Here are the 8 steps to complete your onboarding and join the team as a volunteer.

1. Set 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 recommend adding the account to your devices as a normal email account, so you have access to email, calendar, drive, etc.

2. Introduce yourself

To the team

Your task: Send a short hello to the internal mailing list ([email protected]) from your new email address introducing yourself so the team knows that you’ve joined. Share briefly who you are, why you are volunteering and what you’ll be working on. Keep it short (3-4 sentences is fine) and feel free to add links to your LinkedIn or social media accounts.

To the world

We’re adding all active volunteers to our team page. Volunteers inactive for over three months are considered former until they return. This ensures we represent our organization’s active size transparently and accurately.

Your task: Send a portrait photo of yourself — something that looks friendly, approachable, and trustworthy. Check how others did it for some inspiration.

3. Connect 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.

WhatsApp

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.”

Telegram

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.

4. Connect to Google Drive and other tools

We will share access to the relevant shared drives so you can start working and create new files. Depending on your role, we also give you access to other tools such as Figma, Slack, Stripe, 1Password or Adobe.

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.

Recipient visit in Freetown

5. Take part in 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.

6. Follow SI on Social Media

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.

Your task: 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.

7. Donate to see the donor side

No one is forced to pay 1% of their 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 donors get. And make sure you use your very private email address, not your individual Social Income address. 

8. Join 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

by Willemijn de Gaay Fortmann

Sierra Leone Travel Tips

by Social Income Team

Your initial tasks as a new volunteer

1. Activate your new SI email account.

2. Send a short hello from your new email address with a brief introduction to [email protected].

3. Send us a portrait photo for the team page.

4. Add the volunteer experience in your LinkedIn profile. 

5. Donate at least USD 1 to Social Income using your private email address.