What type of nonprofit program is a perfect MilkCrate app customer?
From our years of working with nonprofits, mission driven organizations, and foundations - we know what works and what does not. Not every organization, program, and audience is right for an app - so it is important that we go through our discovery process on a call to assess if your needs match what a mobile app can deliver.
Here is a snapshot of some of the questions we ask to help you make that decision about how to best use our services.
1. Does your organization run a program for an existing group or groups of participants? Is your staff stretched* serving them all at once?
If your organization is already running a program - either for volunteers, members, students, or program participants- great! That is the first and most important step. *”Stretched” can be relative, we know. We’ve launched apps for programs with 20 people in them, and we have ones that have over 5,500+ users now. It depends. The definition depends on you - how many is too many for you to keep track of using the methods you currently have in place? If you are struggling, then maybe we can help!
Examples of MilkCrate app customers with a program include:
Volunteer reading coaches for children
Teenagers getting free access to cultural institutions & museums
A city-wide employee engagement initiative for civic participation & voting
2. Do you need to reach participants or volunteers regularly?
Ok, so you are running a program - great! But perhaps you are struggling to engage all those people - with the reminders to sign up for events, or report back about their experience in the program, or to track their volunteer hours. Usually this kind of communication and tracking becomes really hard without the right tools when you have 50+ individuals. The number changes for each organization, we’ve worked with organizations running programs for a few dozen people all the way up to a program for thousands!
Examples of communication that can be simplified with an app:
Sending a push notification as a reminder
Poll questions and surveys about preferences, experiences or achievements
App users can comment on an activity, resource, event or another users post
An activity wall where all users can exchange communication and content
Chatting with staff or other program participants
3. Are there specific activities for participants to do on an ongoing basis?
These activities can include things like: watching videos, listening to a podcast, using a directory to find resources, signing up for an event, going to locations, reading content etc. But just as important is making sure the right users see the right activities - which is why being able to segment users is such a valuable part of what our apps offer.
Examples of activities that can be tracked with an app:
A calendar of events for signing up and checking in at those events
A directory of resources or information to be accessed any time and place
Weekly challenges to complete and share
4. Is your leadership data driven? Do your funders care about tracking success?
Your funders and other stakeholders look to you to ensure that the mission of the organization is being reached via your program data - both qualitative and quantitative. And you agree that they are key to demonstrating impact. You see MilkCrate as a way to unlock that data and manage your programs well.
Examples of outputs and outcomes that can be tracked:
- How many teenagers from which schools checked into museums this month
- What percent of employees reported voting in the election
- How many hours volunteers spent in which zip code