How a charity organization in Ukraine used Spark to manage email without clutter

The lifeblood of any charitable organization is donations, and nowhere is that need more critical than right now, in Ukraine. In the summer of 2023, Readdle Writer, Vita Vypovska worked with the volunteer organization Vilni, which helps the Ukrainian military and supports their needs. The charity organized an exhibition called The Same Words at the Lavra Gallery in Kyiv to raise funds for medical equipment for the Azov Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine. 

Naturally, Vita put Spark to good use — an innovative email client that may be useful for other charities looking to optimize communication and increase work efficiency.

Prioritizing communication

As a charity exhibition presenting famous artists, it was crucial to invite journalists to cover the event. Spark simplified Vita’s inbox experience by providing automatic Smart Categorization: priority emails appeared at the top of her inbox, newsletters were filtered so that she only need focus on what mattered at that moment, and Spark labels enabled sorting by category for easy discovery later on.

The complexity of the event required precision planning: when coordinating the fundraising event, she Prioritized emails from critical donors and sponsors to land at the top of her inbox, ensuring prompt responses. Press releases were Pinned, along with email correspondence with the artists to ensure seamless coordination. After the exhibition, it was easy to report on the funds raised and the medical equipment purchased, as all vital correspondence chains were either Prioritized, Pinned, or Labeled.

So whether you're launching an appeal, working with journalists, or approaching a tight deadline, our ability to focus can be the only thing that separates success from failure. Sometimes there really is no margin for error. Even a simple overlooked report can present legal issues. In Vita's case, Spark’s Smart Inbox ensured that both the critical receipt for purchasing a blood heater and the official appeal to the charity were at the top of her inbox.

Facilitating collaboration

During her time with Vilni, Vita saw ways that Spark helps teams running charities to be more productive too. For instance, many official organizations rely on email to share information about projects and tasks to maintain an appropriate level of security. With Spark for Teams, individuals can be added to a shared team inbox without sharing passwords — this can be an effective and secure way to communicate, especially when some team members work remotely or are not in the office. 

Before providing interviews or official information to public sources, it is worth ensuring that all information is correct and presented in an adequate manner. That's why it's convenient to work with Shared Drafts in Spark — a team tool that helps you see what you might have missed on your own. 

With Shared Drafts team members can collaborate effortlessly through real-time email drafting and editing, utilizing side-chat features to provide feedback and refine messages. For example, a project manager can create a shared draft for a fundraising campaign email. This allows team members to contribute ideas and suggestions in real time, producing a cohesive and compelling message.

Efficient email organization

The more people on board, the greater the need to organize workflows. With Spark’s Shared Inbox, all team members can process incoming requests from one inbox, and clearly see who is responsible for what. They can assign emails to each other, like tasks, mark them as done, and be notified about status updates.

Charity organizations as a whole can also rely on efficient organization of their inbox through free tools such as Done Marker and Set Aside. A volunteer coordinator might mark emails about closed requests as "Done" as soon as the acceptance forms are signed, and “Set Aside” emails about logistics for event planning for future use. This ensures that the inbox is not cluttered, which helps keep requests from military units, reports, and transfer acceptance certificates at your fingertips. 

In short, Spark can serve as a powerful tool for charities — offering a suite of tools designed to improve communication, streamline workflow, and foster collaboration. By using Spark, charities can rely on a clean inbox: important emails won't get lost, reporting folders will always be prioritized, and communication between members and outside the organization will be seamless.

It’s easy to transform your charity's communication with our range of Free and Premium tools. Experience greater control and efficiency needed for team collaboration with our free 14-day trial for Spark for Teams.