Twilio.org: Celebrating 11 years of impact through digital engagement
Since its founding in 2013, Twilio.org has existed to bring the power of Twilio to organizations advancing social good, using communications and data to add intelligence and security to every step of the engagement journey.6 Twilio.org supports mission-driven organizations with some of the broadest social reach spanning healthcare, education, local government, social services, and humanitarian aid, connecting people with vital resources where and when they need them to deliver impact at scale. Twilio.org is proud to support over 25,000 social impact organizations7 that collectively reach over 716 million people a year.8
Twilio’s leading communications capabilities, combined with data and AI innovations, enable us to increase positive impact and create long-term business value. This, in turn, allows us to build our nonprofit support team, fund grants, and scale our impact as we grow. Since 2013, nonprofits have relied on our digital communications and engagement tools to better reach, understand, and serve their audiences. Our scope of impact extends beyond traditional nonprofits to include other social sector organizations, such as hospitals, universities, and local governments. Together, these organizations help individuals create thriving communities and drive societal wellbeing.
Kaiser Permanente, one of America’s leading health care providers and nonprofit health plans, with over 12 million patients across its network, uses Twilio products to engage its most important customers: its patients.
"In healthcare, there’s no off switch—it’s 24/7. If you can’t check your 401(k) for a day, life goes on. But imagine you’ve just left the emergency room and need to schedule a follow-up appointment. As you try to connect with your primary care provider, your password doesn’t work, and you need to request a new one. If your one-time passcode doesn’t arrive, that’s a real problem. People rely on healthcare at their most critical moments, and reliable, secure communication is non-negotiable. That’s where Twilio comes in."
Alex Kvyat, Executive Director Digital Technologies, Business Capabilities Engineering, Kaiser Permanente
A selection of nonprofit healthcare partners:
Nonprofits are serious about digital engagement
In 2024, Twilio.org launched the second edition of its State of Nonprofit Digital Engagement Report in which we surveyed more than 1,400 nonprofit employees based in the US and UK as well as 1,500 people who accessed the services of those nonprofits.
With 87% of nonprofits saying that digital communication is critical to achieving their organization’s mission, we know the opportunity to use Twilio’s technology for good is more important than ever.
Digital engagement is fundamental to serving people globally, and with emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), we can empower organizations to help more people and improve the quality of digital support the organization provides. Here’s the exciting part of what our 2024 report reveals: nonprofits aren’t just keeping up with digital tools - they’re pushing the envelope with AI. In fact, nonprofits hold a double-digit lead over the private sector in adopting AI for communication: 58% of nonprofits have implemented AI within CPaaS platforms to analyze user data—compared to just 47% of private sector companies.
This challenges the old myth that nonprofits are lagging when it comes to tech. Today, nine out of ten nonprofits report using AI for one or more use cases - whether in their communication platforms or elsewhere across their organization. Here’s how they’re putting it to work:
64% are using AI to dig into user data, helping them identify needs and pain points.
57% rely on AI for transcription and summarizing call notes.
56% use AI to keep data secure and compliant.
As shared in a recent Forbes article, two Twilio-powered nonprofits are already showing how AI can drive real impact. Lenny Learning uses AI to help educators deliver timely, personalized mental health support to students—dramatically reducing prep time and reaching more kids in need. Tarjimly, meanwhile, connects refugees and asylum seekers with volunteer translators and uses AI to match individuals with the right interpreter faster, ensuring critical language access during moments that matter most.
Given the stark reality that nonprofits often operate with limited resources, AI is emerging as a critical tool to enhance operational efficiency and enable greater innovation. Across nonprofit sectors—spanning healthcare, education, housing, and humanitarian aid—organizations are reporting real gains from implementing AI. Even in the adjacent public sector, AI is showing similar promise in improving responsiveness and satisfaction.
A snapshot of how nonprofit verticals and the public sector are using AI today:
2024 product impact results
social impact organizations using Twilio products7
people reached worldwide by social impact organizations using Twilio products8
Our three areas of focus
Communications play a critical role in addressing some of the world’s toughest social challenges. Whether it's empowering people affected by violence with critical resources through a helpline, or mobilizing staff and volunteers via SMS, nonprofits harness communication technology to help individuals achieve long-term wellbeing and support communities as they recover from crises.
Thousands of social impact organizations have utilized Twilio’s resources to tackle significant challenges globally. Since 2022, we’ve chosen to focus on three key areas where our products, people, and capital are particularly suited to make a substantial impact: promoting long-term wellbeing, scaling humanitarian aid, and addressing climate change. These areas are interconnected; climate change is accelerating displacement, which increases human vulnerability. Without addressing climate change, humanitarian crises will worsen, and without increased support and resources for those impacted by these crises, we can’t rebuild and strengthen the long-term wellbeing of the communities in which we live.
We believe our technology can create more opportunities for people to thrive—by connecting them to essential tools, resources, and support. Our approach to advancing long-term wellbeing recognizes that many factors - such as access to healthcare, economic opportunity, and emotional support - shape a person’s ability to thrive. Twilio’s resources help ensure access to information and support services. For example, we’re partnering with organizations like Age UK to address issues of social isolation and expand access to critical emotional support for the elderly.
Companionship is essential for both mental and physical wellbeing. Nearly 1 million older people in the UK report experiencing chronic loneliness, which Age UK describes as a public health crisis. To combat this, Age UK helps over 7 million individuals feel included and valued through services like Call in Time, a free telephone friendship service which provides companionship and advice to older people.
In collaboration with Twilio and Zing, Age UK developed secure, scalable, and cost-effective telecommunication services for both volunteers and the elderly. The digital solution needed to reach millions, facilitate volunteer screening, match volunteers with those in need, and streamline call connections. Using Twilio Flex, Age UK introduced innovative features to its telephone friendship service that enabled the organization to scale its efforts resulting in a 242% increase in volunteer help since 2020.
A selection of nonprofits advancing long-term wellbeing:
6 Through Twilio.org, which is a part of our company and not a separate legal entity, we donate and sell our products at a reduced rate to nonprofits and offer grant funding to help scale these organizations’ missions.
7We define social impact customers as public benefit nonprofits, mutual benefit nonprofits, public education institutions, social enterprises, international NGOs, government entities, and traditional businesses with a public benefit use case that have usage in December 2024. A single social impact organization may use multiple unique active accounts.
8We define a “person reached” as an individual who has sent or received a message or phone call through one of our Twilio.org customers. We count each phone number only once, even if they have engaged multiple customers or received multiple messages. This count also includes the unique number of individuals who have received emails from Twilio.org customers that do not also use Twilio’s messaging and voice products. This information is tracked (anonymously) via Twilio’s backend system. This metric may exclude individuals who were contacted by one of our Twilio.org customers through products other than messaging, voice, and email.
9 Announcing the Winners of the Twilio.org Climate Tech Prize | Twilio
Leveraging our product, our people, and our capital to help organizations advancing social good