In our first blog post on how you can make the most of WhatsApp at your charity, we talked about its potential to cut through work emails and act as a focal point for social media content.

But that’s not all it can do.

Supporting lone working policy

Bit of a curve ball, but if your charity has a lone working policy for making sure your team gets home safely from evening events, WhatsApp can be the best channel for it.

WhatsApp is instant and easy to use, making it perfect to quickly and easily ensure that the right group of people knows that team members are home safely.

Communicating with non-desk colleagues

Not everyone is tied to their computer day in day out. Some roles require being out and about a lot. Others even involve being out and about all the time.

That means mobile! So if you want to get hold of them without the interruption of a phone call, WhatsApp is perfect. Even more so if you’re coordinating communication between a lot of such folk.

Managing events

If you’re at a big gala or an event with speakers, it’s a teeny bit disruptive if people are talking to each other on walkie-talkies or phones, even if they are the event organisers.

WhatsApp groups are perfect for communicating information about lost coats, late desserts or when to deploy security to that really annoying guy who keeps asking difficult questions.

Crisis comms

If you have a crisis comms policy, it’s very different to that BAU work.

WhatsApp takes that work off of the usual work emails, and on to your mobile.

A word of warning though – make sure you have rules in place for the use of such groups to make sure nobody goes mad.

Also, if you’re part of such groups and don’t need to be part of them on holiday, be sure to leave them temporarily. If you just mute the group, you’ll still get the messages – and that’s no good for getting the proper break you deserve.

Fundraising committees

Lots of small charities run fundraising committees, usually comprising of folk who don’t sit in the same office every day.

Use your fundraising committee WhatsApp group to celebrate wins and keep each other motivated.

Building relationships with colleagues

Good working relationships are essential for good work.

And nothing helps build them more than sharing funny gifs and emphasising important points through just the right choice of emoji.

Sharing interesting links

Finally, you can come across interesting articles on Twitter wherever you are. WhatsApp is perfect for sharing them instantly.

Of course sometimes they’re just interesting, and sometimes they’re mind-blowingly interesting like in the example below.

Final top tips

• WhatsApp isn’t always great for self-filtering. So don’t share absolutely everything with your work colleagues.
• Using WhatsApp for work can blur the boundaries between your work and personal life. Boundaries help a lot here.
• Use WhatsApp Web when you’re at your laptop or desktop. Much quicker to type on, much harder for people to think you’re just messing around on your phone.