A Billion Messages For Good: Twilio.org Turns One Year Old

A Billion Messages For Good: Twilio.org Turns One Year Old

In the past year, over 200 organizations sent nearly 10 million messages via voice and text. These nonprofits are taking on projects fighting urban poverty, testing for diseases, providing support in times of crises, and feeding the hungry — all using the power of voice and messaging. Across their different areas of focus, and across the world, they’re showing how simple tools like voice and messaging can change the world.

Empowering Change

Government

Last year, the CFA health team developed Balance, a tool that lets food stamp clients check the available funds on their EBT cards via SMS. Their SMS solution was a welcome alternative to the previous one: an onerous and buggy phone tree. CFA fellows also helped the city of Atlanta build better interactions between its courts and citizens. The ATLCourt application allows Atlanta residents to deal with citations via Twilio-powered SMS. Since it launched in May, more than 10,000 people have been helped by the application.

Arts

Friends of the Dallas Museum of Art earn badges and points to unlock special rewards when you visit the museum. Visitors text activity codes around the museum – at programs, in galleries, distributed by staff which earn them discount rewards at the museum and around Dallas.

Education

Code.org launched Code Studio, an online learning platform to teach young students (K- 8th grade) the basics of computer programming. Kids can use Code Studio’s Play Lab to send apps and animations directly to friends, family and other students via Twilio SMS for free. “We believe passionately that every child who has an opportunity to discover the world around them through the use of a smartphone should also be given the learning capabilities and tools to build their own app,” said Hadi Partovi, founder of Code.org.

Resources for NonProfits

Along with helping more nonprofits build Twilio powered products, we are gathering resources and finding partners for our Twilio.org customers.

For example, Telerivet provides technical and non-technical folks with an easier way to build and deploy mobile messaging services, without huge upfront investments of time or money. Their platform uses Twilio Voice and SMS to power their virtual phone numbers and SMS services globally.

Zidisha, which empowers entrepreneurs to launch their businesses using crowd-funded loans, is built on the Telerivet platform (powered by Twilio Messaging).

Ready Made Tools For Communication

It allows you, our customers, to spend less time coding and more time making an impact. We were humbled and excited to be invited to The White House Innovation Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day and share the ways emergency workers can use tech to improve disaster response. From broadcasting a message to hundreds, to conducting SMS surveys, to getting a large group all on one conference line, the Rapid Response Kit is designed to answer responders’ communications needs.

Growing the Twilio.org Community

To all of the organizations that became part of Twilio.org this past year, thank you for making such a massive impact. We believe we are only beginning to see the power of harnessing communications for social good. Whether you’re a nonprofit looking for a communication solution, a developer wanting to lend a hand to a great cause, or you have an open source tool you can share, we want you to get involved with Twilio.org. Here’s how you can:

• Apply for Twilio.org where you can receive a $500 kickstart bundle and 25% discount off Twilio messaging and minutes
• Install, deploy and use the Rapid Response Kit in the Twilio.org Github
• Read about how to make a technical contribution to the Twilio.org Github here
• Contact Erika Balbuena, Manager of Twilio.org, with any other questions or ideas team@twilio.org.