we use an app called alo, which can be used on your phone or a desktop. it turns your vm into texts that can be shared across a team of people- and when you write back,- or even call back- they get the message from that shared number, NOT an individual. even cooler, it will translate into different languages too if need be- which can be great for fosters and adoption candidates.
it will beep when a new message comes through- you can make it a task, comment between the team or reply back. there are also templates for quick responses so you just type in volunteer- and the template that tells people how to volunteer ops up and you send.
it also acts as a walkie talkie if you want to have a quick voice communication (you should probably only do this when on the clock/ at work otherwise when someone's computer or phone just starts talking to them from thin air it can be funny (and weird)!
this way all communication is plainly shared, no one has to give up their own number or private time...it's saved us SO MUCH TIME and energy- especially as just about every call can be responded to quickly and without a 15 minute conversation where nothing gets accomplished (potential adopters for example). we can't live without it.
------------------------------
Jme thomas
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-14-2022 04:40 PM
From: Ann Battenfield
Subject: Technology - chat, discussion, text - with fosters and volunteers
Hi - we are a foster-based rescue in Southern California. We have 100-140 animals at most times and the majority are in foster. Some fosters have a mom with puppies or kittens and some have more than one animal, so we average about 50 fosters at a time. We also have transporters, dog walkers, and other volunteers that help.
Communicating with everyone is a bit of a nightmare. For fosters, we try to get them to use a portal for requests (care, food, training, etc), but once they know the phone numbers of those of us who coordinate things, many default to that.
We use a program called SamePage with different groups - one for transporters, one for fosters, and so on - where we can have private chats as well as post within the group. Some fosters post pictures, update their animal's bio, etc. We use this for notifications regarding events, such as our bimonthly virtual adoption event. But, some people don't use it.
Some only want phone calls, some only emails, some only texts, etc. It's a nightmare to manage items that need to be completed when they can be in one of many places or sent to one of many people.
How do you all manage communication with your volunteers and fosters? What programs do you use? I was wondering if one of the email programs, such as Constant Contact, allowed for push SMS notifications. That way we could notify everyone of upcoming events, for example.
Thanks for reading :-).
#PeopleManagement(includingVolunteerIntegration)
------------------------------
Ann Battenfield
Senior Team Member
------------------------------