Introducing: bantu Workspace!

More than just a volunteer management system, Workspace is here to change the way we do good.

Joshua Foong
bantu
3 min readApr 21, 2018

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The bantu team is so excited to officially launch our volunteer management platform: the bantu Workspace!

bantu Workspace is an intelligent & user-friendly volunteer management & engagement platform for the modern non-profit.

Workspace is truly the cumulation of bantu’s journey thus far. Since coming together as a team back in 2016, we have been applying all that we have learnt from the social sector and building out a new platform that can radically improve the work of non-profits all around the world. This long road of validation with over 20 different non-profits has both inspired and instructed the work we do at bantu every day.

So what is bantu Workspace?

For the uninitiated, Workspace is a cloud-based solution that allows non-profits to manage their volunteers and processes, all in one place. For volunteer managers who have been working on multiple disparate platforms to manage information and communications, Workspace is a game-changer.

There are many tangible ways in which our platform can help non-profits, such as automating menial tasks, scrapping hours off data entry work, scheduling messages to volunteers, and aggregating volunteer data intelligently.

And then there are the intangibles.

Our automations help to free time and resources for non-profits, which means they can now engage volunteers more effectively and design better programmes. Our data helps managers to work more intelligently, which means they can now develop and appreciate volunteers the right way.

And let’s not forget our incredible team, who are always here to lend a helping hand to our non-profit partners on all things tech.

The 4 of us at the bantu Workspace launch last Friday!

But our launch not just about our volunteer management platform.

bantu is not a technology: it is a movement.

Our latest launch is a part of something much larger. You see, bantu is not a technology: it is a movement. We want to start a new movement about how we can use technology for social good, and more importantly, how we can do it differently from how the world is doing it right now.

Technology as we know it has been built around the profit sector. A sector that is hardwired to maximise outputs, extract greater margins, and transact with clients. But the social sector don’t deal with such things: they deal with helping beneficiaries, gathering donations, engaging volunteers, and creating better communities. This is why so much of these technologies do not work for non-profits.

We want to build new technologies around the social sector.

Today, we see the social sector building their work around the technology we have now. We at bantu want to flip that relationship upside down: to build new technologies around the social sector instead.

We are incredibly fortunate for the tremendous support we have received along the way. To our families and friends, mentors both here in Singapore and abroad from New York and Silicon Valley, non-profits and governing bodies, school staff, corporates affiliates, our start-up counterparts: thank you for believing in us all this time.

We are so excited for the journey ahead. Whoever you are, thank you for reading, and we truly hope you would join us in the bantu movement.

Yours sincerely,
The bantu team

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Joshua Foong
bantu
Writer for

Community builder and social entrepreneur. Co-founder of bantu.