Care Friends
Caring People know Caring People
For Volunteers
How it works
Care Friends makes it easy for volunteer coordinators to manage referrals and recognise volunteers for the incredible work they do.
Through the app, volunteers can easily share opportunities with their networks, helping you connect with the right people through voices that are trusted and meaningful.
It’s a simple, positive way to grow your team and celebrate those who make it all possible.
Why Care Friends?
Volunteers are the backbone of many community organisations, but volunteer numbers are declining, and recruitment is getting harder.
Word of mouth is one of the most trusted and effective way to bring new volunteers on board.
So why not make it easy and rewarding for your current volunteers and supporters to become ambassadors?
Why volunteer referral via Care Friends works!
The portal
The portal manages everything referral and recognition related.
The app
The app is co-designed with clients and end users for simplicity and fun.
Notifications
Once a role is made available, relevant volunteers are notified. This helps keep referring top of mind.
Share roles
Easily share volunteering opportunities via the phone's native share function; SMS, WhatsApp, Social Media, email and more!
Rewards and fun
Care Friends uses reward psychology and gamification to make referring fun and keep referrals coming.
Stay informed
The referring volunteer can be kept up to date of their referral's progress in the recruitment process. This fosters a buddy system.
Redeem rewards
The volunteering organisation chooses how to reward for referrals: gift cards, cash, certificates, donations, or experiences.
Insights
Keep track of the number of shares, views, and referrals, along with rewards, app sign-ups, and more!
Referral testimonials
Recognise and reward your volunteers
Care Friends can also be used to recognise and reward volunteers for non-referral-related activities via Bonus Points.
Reward categories
Create reward categories with fixed points and suggested wording or keep it variable.
One or more
Reward an individual, multiple volunteers, by location or the whole organisation in one go.
Budgets
Allocate monthly bonus point budgets for autonomy with oversight.
Instant reward
The volunteer is notified instantly of their reward with a personalised message.
Benefits
For your organisation
- Enable your volunteers to easily refer and share opportunities with their networks
- Attract more high-quality volunteers
- Reach into the networks of your volunteers and tap into your local communities.
- Rewards go to your volunteers instead of external marketing channels
- Helps boost engagement and retention
For your volunteers
- Easily access to all your organisation's volunteering opportunities
- Simple app with gamification elements
- Optionally keep volunteers up-to-date of their referral’s approval process, allowing them to be a “buddy”
- Recognise them for all that they do
- Keep them updated via notifications
For your recruiters
- Generate a regular flow of high-quality candidates
- Easy to use portal to keep track of the referral’s approval process
- Save time through automation
- Easily post roles to all app users
- Never miss a referral
In the News
FAQs
Can I customise the reward points?
Yes, you can! Care Friends increases referrals by rewarding volunteers for the action that matters most: sharing opportunities. Most clients start by offering 1 point for sharing a role, with increasingly larger rewards as the referral progresses through the recruitment process.
This micro-reward approach not only boosts referral numbers but also makes the process enjoyable. You’re in complete control and decide how to distribute the total reward across different stages or whether a stage receives a reward at all.
Care Friends also gives you the flexibility to set different rewards for different types of volunteering opportunities.
Can I have different rewards for different roles?
Yes, you can! This is super handy if you feel that certain roles can use an extra boost.
Can the system be misused?
Great question! Not really. There are a variety of safeguards that prevent misuse, including capped share points, candidate verification, screening questions, different authorisation levels and an audit log. In addition, your scheme rules are always accessible from within the app.
Does Care Friends integrate with my other systems?
Likely! We already have several integrations in place and are open to building custom integrations as well. Contact us to explore this further.
Can try before I buy?
We do not offer a free trial of Care Friends as most of the work is front-loaded and most successful if our guided launch planning is followed. However, we do offer paid trials for enterprise clients who want to trial Care Friends on a smaller part of the business, often a select number of sites. Contact us to discuss this.
How do I launch Care Friends?
With our help. We will guide you through the launch planning and the launch itself via simple and structured regular emails as well as a couple of (fun) planning meetings. Your Client Success Manager is by your side, supporting you when needed. This guided launch planning takes a lot of the work away from your desk and ensures all aspects are covered for a successful launch.
How much time does it take to launch Care Friends?
The launch of Care Friends has two easy steps:
- The launch planning. This is the time where, with our guidance, you start to communicate about Care Friends. You will introduce the new referral program to your volunteers and build excitement for the app. Our step-by-step guidance planning ensures you cover all bases for a smooth and complete launch planning. This step can take from two weeks to a bit longer, depending on your organisation.
- The launch itself. This is the moment your volunteers are able to download the app and start sharing!
How secure is Care Friends?
Very secure! Care Friends is built with the latest security protocols in mind. The platform can be set up with different sites and different permissions. You also control who can take part in your organisation’s referral scheme.
Can I change the look and feel of the app?
The app can be customised in your colour scheme and you can add your own text, images, videos and logos to your opportunties. You can also customise the notifications that go out to app users and add your own referral policy rules. We will guide you through this to ensure that the app feels totally “yours” for your employees.
How can volunteers refer a friend?
Easily, via three taps on their phone. They choose the role for which they want to refer a friend and share it using the innate share function on their mobile. Most often this is via a text message, WhatsApp or social media. It’s all supported! Their friend can then read more about the role and choose to complete the short expression of interest form. The moment they submit the form, their friend is notified as well as the recruiter.
Pricing
Care Friends is offered on an annual licence, with pricing based on the number of volunteers who need access to the app. Simple, scalable, and designed to grow with your organisation.