Q: What is it for? How will it help my Service or Troop?
A: The purpose of Rallyhood is to make the day-to-day responsibilities of volunteers in leadership roles easier. The Rallyhood platform combines the functionality of tools like Eventbrite, SignUp Genius, Shutterfly, Facebook, Flickr, Google Calendar, Google Forms, and Survey Monkey in one place. It seamlessly integrates so many of the functions our volunteers need — communication, calendaring, file sharing, surveys, and payment — and that’s just a partial list! Service units and troops can customize their sites with their own photos and information, creating their own space for volunteers and parents to communicate.
Q: Why did our Council choose Rallyhood?
A: Our Council is launching Rallyhood this year to provide an additional level of support to service units and troops at a time when staying connected online is more important than ever. Rallyhood has been working with Girl Scout councils for 5+ years—they’re familiar with the Girl Scout movement and the needs of its volunteers. In fact, Rallyhood has worked directly with Council staff and volunteers to build out functionality that addresses our organization’s unique needs. Rallyhood has created an ecosystem customized to our Council and volunteer groups, and will continue to work with Council staff to improve how the system works for our volunteers.
Q: How is Rallyhood different from other apps?
A: We have heard from many volunteers that the inconsistency of using fragmented tools creates lots of challenges and makes volunteer lives difficult. A key benefit of Rallyhood is that it helps us take a more streamlined approach. The intent is to have one platform with all the tools and all our Council groups in one place. It provides us with a council-wide solution that brings all of our groups, troops, committee panels, and forums together on one platform to create a more consistent and efficient Girl Scout experience for all of us.
Q: How much does it cost?
A: Our Council covers the cost of using Rallyhood. The only cost associated would be processing fees for Stripe if you choose to use the payment feature for events or activities.
Q: How do I start a Rallyhood Community for my Service Unit?
A: Our Council has already created a Rallyhood community hub for each service unit. Service unit managers will receive an email invitation to access and start using their Rallyhood site, which they can choose to use, ignore if not interested (It’ll be there later if you change your mind!), or delegate to another volunteer on their service unit team.
Q: How does a Rallyhood Community work?
A: There are a number of council-level community hubs categorized by types of volunteer roles and activities where Council staff will post content for volunteer groups or Girl Scout families. In addition to these council-level Rallyhood communities, each service unit may have its own community hub with additional rallies (sub-groups) within it, such as rallies for troop leaders, troop cookie managers, families, event coordinators, day camp/encampment volunteer committees, and others that are specific to that service unit. Within these community hubs and rallies, a service unit or troop can promote events, post information, start conversations, take registration and payment for activities, create calendars, etc. There is no limit to the number of rallies allowed to be created within a community hub, and these can be created by anyone who is an admin on the account.
Q: What if my Service Unit or Troop already uses Rallyhood?
A: We know some service units and troops are already using Rallyhood on their own. That’s great! Your existing Rallyhood community can be integrated into our Council ecosystem, which will allow you to stop paying for your own account and for your volunteers to access other council-level Rallyhood communities. Additionally, if you are currently using a free version of Rallyhood, moving your Rally to the Council ecosystem will allow you to access premium paid features.
Q: Who can see my Rallyhood Community Hub and Rallies?
A: Community hubs and rallies can be set to public or private. If set to public, anyone could find that hub or Rally in a search, join it, and access content. If set to private, an individual would need to be invited in order to access the hub or Rally. This way you can control who is a member of individual rallies, such as inviting all troop cookie managers within your service unit to a Rally specific to them.
Q: I’m already using other platforms (Shutterfly, Facebook, Band, etc.) to store and share files, posts, calendars, and photos. How do I move them to Rallyhood?
A: There is not an automatic way to move content from other platforms to Rallyhood, since they are competing companies. You will need to move content manually to Rallyhood by downloading from your existing platform(s) and uploading to Rallyhood. The good news—it might be a good time to clean up and reorganize your photos and files!
Q: What are the fees associated with using the payment and special events tools in Rallyhood?
A: Rallyhood partners with Stripe to offer a safe, secure, and easy way to collect payments. Rallyhood charges a platform fee of 2.9% to help cover costs for things like development of functionality, maintenance of the technology, and security for users.
Stripe charges a credit card processing fee of 2.9% + $.30 per transaction. Organizers have a live calculation of any associated fees (platform and credit card processing) right on the setup page. As organizers are creating tickets or payment requests, they can see exactly what the fees might be without any guessing.
Rallyhood tries to keep fees as low and fair as possible. For comparison, fees on a $10 ticket in Rallyhood are $.91 vs. $2.24 in Eventbrite, which is almost 2.5 times higher.
