16 July 2019
SparkOptimus shares results of pro-bono partnership at AMI Annual General Meeting
‘Free the child’s potential and you will transform him into the world’, is what Maria Montessori said. Her philosophy of education, ‘Montessori’, is preserved and cultivated by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI). It was about 1.5 years ago that SparkOptimus engaged in a pro-bono partnership with this international organization. Last April, AMI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place in Amsterdam. During this AGM, Henriëtte Hoving (Manager at SparkOptimus) shared the results and lessons learned in a project we pursued with AMI. Additionally, she reflected on how this project fits SparkOptimus’ thinking about digital disruption.
Helping AMI to optimize engagement with its members
AMI members are Montessori teachers, to-be teachers, school leaders, scholars, parents, and other interested people. They live all over the world: in big cities as well as in remote areas. Therefore, digital technologies can play a big part in keeping all members informed and engaged. Over the last few months, SparkOptimus supported AMI in setting up a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system in which it can conveniently track and update data of its members and automate tasks like membership renewal.
Fitting AMI’s vision and form, we jointly selected the open-source CRM system CIVI. As a next step, the system was implemented in an agile manner. CIVI already had it first showcase, being used to distribute all e-mail invitations for the AGM to members. By using CIVI, AMI can optimize and automate its member administration, freeing up time to focus on developing valuable content and to provide support to a global network.
Sharing the project’s successes as well as lessons learned during the AGM was not only meant to inform but also to inspire both individuals and attendees from affiliate organizations to harness the power of digital technologies.
Towards a future of digital leadership
Now that a CRM system is in place, we are excited to continue our journey with AMI. Building on our learnings, we strive together with AMI to further improve personal engagement with members and to foster member-to-member communication. The power of digital offers enough potential to help them spread their thought leadership and engaging their community even more in the future!
SparkOptimus is always keen to hear about interesting and relevant projects that make an important contribution to society. If you are working on such a project yourself and are interested in engaging with SparkOptimus’ SOcial, get in touch at SOcial@sparkoptimus.com