Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Twilio.org Impact Corps?

The Twilio Impact Corps is a community of Twilio employees who are here to help social impact organizations with skilled volunteering needs. If you are a nonprofit or NGO that has joined the Twilio.org Impact Access program, our volunteers are here to help you!

Who is eligible to work with volunteers through the Impact Corps?

Nonprofits and social impact organizations that have joined the Twilio.org Impact Access program or a Twilio.org grant recipient are invited to join the Impact Corps portal and reach out to volunteers.

What types of projects can I get help with?

Social impact organizations should use volunteer calls to receive consultative or advisory help with a challenge or help with Twilio solutions. Engagements that continue beyond the initial call should have clear expectations for both the organization and the volunteer. A few helpful things to keep in mind:

  • A good match. Ensure that you and the volunteer are a good match for each other. A good match means that the volunteer has the expertise and time availability to help address the challenge or question at hand. Be sure to ask about this in your initial communication and conversation to ensure a great experience for you both.
  • Use Twilio. While the engagement doesn't need a Twilio focus, we do ask that you are currently a Twilio.org customer or grant recipient.
  • Scope it. Should you determine with your volunteer that the project will go beyond the initial call, ensure that you and your volunteer have properly scoped the work. This ensures you both know the work that needs to be done and mutually agree on desired outcomes.

When I reach out to my volunteer, what information should I provide?

To make the most of your call, share as much information as possible about your challenge or question. Think about including this information:

  • Name and mission of your organization
  • What are you trying to achieve?
  • What is your timeline?
  • Do you currently use Twilio? If so, include the link to any code you can
  • Will this project integrate with other systems or software? (if technical)
  • Do you have a developer on staff? (if technical)
  • How do I find the Impact Corps volunteer that’s best for me?

    Impact Corps volunteers come from different departments and have their own area of expertise. We recommend using the keyword search terms. You can also compare volunteers by their profiles.

    Who are the Impact Corps volunteers?

    They are Twilio employees volunteering their time to help you achieve a specific goal with their skills. Each volunteer is here to answer your questions and/or route you to the best person.

    What should I expect once I select my volunteer?

    You can expect a response from your volunteer within 3 business days. Your advisory session can happen via video or phone. The volunteer will work with you to understand your needs and discover how they can help. If your organization needs to deploy a more sophisticated project, your volunteer may be able to help define next steps with you. Any follow-up actions or conversations after the advisory session should be mutually agreed upon by you and the volunteer.

What is the Twilio.org Impact Corps?

The Twilio.org Impact Corps is a community of Twilio employees and Twilio developers who are here to help social impact organizations best leverage Twilio communications technology. As a member of the Impact Corps you get to use your Twilio knowledge to help organizations reduce the friction they have in communicating with the communities they serve.

What do I get out being a member of the Impact Corps?

The Impact Corps is your chance to give back. Whether you have 1 hour or 10 hours a month, you get the opportunity to use your skills to have rewarding conversations with organizations and to have an impact on their larger communications strategy. You’d be amazed at how your knowledge and business skills can truly impact an organization. Other benefits include: meeting other volunteers, count these hours towards your company’s dollars for doers program (if applicable), and learn about organizations you may not have encountered otherwise.

Why does Impact Corps exist?

Twilio.org launched the Impact Corps in the fall of 2017 to aid our customers expand their impact through the Twilio platform. Whether that was getting started at understanding what Twilio is and its capabilities, or how to add SMS into their current tech setup, we wanted a scalable way to help as many social impact organizations as possible. Additionally, we saw high engagement from employees when they were able to advise social impact organizations and wanted to offer them a way to give back to our community. But we didn’t just want our employees to get involved, one of the best assets Twilio.org can provide our customers is our developer community. They have incredible knowledge of the Twilio platform and wanted a way to bring that community together for the betterment of social impact organizations. We feel this program enables organizations, community members, and employees to uphold two of our nine Twilio values “Empower Others” and “Create Experiences”.

I’m ready. How do I become an Impact Corps volunteer?

Great! We’ll need a few things from you before getting started.

  • You should have practical experience working on Twilio projects as a developer, manager, or other key contributor
  • Have a current Twilio account
  • Be familiar with Twilio.org customer stories and use cases
  • Commit to responding to incoming requests within 3 business days
  • Be willing and able to share your skills with social impact organizations
  • Select which keywords you want to help organizations with: Getting started, Technical architecture & best practices, Troubleshooting, User experience & solution design, International operation, Security & compliance, Administration, General business questions

When you’re all set, please fill out the contact us contact us form and someone from the Twilio.org team will be in touch shortly. We will reach out about a training sessions and the required materials you’ll need to review.

What can I expect from an Impact Corps engagement?

With over 1,200 social impact organizations building on Twilio, that means we have a variety of organizations using our technology.

As a volunteer, your aim should be to deliver a top notch experience to our customers. We want organizations to walk away from this experience with their question answered and recommending this engagement to others. Here are a few examples of engagements we’ve had with customers.

  • An international NGO has a data set that it wants to turn into an IVR for work in Zambia. We connected a Twilio employee developer with the organization to scope the project and determine the timeline.
  • A nonprofit who is the financial health space came to us thinking that they needed a developer. However, after an hour long advisory call, their challenge was solved. They simply needed someone to walk their developers through Twilio implementation and architecture.
  • A five person nonprofit was looking to implement an SMS solution into their current tech stack. However they lacked a developer. One of our Impact Corps members spent three 1 hour sessions with them. The first call was to clearly understand their challenge, technical capacity, timeline and budget. The volunteer then did some investigating into what partner solutions might be relevant for them. They re-convened and the Impact Corps member shared two solutions with them that would be appropriate. She connected them with the partner and the organization was able to implement SMS support.