Message Responders - Emailing Your Volunteers from the Site

Posted over 6 years ago by Gina Edwards

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Gina Edwards

Hello,

We have had a few agencies ask if the email messages they send from using the "Message Responders" (see below) pop-up window could be saved to their account for future access or to resend as new volunteers respond to a need. This would be easier than having them copy and paste the message in an external document (like Word) and would create a record of what was sent to volunteers from the agency/site. I could see how this would beneficial as a site manager, too, as I often message volunteers who have responded to a need from directly within the platform.

Thank you for considering!

Gina Edwards, HOI United Way

Go to the Needs section of your Agency Management Area and click the Responses link, shown beneath the need title.Select the volunteers to message. Mark the checkbox above the left-hand column to message all volunteers displayed.Click the Message Responders button, then click Yes to confirm.Complete the Subject and Message fields of the form that is displayed.Click Send Email. You'll see a message confirming that the email has been sent. - Help Directions

1 Votes

5 Comments

Shonie K. posted almost 4 years ago Admin

Hi Amelea,

Thanks for reaching out about this enhancement! The ability for a Site and/or Agency Manager to be able to review past emails an Agency Manager has sent out from a site has been a topic of discussion with the team since this had originally been brought up here.

This suggestion is still on our radar and has not been forgotten, I promise! That being said, I've added your voice to our current Enhancement notes we have on this suggestion.

Thanks so much for adding your thoughts here, we appreciate it!

Best,

Shonie

CX Specialist

She / Her

0 Votes

Amelea Everett posted about 4 years ago

We are a newer user of Galaxy Digital and just had an agency manager request this exact same thing. Have there been any updates in the last 2 years?

0 Votes

Nina Rogers posted over 6 years ago Admin

Hi, Gina,

Thanks so much for providing additional detail! I'll include this information in my write-up for the enhancements meeting.

You are correct that this would be complicated from a programming/server space standpoint (some sites have hundreds of agencies), so I don't know what the possibility is of our being able to add this as a feature. In the meantime, I have a couple of suggestions:

For things like where to park and what to expect upon arrival, I would recommend including those in the need description (or as attributes) rather than in a follow-up email. The confirmation message can include a link back to the need if people want to review the information.
Another option (a little more work, but not a bad idea if the agency is using the same message for multiple needs) is to set the needs up within an initiative. With that, you can add a customized message to the standard confirmation notification.

The approach you're taking now (to have them save the messages in Word), is of course a good workaround as well!

Thanks again for providing more details about your specific use case, Gina!

Best,

Nina

0 Votes

Gina Edwards posted over 6 years ago

Hi Nina,

Quite a few of our agencies have recurring or similar volunteer projects and they'll use the "Message Responders" pop-up window to let them know more details like where to park, what to expect upon arrival, etc. They would like for these messages to be saved so if more volunteers register for the same or similar need, they could resend the response. Does that make sense? I have also received direct emails from volunteers asking about something an agency manager requested of them, etc., and I don't have any way of seeing what was shared by the agency manager.

I know as site managers that our email blasts are saved in the system so there is a record of them and we could copy/paste to use them again if desired. So, I was wondering if the same concept (or alternative idea) could be available for the agency managers. I could see this being beneficial to future agency managers if an agency has turnover, and as a site manager, I could assume the primary agency manager role to view agency responses in case a volunteer reaches out to me directly.

But, if this isn't possible, that's okay. I know it would take a bit of programming and require more server space. Right now, I recommend the agency managers keep a copy of their messages in Word.

Thank you!

Gina

0 Votes

Nina Rogers posted over 6 years ago Admin

Hi, Gina,

Thanks for the suggestion! I can bring this up for discussion at our next enhancements meeting. Before I do, can you let me know the nature of the messages that you (or agency managers) want to save? Your site already has a "Thank you for volunteering message" and reminder messages that go to volunteers by default. The message pop-ups you're referring to are typically for one-time messages, and not regular, recurring ones. If you can give me more insight into the types of recurring messages you and your agency managers are wanting to send, that could help me make a stronger argument for this suggestion.

Thanks!

Nina Rogers

0 Votes