Rallyhood | Girl Scouts of North East Ohio

Social media, email, texting—sometimes it’s hard to keep up with all the different ways to communicate. Wouldn’t it be great if there was one tool and one place that allowed you to get the information you need when you need it AND allow you to communicate with us and your fellow volunteers and parents?

We’re very excited to let you know that we’ve found a solution! It’s called Rallyhood.

Rallyhood is a group collaboration platform that streamlines communications, and make communication among GSNEO volunteers, parents and staff so much easier.

How it works is simple: Rallyhood allows us to create rallies, which are private, online, digital spaces with communication and coordination tools to make collaboration fun and easy, from a shared calendar, message board and photo gallery to a place to upload and download files. A rally makes group effort seamless by eliminating the chaos of those terrible reply-all emails. It also sends out automatic reminders for upcoming events, and you can access it from your computer or smart phone.

>>Intro to Rallyhood: The Basics

>>Troop Rally Request Form

>>Hub & Rally Admin Capabilities

YouTube Playlist: Rallyhood “How To” Tutorials

>>Rallyhood User Guide for Admins and Members

FAQs

What is it for? How will it help my service unit or troop? toggle arrow

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.

Why did our council choose Rallyhood? toggle arrow

Our council launched Rallyhood 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.

How is Rallyhood different from other apps? toggle arrow

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.

How much does it cost? toggle arrow

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.

How do I start a Rallyhood Community for my service unit? toggle arrow

GSNEO has created a Rallyhood community hub for each service unit. Service unit volunteers will receive an email invitation to access and start using their Rallyhood site, which they can choose to use or delegate to another volunteer on their service unit team.

How does a Rallyhood Community work? toggle arrow

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.

What if my service unit or troop already uses Rallyhood? toggle arrow

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.

Who can see my Rallyhood Community Hub and Rallies? toggle arrow

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.

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? toggle arrow

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!

What are the fees associated with using the payment and special events tools in Rallyhood? toggle arrow

Rallyhood partners with Stripe to offer a safe, secure, and easy way to account for and collect payments:

Credit cards (5.8% + $0.30 transaction fee)
Cash/check payments made directly to troop leaders (no cost).

Rallyhood’s payment collection system allows troops to choose whether to absorb the fees or have the payor absorb the fees.

In almost all cases, the troop should choose the Fee Option that charges fees to the payor.

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.

>>Rallyhood Special Events - Tracking Payments Outside of Stripe