Mobile Savings for Charity Making a Difference Through Sport

Skilz Academy is an Arbroath-based charity focused on using the power of sport and physical activity to make a positive impact in the community.

With sport teaching young people how to develop valuable life skills such as a strong work ethic, teamwork skills and dedication, Skilz Academy believe that everyone can benefit from a more motivated and healthier society. The team offer sports training, facilities and a range of projects which meet the needs of the young people they work with, including free sports activities offered by professional coaches in schools throughout Angus and Dundee.

Challenges

With a growing number of activities across the area, and the requirement to make contact with parents and others during a whole range of possible scenarios, Skilz Academy’s programme coordinator needed a reliable mobile phone.  Furthermore, a second phone was also required for coaches and session workers to use in the event of emergencies.

The charity also needed smartphones with a reasonable camera for taking high quality images of the various activities on offer – for social media and general marketing use – but all on a tight budget!

William Mitchell, Chairman of Board, Skilz Academy commented, “Value for money is really important to us. We offer free sports sessions in schools across Angus and now Dundee so, in order to ensure that they continue to be free, we need to plough our budget into equipment and staff wages rather than the best phones.  Every penny is a prisoner!”

Assessment and Recommendations

After having their needs assessed, GoodCall set up two lines, one for the programme coordinator and one for coaches and session workers to use as an emergency contact number.

 William continued, “When we started discussing our need for mobile phones in the charity, our trustee Dan Cargill made us aware of GoodCall’s dedicated service for non-profits and the cost savings that would be available to us.  It made perfect sense given our eagerness to keep classes free, and to keep costs down.

“GoodCall kept us informed at every stage and forwarded a proposal with low-cost tariffs which the board were extremely impressed with. They went on to recommend an Android phone, which really does the job for our staff.”

 The Benefits

 Although the team did not use mobile phones before and therefore could not contrast or compare, they are more than confident that they have saved both time and money.

William explained, “We have almost certainly saved money compared to going to a local shop or buying online from the networks directly. It’s made communication between trustees, our new programme coordinator, our session workers and coaches much easier.

“Making these savings, in the knowledge that we are supporting a fellow non-profit dedicated to helping the local community, is a complete win-win! It was also a very simple and quick process and we’re delighted with our two lines and handsets – we haven’t needed any after-care but we know that the GoodCall team are there if we need them, and they are dedicated to keeping our costs down going forwards.”

You can read more about Skilz Academy and the work they do on their website.