Messaging App Meets a Need for Nonprofits
Communication is a pervasive issue facing philanthropic organizations around the world. After all, nonprofits need to coordinate drives and organize, both among their members and third parties. Technology can help facilitate this task.
As a widely used instant-messaging app, WhatsApp easily caters to this demand by helping nonprofits communicate. In this article, we examine why and how to use WhatsApp for managing a nonprofit.
Instantly Communicate With Others
As of February 2020, WhatsApp has reported more than two billion users spread across 180 countries.
A big reason for the app’s popularity is its ease of use. Unlike emails, which are more formal and typically require more thought to craft and deliver, WhatsApp doesn’t exert as much pressure or take as much time. As a result, users are typically more active in the app, and they check it more often than they do their emails.
In any well-functioning organization, time is money. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can save time and resources by having an easily accessible, popular and powerful communication app in their toolbox.
Taking advantage of this situation, NGOs can use WhatsApp for daily communication. It can easily bridge the gap between informal messages and sharing information that falls in between formal and informal, but which is nevertheless crucial to the operation of an organization.
Things such as the time and place of an event or meeting, as well as pointers or info about a meeting, and coordination between individuals and groups, can be easily managed using WhatsApp.
Conveniently Share Documents
Although there are different ways of sharing documents online, one of the easiest is through WhatsApp.
Unlike email, Whatsapp has a camera feature that allows users to easily snap a photo of the document they want to share. This feature is integrated into the app, so it is much faster and easier to use, even when sending files to multiple people. Other file formats, such as .doc and PDF files, also are accepted.
This is a powerful feature for NGOs, which cycle through a lot of documents day to day, whether they are solicitation requests, informational PDFs, or memos. With WhatsApp, they can efficiently share these with all relevant parties.
Quickly Organize Groups
Group messaging is another powerful feature of WhatsApp for nonprofits. Group messaging allows multiple people to talk together in one text box, allowing for quick information dissemination. There is no limit to the number of groups one can be in, which works well for NGOs. This means that one can have several different conversations happening all the time, saving time when compared with individual emails.
This WhatsApp feature is handy when organizing groups or departments, especially several independent groups all at once. It can be a two-way information channel for when a party needs to notify a group about some crucial information.
It is also convenient as a question-and-answer channel, as the questions don’t need to be answered one by one, as with emails or other social media platforms. WhatsApp groups can be used to quickly organize training programs, meetings, contests, partnerships and more.
Minimize Digital Barriers
Nowadays, technology is so abundant that there might be more cellphones than humans. One person can have more than one device, which is why the ability to use WhatsApp on two phones is extremely helpful.
Unlike emails, which require more formal language and more technical knowledge to successfully use, WhatsApp is more convenient and intuitive. This is a crucial aspect, especially for older generations and those not native to the digital world since they can be easily hampered by technological barriers.
Automate Responses With AI
NGOs need to handle many different inquiries on a daily basis. Customer relations, such as answering questions, resolving grievances and promoting the cause, are a big part of a nonprofit’s day-to-day operations.
Delay in customer response has a significant chance of harming a nonprofit’s customer service reputation, which can inadvertently reduce donations and participation.
This is where WhatsApp’s automated response feature using WhatsApp Business API comes in. The app allows for the easy integration of auto-response AIs that will instantly respond to customers, reducing the burden on human customer representatives.
Bots can cater to a lot of people all at once, are available 24/7, and can even sort out the most basic and typical questions that potential donors might have.
Using WhatsApp For Your Nonprofit Organization
WhatsApp is a powerful messaging tool. It doesn’t just make communication easier for individuals in their day-to-day lives, it also makes for a powerful tool that organizations use in their drive to make the world a better place.
Now that you know how you can use WhatsApp to manage your nonprofit, you can leverage their features to provide more value to society and help more people.
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