Revolutionising Volunteer Communication & Engagement
With bantu’s APR Framework
In this exclusive behind-the-scenes article, we will share with you our thought processes in the technological development of our highly revered communication and engagement features!
Some of Workspace’s Communication & Engagement features include:
- Automated SMS & Email — sending welcome, reminders and thank you messages
- Sending beautiful email newsletters — monthly newsletters, new opportunities, birthday emails
- Integrating volunteer timeslots on the personal calendars of volunteers
At bantu, we believe in planning and developing with the future in sight. We prioritise the development of smart technological tools to help you communicate and engage with your volunteers — simply because we want to give you the best.
We guide our decisions using a framework we developed called the ‘APR Framework’ (internally we call it the Alarm Clock Model). The model represents the three guiding principles behind the development of any engagement and communication features that will help an organisation engage and communicate with their volunteers successfully.
1. Allocation
First and foremost, the concept of Allocation — which refers to helping a volunteer manager to have the right distribution of volunteers with necessary skills, matched to roles. We don’t just want to solely focus on recruiting volunteers, we want to also engage their skill sets meaningfully.
Allocation is represented by the body of the alarm clock because of its importance and value in engaging the volunteers. Volunteer experiences is maximised when their skills are engaged well and the right role is matched to them. We found out that you can increase the efficiency of your project when you place your volunteers right where they fit best.
2. Personalisation
Next, Personalisation. Being able to engage a volunteer well doesn’t end with volunteer role and skill set assignments. In communicating with volunteers, personalisation is extremely crucial in helping organisations to form positive and personal relationships with their volunteers. In every feature that we create, we think about how we can help you add different elements of personalisation.
For instance, all emails sent out by our Mail Launcher feature are sent ‘From’ organisation, and not from a bantu related email address. This helps with the branding and voice of the organisation — to maintain control but at the same time being personalised.
Also, organisations are able to customise a single email with the individual volunteer’s name, email, and even include important project details specific to the volunteer e.g. role and time of signed up timeslot.
3. Reach Out
With good content, being able to have effective channels to share the content is equally as important. This brings us to our final principle: Reach out. We want to help you reach out to your volunteers. Personalisation can only happen when you have the relevant features to support the goal.
For instance, we created two special features to help you reach out to your volunteers anywhere, anytime and in any way you like.
Wondering what these specific features of the APR Framework are? Stay tuned to the next three articles to unlock them.
