Social Impact Tech: Michael Gorriarán of Arjuna Solutions On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact

…Arjuna simply helps nonprofits raise more with what they spend by knowing how much to ask and when to ask for financial support from donors. We provide this as a simple service across all channels and campaign types. We measure our success through Return on Investment, and our average client is realizing between 50%-200% ROI, while increasing net proceeds for the cause by 15%-25%. This is the future, using simple A.I. services to optimize decision making in real-time. The material impact we make for our clients enables them to advance their missions more quickly and cost effectively, benefitting society at large.

In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Michael Gorriarán.

Michael Gorriarán is the President of Arjuna Solutions, which delivers Behavioral Economics Modeling through A.I. services to help nonprofits increase revenue and optimize net proceeds. Gorriarán is a globally experienced technology sector executive with an extensive 30-plus-year career at Microsoft, Xerox, and early-stage, high-growth business ventures. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and is an avid distance runner, outdoor enthusiast, and active parent with his wife, Kris, of their two children.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?

I was born and raised in Providence, RI. We had four generations of family living together in one home on the East Side, and since my grandfather had immigrated from Cuba to attend college in New England, we were an anchor point location for family members entering the US after Castro took over Cuba.

My grandfather and father were competitive athletes. My brothers and I followed in their footsteps, successfully pursuing nationally competitive paths respectively in running, rowing, and football. My passion is distancing running and I still enjoy competing at the national level of the sport to this day.

My grandfather was a role-model leader as family patriarch, US Olympic Team Manager in Wrestling, and small manufacturing business owner. He was a compassionate person with a large network of friends, and he knew how to get things done for everyone he cared about. We were all strongly influenced by him, and he remains the most interesting person in my life. My siblings and I have followed his lead into successful leadership roles in athletics, business, and smaller nonprofit or community organizations.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

One of my more interesting experiences was the opportunity to work with Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer on “The Future of Office” at a leadership retreat for high-potential executives at Microsoft. I had the privilege of learning understanding their perspective from experience on various business models, competitive strategy, go-to-market strategies, leadership approaches, as well as resourcing and scaling new businesses. It was one of many incredible experiences at Microsoft that certainly shaped how I am approaching the opportunity at Arjuna Solutions.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Two people that immediately come to mind aside from my family: Frank Santos at Xerox, who advocated for me to become a VP with the company in my mid-30’s, and Geoff Nyheim, who hired me at Microsoft.

Trust was at the foundational of the relationships with Frank and Geoff. We worked very independently from each other day to day, so we had to learn to trust each other first, and they were incredible in securing followership from me through their unselfish acts of ensuring first and foremost that we were always focused on the success of the business. We had our core leadership roles plus two to three projects to manage at the same time. As a result, the time we spent together had to start with a strong foundation of trust and a common goal of ensuring that the business was successful. When we did meet, it was typically for our monthly 1:1 meeting. Since the strong foundation was in place, we could quickly move some model-matching techniques to get oriented around various business opportunities or issues, and then move to precise insights with viable solutions to achieve our goals. This capability improved our agility and clock-speed to operationalize new direction. I strongly believe the day is won through trust, focus on a common goal, resourcefulness, and concerted effort. They inspired me through their business insights, passion for the development of people, focus on improving organizational agility, and commitment to ethically/consistently delivering strong business results.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”I heard this quote from Steve Prefontaine, an Olympic long-distance runner, when I was probably about 15 years old.

To me, the quote means giving fully of yourself while you possess the ability and opportunity to make a material impact. It is about having undivided focus, and not being distracted by anything that may deter you from achieving your ultimate goal or ideal performance.

I grew up in a small business setting and began working in our factory during the summer when I was 15. It is ironic or maybe a direct result of this experience that I ended up working in large enterprises for most of my career. While I thoroughly enjoyed the small business setting, I was delighted to gain the invaluable leadership, operating, and go-to-market experience provided by a couple of the largest and most storied companies. However, at this point in my career, it is compelling to be back in a small business setting with such high potential organization, especially one whose charter that is committed to advancing the impact of nonprofit organizations on society.

Arjuna Solutions is a fast moving, high growth A.I. services provider with a highly collaborative culture that is focused on making a sustained impact on the financial foundation of our clients. We rely on everyone in the company making great decisions and delivering their very best performance every day, as we work to fortify the foundation of our ongoing success. The quote I mentioned earlier becomes even more tangible in this environment, where we depend on everyone delivering high impact performances daily for our customers and their causes.

You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

1) Big picture vision and commitment. You need a big picture vision, to internalize the “why,” and ensure that it inspires you. It is never about the “what,” like achieving a revenue or share target. It’s about how the impact on achieving goals improves everything from the health of your business to the well-being of broader society. That’s how we operate at Arjuna Solutions. Our capabilities are fundamentally changing the fundraising fidelity and financial foundations of the nonprofit sector, enabling them to rapidly advance their causes, closing gaps in society that government and business are unable to address.

2) Environmental awareness and adaptability. One of the most important aspects of business leadership is to be aware of your business environment, including legal, social, political, technical, and economic factors, and then responding to them as proactively and effectively as possible. It is imperative to shift your mindset from scarcity to growth, and then operationalize strategy that is aligned with environmental opportunity.

The most recent example of this for us at Arjuna Solutions is the ongoing impact of inflation on low dollar donor behavior (<$75/year), and the associated costs of fundraising. As we considered these economic factors, we shifted from just focusing on “Improving Giving through Behavioral Economics Modeling with A.I.” to “Improving Net Proceeds from Fundraising.” We are providing additional A.I. modeling services that enable nonprofits to simultaneously optimize fundraising by improving donor lifetime value while retaining donors and minimizing fundraising costs. We fundamentally understand how to dynamically measure donor sentiment through Behavioral Economics Modeling and our propriety A.I. services, and we use these insights to render invaluable decisions in real-time about when to solicit and how much to ask of each donor. These insights fundamentally change the economics of nonprofit organizations. The opportunity is currently in-hand for nonprofits to operate with a growth mindset, and mobilize strategies commensurate with these capabilities.

3) Collaborative and inclusive mindset. This principle should be self-evident. Everything we do is with and about people. The most fulfilling aspect of every leadership role is the opportunity to collaborate with people to realize goals while developing the skills/experiences to deliver your greatest performance. It’s important to do everything possible to ensure that team members succeed, grow, and realize their aspirations. The experience with people supersedes everything, and it is the only thing that you remember at the end of a project, a leadership role, a company experience, or a career.

However, while these capabilities are critical, at the end of the day, the core leadership traits that are essential for success include conviction, persistence, and the ongoing daily effort it takes for weeks and years to make strategy a reality. I’ve listened to a lot of eloquently articulated concepts about various business strategies in the boardroom that were never realized due to two simple factors: the failure to secure followership, and the inability to provide the daily concerted effort it takes to make things happen. My greatest admiration and personal focus lies with the capabilities of seeing the big-picture opportunity, convincingly securing followership, and persistently prioritizing the daily activities it takes to successfully operationalize strategy.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?

Nonprofits exist because there is a material gap between what governments and businesses can provide to support healthy societies. Whether it is health, human services, education, environment, animals, arts, culture or religion, nonprofit services are vital to our success as a society. Ensuring these areas are adequately financed is Arjuna Solutions’ mission.

As mentioned, inflation has already had an impact on donor behavior, as well as the costs of fundraising. Revenue is quickly beginning to fall behind demand while the costs of fundraising services are rising. We solve both of these problems by applying Behavioral Economics Modeling capabilities with our proprietary A.I. services to uncover deeper real-time insight into donor sentiment. We accurately predict several things, such as what a donor will provide as a gift, when to solicit them, and how often to do it. This is revolutionary for the nonprofit industry, as it influences top line donor lifetime giving, while minimizing fundraising expenses, and preserving brand equity. We are not a marketing agency, but we do enable them to optimize their fundraising campaigns for nonprofit organizations.

How do you think your technology can address this?

Our technology delivers personalization at scale. Knowing how much to ask of each donor at a specific moment in time, in the context of a single nonprofit organization, while also knowing whom to solicit at that time. Our Behavioral Economic modeling services provide decisions that improve overall net proceeds. Improvements typically range from 4% to 27% annually for most of our customers, while our understanding of when to solicit each donor can reduce fundraising costs by 10% to 20%. The compounded effects of simultaneously applying these two capabilities makes Arjuna’s A.I. modeling services a secret to success for leading nonprofit organizations.

Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?

My family has been involved in community nonprofit leadership roles for decades. I had the privilege of being Chairman of the Board of the Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement earlier in my career, where I learned a lot about what it takes to grow a nonprofit organization.

When I met Adam Treiser, the founder of Arjuna Solutions, I was intrigued by his technology inventions, delivering Behavioral Economics Modeling capabilities through his proprietary A.I. services, and dynamically solving a critical, industry-wide “consumer pricing issue.” But I was even more inspired by the vision he had for the business. He was singularly focused on substantially improving the financial foundation of the entire nonprofit sector. His innovations in the field and passion for improving society by scaling the nonprofit sector is incredibly compelling.

How do you think this might change the world?

Arjuna Solutions is revolutionizing the nonprofit sector, which, as mentioned, is critical to the success of our societies. The business model of the nonprofit sector is to challenge any spending that is not directly related to advancing the cause. Fundraising is caught in the middle of this dilemma. Nonprofits always ask themselves if they should spend more to make more, but their business model tells them to spend less, even if they make less, and this orientation tragically lowers their ability to advance their causes. Arjuna simply helps nonprofits raise more with what they spend by knowing how much to ask and when to ask for financial support from donors. We provide this as a simple service across all channels and campaign types. We measure our success through Return on Investment, and our average client is realizing between 50%-200% ROI, while increasing net proceeds for the cause by 15%-25%. This is the future, using simple A.I. services to optimize decision making in real-time. The material impact we make for our clients enables them to advance their missions more quickly and cost effectively, benefitting society at large.

Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?

As with any change, everyone simultaneously loves and fears it. Many people say: “If it’s good for me and there is no downside in my life, then I’m all in. If not, then I’ll wait and see or behave in a passive-aggressive manner, stall, avoid, and impede.” We are now facing the classic issue of entrenched culture, fear of change, and the habit of operating with the limitations of a challenging nonprofit business model. The existential threats of inflation and recession now facing classic fundraising approaches is driving the imperative for change. Fundraising leaders, need to be savvy enough to internalize the risk while adapting to the innovations available to successfully advance their causes. It’s not the bleeding edge, it’s about the leading edge — and knowing the difference. It’s about thinking proactively, experimenting effectively with technical innovations, and then scaling quickly after success. Time to market is not a concept for competitive advantage that we typically discuss in the nonprofit sector. However, given all the advances in artificial intelligence, and the demand in society for more nonprofit services, the opportunity exists today to leverage innovations to improve nonprofit financial performance.

With all change, including technological, you must do your research. If you’re using A.I., understand how it works. Is it ethical? Is it secure? How is the data being used? Does it comply with privacy laws? There is no “hall pass” for a nonprofit fundraising leader. You need to “dig-in” and understand what is happening with your data and donors when signing up to use A.I. That’s why Arjuna Solutions’ services were developed to be both ethical and secure by design. We avoid implicit bias by utilizing observed and validated individual donor behavior rather than simple demographic observations, and we avoid confirmation bias by utilizing unmanipulated datasets. We have very secure processes when handling data, including encryption with SFTP for transfers, client-specific secure virtual servers, highly restricted access to data, and more.

Advantages in efficiency and optimization are more time sensitive than ever before, so it’s not “if,” it’s “when and how” nonprofits adopt A.I. capabilities in fundraising.

Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each.)

Our operating ethos at Arjuna Solutions are outlined below. These are the factors that will enable us to continue adding value for our clients, enabling them to effectively make a positive social impact in a timely and wide-spread manner.

1. Outcome focused:

o Do the right thing in the right way for long-term success and ensure that superior insight and performance is the top priority. Continuous improvement (six sigma) is the operating norm. Learn, refine, optimize and monitor every day in every way. Always stay in a learning stage.

2. Security:

o Ensure that all data transfers, management and modeling capabilities are secure, at least at industry best practices or higher. Invest in this talent and capability concurrent with the skills to develop and refine core capabilities.

3. Privacy:

o Abide by regulations and business norms at all expense. Educate your clients and their partners to ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities related to privacy of data.

o We are increasingly surprised to see organizations cede this accountability and liability to other parties (i.e., vendors, agencies, software, or platform providers). Each party is individually responsible for obtaining data ethically, legally, and in compliance with all norms and laws in this field, and they must internalize that they are individually responsible as entities are also responsible for liabilities they create downstream. When nonprofits or their partners either do not internalize this principle or attempt to pass it forward to one of the third parties mentioned they create a legal and operating liability.

4. Accountability:

o Don’t wait until the issue is resolved to notify stakeholders. If something goes wrong (e.g., data breach due to a product or service failure), get ahead of it early. Notify all stakeholders immediately while working to resolve the issue.

5. Insight and Agility:

o Provide insights from the application of your capabilities. We’re approaching 10 billion records processed. We know what works and why. We also know what’s going on with donor sentiment or behavior right now. Share those insights with stakeholders across the ecosystem. Jointly determine what’s next and use your agility to understand how to add new forms of value from those insights. Shift the paradigm from “my solution” to “our solution” and collaborate robustly to add value, as some capabilities are so valuable that they need to be considered and optimized collaboratively. Anyone serving the nonprofit sector needs to adopt this model of thinking as this is what improves society and brings the best of the private sector into the public sector.

If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?

It is always better to do something that inspires you, so choose well. You need to come into work every morning prepared to deliver your best effort and make the highest possible impact. If you’re not inspired by where you’re going, then get on a different track, but always be ready to deliver your best. Also, understand the benefit of what you are applying your life to and help others see the big picture reason of why you are doing this work. If you can find this vision, then your work is sustainable, and your inspired performance will motivate those around you to follow suit.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

I find it more interesting to be inspired by people around me every day rather than idolizing icons at a distance. My colleagues, partners, customers, and friends provide incredible inspiration. It’s a pleasure to experience and celebrate their unique capabilities, insights, thinking, and contributions. This has always been the most interesting aspect of my career, the growth I’ve experienced while interacting with people around me. However, I guess if I was forced to pick one person, it would be Dave Matthews, as his music and most importantly, his live performances inspire me.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

I’d recommend following Arjuna Solutions and me on LinkedIn. While I’m not a social media maven, I do like to see how things are progressing across the nonprofit sector and comment on them as appropriate. You can also keep up with what the company is doing on our website. Remember, it’s the results and the impact that’s made on society that matters.

Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.

About the Interviewer: Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion in startups. She has successfully built 6 startups to date. Her passion for entrepreneurship continues to flourish with the development of Stretchy Hair Care, focusing on relieving the pain associated with detangling and styling natural black hair. For far too long, people with tender heads have suffered in pain. Until now.