3 reasons your nonprofit should start using Slack today

By 48in48 | April 13, 2016

I was talking with a good friend over the weekend that works for a nonprofit when he said to me, “I wish we could find a better way to communicate internally aside from sending a ton of emails.” Of course, my immediate response was, “You should use Slack!” My friend had never heard of Slack, so I broke down the basics to him and thought I would do that here as well.

Slack is an internal communication tool for organizations that replaces the need for that organization to send internal emails completely. It’s sort of like AOL instant messenger or G-chat but much better. Here are a few of the features that make Slack amazing:

  • Different channels to house discussions. For example, if your nonprofit has a large event coming up you can have a channel for that event that houses all of the discussion about that event. You can invite only the necessary people to the channel so that only people that want to know about the event will get the messages.
  • You can have private groups or private messages to have discussions that are not open to the entire organization.
  • You can share files easily as well as links and videos.
  • You can search a channel or in general to find that information you remember talking about last week.
  • Slack has apps for every device, and you can use it in the browser if you prefer.

So here are 3 reasons that your nonprofit should start using Slack today:

  1. Using Slack will eliminate internal emails including the dreaded reply all emails that drive everyone crazy. It will also centralize all communication, so things aren’t lost in the abyss of email.
  2. Using Slack allows people in your organization to jump in and out of conversations as needed, rather than being forced into them.
  3. Using Slack helps to build an organizational culture. One of my favorite channels on my companies Slack is the Random Channel where we all post and talk about funny things. It’s like a digital water cooler for the organization.

Also, make sure to read Jeff’s post about Slack here.

Posted in Nonprofit Culture, Nonprofit Leadership