Here are the steps to complete your onboarding and join the team as a volunteer. Developers, don’t miss the extra notes at the bottom.

Setting up your email account

• We will create a Google Workspace account for you ([email protected]).
  
  Your task: Check your own personal email for the activation message. After activating your account, let the person who onboarded you know. It keeps things moving.
  
  How to use it: Your inbox, your rules. Just remember, you’re speaking for Social Income now.
  
  

• We’ll add your email to our mailing list for all active volunteers ([email protected]).

Your task: Send an email to the mailing list introducing yourself so the team knows that you’ve joined. Share briefly why you are volunteering and what you’ll be working on. Keep it short and feel free to add links to your LinkedIn or social media accounts.

How to use it: Use the mailing list for broad updates or open invites that are not urgent, like asking the group for input on your work or sharing something for review. For quick questions or urgent things feel free to use the Telegram group. 

Connecting via the messaging apps

Your task: Send your phone number to the person helping with the onboarding. Make sure you have Telegram and WhatsApp installed and ready to use.

• We’ll add you to the WhatsApp group Social Income Staff. It’s kind of a legacy channel, but still active. If everyone ever moves to Telegram, we will move to this group chat too, but let’s be honest, that day may never come.

How to use it: For quick, time-sensitive updates like “Townhall starts in 30 minutes.”

• We’ll add you to specific Telegram groups where we discuss topic specific things like upcoming social media and journal posts, or other operational work. It’s where most information is exchanged.

How to use it: Stay active in the chat and keep your topics moving forward. That’s how ideas turn into action — otherwise, they just fade away.

Files on the drive

• We will share access to the relevant shared drives so you can start working and create new files.

How to use it: We keep everything in the shared drives so everyone can find and use it. Try not to save things in My Drive. We work open by default.

Regular meetings

It is a fine line between not enough updates and too many meetings. Every volunteer also has different expectations and availability, and we understand that. That is why we decided early on that every meeting is optional. Just remember that if you cannot be there, you also miss your chance to weigh in. Decisions still need to be made.

The following meetings turned out to be the most useful and are now our regular online meetups:

• Bi-monthly Town Hall
  On the first of every other month, we meet online for one hour to share updates and ideas. The director hosts, and volunteers often present their work from the past two months. We vote on decisions, share field experiences, and discuss new topics.
  
  

• Weekly Management Meeting
  Every Friday morning we meet for 30 minutes to review the week and plan the next. If you want to stay closely involved, this is the best place. Whether you join or not, you always have access to the agenda and the notes.
  
  

• Quarterly Finance Call
  A 30 minute session led by our finance lead to review donations, grants, spending, and reporting plans. It is a good chance to get to know your finances and to understand how the money flows in detail.

Social Media and website

It goes without saying that you should follow Social Income on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook. This helps you stay up to date and see what our social media team is working on.

• Volunteer experience on LinkedIn
  We are happy if you add Social Income to your volunteering experience. It helps us get seen by more people. And more visibility means more donations. More donations means more people escape poverty.
  
  

• Team page on the website
  We’re adding all active volunteers to our team page and need a photo of you — something that looks friendly, approachable, and trustworthy. Check how others did it for some inspiration. Volunteers inactive for over three months are considered former until they return. This ensures we represent our organization’s active size transparently and accurately.

Donate

No one is forced to pay 1% of your salary. But it’s of course our main story and makes it more believable if we all participate.  

Your task: Regardless of your decision you should make at least a one-time $1 payment. Why? Because then you get all the information all contributors get. And make sure you use your very private email address, not your individual Social Income address. 

Joining our annual trip to West Africa

All volunteers are encouraged to join our yearly team trip to West Africa. It’s a unique opportunity to experience the reality of our work firsthand and get to know our local teams and recipients. We’ve created travel guides so you can see what awaits you — including photos and impressions from previous trips.

Guinea Travel Tips

SL Travel Tips

Optional (depending on your role) 

• If needed, we will add you to our password manager. We use 1Password, and everyone gets a pro account through our partnership with them.

How to use it: Keep your master password very safe and, if possible, store it in another password manager or somewhere equally secure.

• If needed, we give you access to other tools such as Figma, Slack, Stripe, or Adobe.

• Developers have additional steps for onboarding, please see here.  

Your next steps, as a new volunteer: 

1. Activate your SI email account!

2. Send an image that matches the style from our team page.

3. Write a short hello with an introduction to [email protected] about who you are and what you want to achieve. 3-4 sentences is totally fine, plus a link to your Linkedin profile.

4. Add the volunteer experience in your LinkedIn profile.