How Do We Calculate Goodness? Quantum Computing’s Implications for Nonprofit Impact
By: Alex Jivov
Tags: Technology, Impact Investing, Social Impact, Tech, Quantum Computing

For many years, one of the most coveted pieces of nonprofit intelligence has been true Social Impact Measurement (SIM), or how effective an organization’s efforts have been in achieving a desired project outcome.

What is the 100%, quantifiable impact of, for example, building a school in an underserved area? What is the true value of building a well and providing clean drinking water to a population previously plagued by cholera?

Until now, such evaluations have been plagued by issues of poor data collection strategies, unreliable data sources, and most critically, an inability to properly collect all the possible data points that can be affected by an organization’s impact.

Without such foundational elements in place, it becomes virtually impossible to achieve the necessary reliability of data for true impact measurement to be the revolutionary source of reporting that it can eventually be.

However, the rise of a new form of unparalleled data analysis — Quantum Computing — may be the key to solving the ‘holy grail’ of nonprofit intelligence, whilst simultaneously offer massive potential both to nonprofit fundraisers and donors alike to truly assess the best opportunities for making a social impact.

An Intro to Quantum Computing

With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its related tools now widely adopted amongst the for-profit sector, and quickly growing traction in the nonprofit space, eyes are now beginning to turn towards the technologies of the far-future: whether it be cybernetics, ubiquitous internet, or Quantum.

In a nutshell, Quantum computing uses quantum mechanics to to perform certain kinds of computations much, much more efficiently than a regular computer can.

Specifically, Quantum computing utilizes two aspects of quantum mechanics — superposition and entanglement — to change the way computers traditionally store and manipulate information.

Whereas computers as we know them today store information in a binary state, manipulating individual bits designated as 0s and 1s, Quantum computers instead utilize what is known as qubits.

Qubits exist in two simultaneous states that cannot be explained with classical logic, acting as both the 0 and 1 in a binary state at the same time, rather than independently. As an example, I recommend watching the excellent TED Talk by Shohini Ghose on the subject.

Because of this ability to play both sides of a piece of data, so to speak, quantum computers can intake vastly more data, and perform exponentially more complex calculations than traditional computers can.

Google’s quantum computer was reportedly able to solve a calculation — proving the randomness of numbers produced by a random number generator — in 3 minutes and 20 seconds that would take the world’s fastest traditional supercomputer, Summit, around 10,000 years. This effectively means that the calculation cannot be performed by a traditional computer.

Quantum’s Impact on Nonprofit Impact

The nonprofit sector’s astronomical growth has for years now exacerbated a crisis in donor faith — with so many organizations to choose from, nonprofits are increasingly pressured to demonstrate quantifiable impact to their potential donors, or risk losing their funding.

As this crisis has worsened, nonprofits more and more have turned to how they demonstrate their impact and how they tell their stories (which is where our team at Hopeful comes in). However, determining how an organization measures it impact has remained difficult for a number of reasons, as told by Donorbox:

It includes measuring complex concepts, such as “increase in self-esteem of an individual” or “increase in overall well-being”. Measuring social impact also means accounting for other factors that might have influenced the element you’re trying to measure i.e. to what extent can the change be attributed to the activities of your nonprofit. It is long-term and requires consistent and dedicated work throughout the span of several years. It requires a relevant system/framework and robust tools, which can be hard to develop, especially for smaller nonprofits. Even larger and more established nonprofits struggle to evaluate the quality of their impact measurement process. There are no set rules, so approaches and terminology can radically differ from one nonprofit to another, which makes communication and collaboration more difficult. The phrase “social impact” is increasingly vague and often misused to imply small changes.

Utilizing Quantum’s ability to handle massive datasets, the nonprofit intelligence question can, for the first time, be reasonably addressed. Whereas previously the bottleneck of data gathering and management proved to be an insurmountable barrier, it is now becoming possible to ‘brute force’ the system — collecting as much raw qualitative and quantitive data as needed in order to create what we call Quantum Powered Data Associations(QPDA).

Such associations are not perfect, but create a tangible step forward in the path to true Social Impact Measurement. What is key, however, is that QPDA’s would in theory also be able to calculate datasets that are generally considered unquantifiable, such as the irrationality of human and what actually leads us to make long-term decisions in the first place.

The Quantum Altruism Calculator

The quantum mind or quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses proposing that classical mechanics as we know them are not capable of explaining how or why humans make decisions the way they do, but that there are correlations between Quantum concepts and the functioning of the human mind.

According to Xiaochu Zhang, a biophysicist and neuroscientist at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, “Cognitive scientists found that there are many ‘irrational’ human behaviors.” Classical theories of decision-making attempt to predict what choice a person will make given certain parameters, but we humans don’t always behave as expected, including making irrational choices and finding choice options that did not exist previously. Recent research suggests that these lapses in logic “can be well explained by quantum probability theory,” according to Zhang.

In essence — what is truly exciting about Quantum’s data capabilities is to not only determine impact, but also to complete the equation on why people give in the first place.

What I am proposing is the first Quantum Altruism Calculator — utilizing Quantum Computing to identify, parse, and glean insights as to why, where, when, and how humans identify and support the causes they support the most.

At the macro level, such a Calculator could quickly be piloted using the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG17) as a framework. The causes presented within the framework, including the eradication of poverty, reduction of hunger, etc, allow for rapid identification of which causes people most associate too at the global scale, and niching down from there.

This article is a proposal for a radical new application of Quantum Computing for Social Good, and will be further built upon in the coming days, months, and years.

Disclaimer: I am the CEO and Cofounder of Hopeful Inc, a high-growth startup enabling nonprofits to tell more compelling stories to the right people, at the right time, using Artificial Intelligence. We ourselves are currently raising our Seed Round. To learn more, please feel free to send me an email at ajivov@hopefulinc.me

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