Support or Volunteer Groups

Before setting up your community, consider your purpose – is it to coordinate projects on the ground, provide social support directly to people in need, raise awareness of an issue, or something else? Your purpose will help you to decide which members to include in the community and what groups they will be in. You might create or add groups of:

• volunteers by geographical area;
• volunteers by skill set;
• volunteers by project or event;
• project leaders or volunteer coordinators;
• new volunteers for orientation;
• volunteers collecting and sharing best practices;
• volunteers tasked with gathering and sharing stories of program impact;
• beneficiaries by need or vulnerability;
• beneficiaries by geographical area;
• donors by project or interest area.

A clear community purpose will help your admin team and members to understand why some groups are added while others are not. For example, if part of your purpose is to provide food for low income families, you may decide to create or add groups engaged in food preparation and food delivery, and even include a group of volunteers dedicated to mentoring newcomers. On the other hand, a group of volunteers connecting over a shared social interest would not be invited.

Your community’s reputation and members’ participation influence your recruitment and interaction with volunteers and donors. The experience you deliver to your beneficiaries, as part of your community, is equally important. To establish a healthy and positive environment, it is crucial to include a Code of Conduct for your Community on WhatsApp. A Code of Conduct is a collection of the rules, principles, and values that guide your community in understanding the behaviors and content that are allowed and disallowed in the community.

When managing volunteer groups, there are some risks to pay close attention to. It is important to develop clear guidance for both community and group admins regarding:

• Vetting new volunteers, donors and beneficiaries. It is good practice to check all contacts before adding them to groups under your community. Adding someone who has the wrong expectations, approach, or intentions can be harmful to other group members. You might consider setting some criteria or questions for group admins to ask potential members before adding them to any group. It is a good idea to set up an orientation group for new volunteers to train and interact with them before adding them to volunteer groups.
• Adding donors and beneficiary groups. A member’s contact number is visible to all community admins and to all the members of the groups they belong to. Do ensure that members in donor and beneficiary groups are aware and consent to this before joining any group in your community. Donors, in particular, may not want to share their contact details with others. Beneficiary communities – such as youth or low income families – are likely to have heightened vulnerability for various reasons, and may not wish others to know they are in need or receiving assistance.
• Sharing private and sensitive information. Ideally your community rules or Code of Conduct discourage members from sharing personal information, such as physical address or email. It is also a good idea to require new members to acknowledge your community’s privacy policy before allowing them to join. However, if personal contact information is required to be shared for volunteer coordination, remember to remind members to share their information using direct messaging to the group admins only, and not within the group. If sensitive personal information or experience is being shared as part of a support group, advise members to use disappearing messages.

Managing volunteers and communicating appropriately with beneficiaries require skills. When recruiting community and group admins, look for people who:

• are passionate about the cause;
• are committed to your community’s values and Code of Conduct;
• have the time and capacity to coordinate and manage groups;
• have the right experience and skill sets to support the volunteers or beneficiaries in their groups;
• have the time to regularly communicate and meet with you and other admins to share learnings, best practices, photos, stories or data points;
• are self-aware and prepared to communicate when they need a break.

In volunteer communities, members freely give their time over and above their other life commitments. Each member will have varying capacity over time, so it is particularly important to recruit enough group admins to share the workload, avoid burnout, and ensure your community is sustainable. It is a good idea to appoint at least two community admins and two group admins for every group, and set up an Admin Only group for communicating, coordinating and supporting your admin team in fulfilling their roles. You might consider setting operating hours for admins to respond to queries and ensure that admins can cover different shifts.

To keep your community engaged, it is important to ensure that information provided in the Announcement group is valuable and relevant to everybody. This could include announcements about:

• recognition and appreciation of volunteers and donors;
• recent project achievements;
• new donors coming onboard;
• new projects commencing;
• requests for volunteers for new projects or roles;
• new groups joining;
• welcoming new volunteers;
• larger community engagement opportunities.

It is good practice to consider the purpose of various groups within the community. Depending on their objectives, you can work with group admins to guide the format, frequency, and content of their communications. It may be useful to:

• send out schedules for volunteer group meet-ups or project work;
• share best practices or experiences that will help volunteers or beneficiaries;
• share success stories or specific, urgent requests with donor groups.

Recognition and personal connection are key to ensuring that volunteers remain engaged. Appreciate your volunteer group members by replying to their messages in the groups, @mentioning individuals for their contribution, and celebrating achievements and highlights by sharing stories and photos.