A Chat for Impact Summit powered by WhatsApp will take place this May, in partnership with Praekelt.org, a tech non-profit, the social change platform, Turn.io, and global development community media platform, Devex.
The initiative was devised with the aim of supporting and accelerating the work that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are doing to provide vulnerable, disempowered and minority communities with easy and secure access to vital information and support via WhatsApp. It will be hosted and run by Turn.io, a platform incubated by Praekelt.org to build world-class software products for social impact organizations that manage and automate conversations to improve lives.
The Covid-19 pandemic has put untold stresses on people around the world in a myriad of ways, including increasing tensions and problems within our society - whether that be systemic racial injustice, domestic abuse, or mental health and educational challenges.
The initiative aims to support, empower and educate organizations on how they can best connect with the 2 billion people using WhatsApp across the world, providing secure access to information and resources for the people who need it most. To date, 3 billion messages have already been sent by governments, nonprofits and international organizations to citizens through official WhatsApp messaging services on COVID-19.
In the initial phase, 100+ organizations will be selected to join the Chat for Impact community, which will give access to resources and information from the Incubator. Thirty organizations will then be selected to participate in May’s Chat for Impact Summit for two days of training to advance their goals of addressing societal issues using WhatsApp as a communication tool.
Finally, ten high-impact organizations will be invited by a panel to join the Impact Accelerator. Each of the ten will receive financial support (of up to $50,000 each) and mentorship. The aim is to enable each organization to build and launch a WhatsApp messaging service that significantly enhances their work and advances social justice and equality.
NGOs working in areas including (but not limited to) equality, legal rights, economic empowerment, health, education and workplace diversity are encouraged to apply.
“Our experience over the past few years has demonstrated the incredible impact of chat solutions using WhatsApp for organizations working in the social impact space,” says Gustav Praekelt, Founder of Praekelt.org | Co-Founder of Turn.io. “We’re excited to bring that experience to those social justice organizations whose impact will be significantly enhanced through the addition of scalable chat - as well as further expand the Chat for Impact community of practice that brings together social impact organizations from different spheres and locations around the world.”
Victoria Grand, Vice President for Policy and Communications at WhatsApp comments: “We are honored that billions of people all over the world use WhatsApp to stay connected to friends and family, particularly during COVID-19. It’s been inspiring to see governments, NGOs and charities use WhatsApp to support people through messaging services that enable covid vaccine scheduling, fact-checking, and hotlines to help victims of domestic abuse. We hope the Chat for Impact Summit will inspire and support organizations to develop more ways to provide vital information and resources to people and advance social justice in communities around the world."
Applications can be made on the dedicated platform here.
Organizations wanting to apply to the Chat for Impact Impact Summit and Accelerator can find more information about the eligibility criteria here.
For further information contact: impact@turn.io
