process improvement.

• Tech Idea: Create an AI Playbook for Nonprofits. AI education equips individuals with valuable skills in data analysis, machine learning, and programming. Training and education aids systematically marginalized groups in the use of AI tools to make solutions for their needs and improve digital inclusion.
• Results: The release of this playbook occurred in fall of 2024 and accompanied by an online webinar, as well as an in person educational Intro to AI Forum. In collaboration with SHARE Charlotte, Apparo hosted this event on November 13th 2024 where 55 nonprofit leaders were trained (AI for Good Playbook)
• "I thought it was an excellent introduction to AI for me, as a non-user. I appreciated the panel discussion, and I also benefited greatly from the hands-on portion. I learned about various AI platforms, what is out there and available to use or requires a fee. I also appreciated the prompt discussion and exploration of what makes a good one.”  - Heart Math Tutoring
   

Digi-Bridge: Digi-Bridge aspires to create a generation of well-equipped 21st century learners.

• Tech Idea: Originally, we envisioned developing a "Digi-Bin" curriculum tailored for middle school students to introduce them to the fundamentals of AI. However, due to a block from Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, we were unable to proceed with this plan. Instead of abandoning the initiative, we pivoted to designing and hosting three interactive workshops specifically for educators. These workshops provided valuable insights into how AI functions, demonstrated ways educators can leverage AI to streamline their workloads and enhance their teaching methods, and offered guidance on how to introduce AI concepts to students in a meaningful way..
• Results: We were able to engage 29 teachers in meaningful AI training, and many of them expressed enthusiasm about sharing their newfound knowledge with their peers. If we assume that each of these teachers instructs at least 24 students (which is a conservative estimate for this region) and they do not directly inform any other educators, our immediate student impact is around 700.
• To measure the effectiveness of our initiative, we collected both pre-survey and post-survey data from workshop participants. The results were incredibly encouraging—there was a 51% increase in AI knowledge and a 119% increase in the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) among attendees.
   

Do Greater Charlotte: Empowers communities to do greater by facilitating exposure and access to creativity, technology, and entrepreneurship. They provide quality tools, a creative space and a nurturing community so underserved and under-resourced communities can turn their ideas into future opportunities.

• Tech Idea: Do Greater Charlotte collaborated with local professionals to offer a series of workshops to complement our current entrepreneurship and digital creativity programs for high school students focused using AI platforms to assist in content creation.
• Results: We were able to offer workshops to three groups of students (50 total) over the summer exposing them to AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Canva's Magic Studio, and Gamma, to support students in crafting professional marketing materials including presentations, websites, and social media content, without expensive software or extensive technical knowledge.

• Three teams of students presented their work to their clients, all local small businesses in Camp North End. One of the student team's presented their work to their client, and also included how they used AI tools to help them build it, and made suggestions how the business might use these tools in the future. The business was extremely impressed and expressed interest in offering the students more work and future internships. 

   

If you would like to learn more about Tech Rising, please contact Rob Phocas the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at AvidXchange.