Blog
The top 10 kiosk applications for nonprofits
December 6, 2010 by Kurt Myrick — Technical Engineer, Phoenix Kiosk
Charities and other nonprofit organizations commonly implement kiosks because they provide a number of benefits. For instance, the units can save the organization time and money, two incredibly important commodities for nonprofits. Kiosks can handle a wide variety of applications, and just about every nonprofit can find a way to make their organization more efficient.
Following are 10 great examples of kiosk applications for nonprofits:
1. Scheduling
Kiosks can provide a simple application for both employee and volunteer scheduling. When volunteers sign in, they can also schedule additional times to volunteer in the future. A scheduling application is also great for special events that require a large number of participants to sign up, and/or check-in. Organizations can access reports that help streamline the administration of their events.
2. Donations/Receipts
Churches and other nonprofits utilize kiosks that are capable of handling currency, for the purpose of receiving donations. Kiosks are an effective way to track donations that are received, and many kiosks integrate printers to provide receipts for monetary donations, or for any other item.
3. Volunteer Recruiting/Registration
Nonprofits can attract new volunteers by incorporating a marketing message on their kiosk, perhaps with a dual-screen concept. Organizations can also easily manage the sign-up process for new volunteers, as well as maintain their volunteer database through reports generated through their kiosk.
4. Education & Outreach
Why not take an informative presentation and place it on your kiosk to welcome guests and tell them about your organization's mission? A kiosk provides a perfect opportunity to share a nonprofit's story in a compelling, interactive way. Many nonprofits outline their programs and inspire people to volunteer/donate through kiosks.
5. Advertising & Branding
Organizations can generate revenue by taking advantage of a kiosk's advertising capabilities. This can be done in a dual-screen format, whereby an advertising screen provides information about organizational sponsors or donors, etc. At the same time, the kiosk helps raise community awareness and helps to maximize a nonprofit's branding opportunities.
6. Staff/Employee Access
Although most nonprofit kiosks are targeted at actual volunteers and donators, or prospects for these acts of kindness, many kiosks are also utilized by staff or employees. Since some staff may not have their own computers, kiosks can provide access to a company intranet and/or other important organizational information. A printer is often included for this application so that staff can print forms, etc.
7. Job Postings
Some nonprofits, such as Goodwill, play the role of job facilitator. In this case, a kiosk provides a great interactive format. Specific software can allow nonprofits to control all of the content that appears on their job-posting kiosk application, or any other application for that matter. Additional opportunities, such as housing, could also be provided.
8. Retail/Inventory/Reporting
Many nonprofits provide items for sale to the public, or otherwise need inventory or other reports. This information can be entered into a kiosk, and/or displayed on it for staff, volunteers or consumers to see. This application could be connected to an internal network, and it would be especially helpful for retail outlets.
9. Health Information/Medical Screening
Many healthcare-related kiosks are being introduced into the marketplace. At a minimum, these kiosks provide helpful health information to consumers. Many of the kiosks also collect health data, vital statistics and readings/measurements before providing consumers with relevant health information/treatment options, etc. These kiosks typically include printers so consumers can take information with them.
10. Remote Monitoring
Many nonprofits have numerous locations, and with a kiosk at each location, it would be feasible to connect all of the kiosks through a network. This would allow, for instance, the owner of a lost dog to search through an entire database (numerous shelters) of pound puppies, instead of one database for one shelter. The remote monitoring would also be valuable for any organization that tracks inventory.
