Provides their volunteers efficiently with up-to-date information

Are you involved in a volunteer organisation too? Volunteer efforts worldwide make a significant difference in many areas! At PinToMind, we’re committed to supporting and celebrating volunteering. That’s why we offer our best pricing to volunteer organisations. Below, we introduce you to one of the organisations benefiting from our product. Meet the British charity Samaritans!

Invites to conversation

Anyone who visits the Samaritans website is immediately greeted with this open and generous invitation to talk:

And every day, Samaritans respond to around 10,000 phone calls (!) from people who need someone to talk to. The motivation is to prevent suicide, and the idea is to lower the threshold for sharing what is difficult with someone before it grows too big.

Listening volunteers and support volunteers

To meet this need for taking calls, Samaritans has organized itself with 20,000 volunteers spread across 200 branches across the UK. Most of them are listening volunteers who work shifts as they man the phones. In addition, the organization has a number of support volunteers who contribute with leadership, organization, and practical tasks.

– The listening volunteers are first and foremost trained at just listening.They do not give advice, just talk through what is happening. The whole key lies in showing understanding and in being able to share the difficulty with someone, says Steve Bartlett, deputy director of Samaritans’ branch in Chelmsford. He adds that good education is a central part of the work, and that before becoming a Samaritan listening volunteer, they receive training for a whole year.

Easy access to instructions and general information

In Samaritans’ conversation-rooms, up-to-date information must be communicated quickly and efficiently to everyone who is on call by phone at all times. And on the large information screen that hangs in the call-room at Steve’s Chelmsford branch, volunteers always find basic instructions. Steven explains:

-“Who should you contact if …” “What should you do if …” There is a lot that can happen during a shift, so good routines are key to being able to handle everything, he says seriously.

He also uses the screen to share general information about what is happening at the branch, and current news from the entire organization.

PinToMind Go as an extra resource

In Stevens branch of Samaritans, all managers also have access to the digital bulletin board content via the mobile app, PinToMind Go.

-These leaders are people who can be called by those who are on duty, and then the leader himself can check what is on the screen if they are contacted, no matter where he or she is right then, he elaborates.

In this way, PinToMind Go becomes an extra resource that provides updated information even when you are not in the office.

Brief information is best

No matter what he shares on the digital notice board, Steve has experienced that it is very important with short and concise texts for the information to actually be read and perceived.

-And each post must not be displayed on the screen for too long, just long enough for it to be read, he points out.

Update from anywhere

Before PinToMind, there were no less than 9 notice boards in the call-room.

– The switch to a digital notice board was in many ways a part of becoming more paperless, says Steven. For him, this web based bulletin board software has really made his daily work easier, especially since he can now update all the information even when he is not in the office.

– I can create, post and update the content for the digital notice board from home, he says happily.

Simple and cost effective

When the opportunity arises, Steven is happy to recommend the PinToMind software. He believes it is an ideal digital signage solution for an organization like theirs, both in terms of usability and cost.

-I always say: Use PinToMind! It is so easy to use. It is something everyone can manage, and it does not depend on managers with technical experience. He concludes:

-For us, PinToMind has been an exclusively positive experience!

– Thanks, Samaritans!

We at PinToMind would like to express our gratitude for the nice conversation we had with Steven and Samaritans. It means a lot that customers will share their PinToMind experience with us. Such customer conversations inspire and motivate us to continue developing our product for the benefit of you as a user.

And we want to add that this conversation was inspiring in itself as getting to know the work of the Samaritans really touched us! We take off our hats for this important work, and its dedicated volunteers! 🙏💛

Inspired? Test PinToMind for free!

We hope you were inspired too! If you want to try PinToMind for your organization, you are always welcome to test our software. You can create a free trial with no commitment here, and you can contact us directly if you have questions or need help! Here you can also have a closer look at our subscription for volunteer organizations if you would like to.

Or maybe you also have experiences with PinToMind that you would like to share with us? If so, feel free to contact us! 😊