Community6 min read
How to Run a Community on One Platform: Members, Messages and Money
Congregations, leagues, clubs and associations often run on spreadsheets and free apps they don't control. Here's how a community operating system brings members, messages and money together under your own name.
Where communities actually run today
Most communities are held together by volunteers and a patchwork of tools: a spreadsheet of members, a group chat per team, an email newsletter tool, a separate giving platform, a sign-up sheet for volunteers and a free social app the community doesn't control. When an organizer steps down, much of that knowledge leaves with them.
What a community operating system is
A community operating system is one platform for the member directory, group texts and email, gatherings online, dues and donations, and shared knowledge — with your community's name on it. In KamoUniverse it's the same platform businesses run on, set up for the way communities work.
Keep your members' data yours
On a free social platform, your members' attention and data belong to the platform. On your own universe, the member directory, the history and the brand are yours — and you choose the SMS, email and payment providers, paying them directly with no markup from us.
Where SI members help
SI members take the repetitive work off your volunteers:
- Answering calls about service times, games and events
- Sending reminders about gatherings and volunteer shifts
- Answering member questions from your handbook
- Calling around for cover when a volunteer can't make it
What it costs
The free plan is a real workspace. Paid plans are priced per member who signs in — the organizers, staff and volunteers who run things. The members you reach by text, email or a meeting link live in your directory as contacts, and payments run through your own processor at your own rates.
- 1Import your membersImport the member spreadsheet you already have into your directory.
- 2Invite your organizersInvite the organizers, staff and volunteers who run things.
- 3Connect your providersConnect your SMS, email and payment providers, or use KamoUniverse's built-in email and voice.
- 4Add an SI memberAdd an SI member to answer member questions and send reminders.
- 5Make it yoursPut your community's name, logo and colors on every screen.
