Case study

How JA Worldwide connects and
engages change makers worldwide
to drive more impact

The non-governmental organization partners with Hivebrite to connect alumni in over 100 countries to create a global force for good.

We wanted to provide a community experience that would resonate with each member. With Hivebrite, we can empower alumni leaders to run sub-communities where members can exchange and collaborate with a more targeted selection of people while maintaining the objectives of the wider community.

Sarah Rapp
Director, Alumni and People Engagement at JA Worldwide

50K

Members

110

Sub-communities for targeted resources

250

Alumni leaders

About JA Worldwide

JA Worldwide is one of the world’s leading youth-serving NGOs, providing experiential learning in entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and work readiness to help young people succeed in the global economy. Its network of independent JA entities operates worldwide, each managing programs, fundraising, events, compliance, and community engagement. Together, they serve students, alumni, volunteers, teachers, and nearly 100,000 schools annually. JA Worldwide has ranked among the world’s top ten NGOs every year since 2019 and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and 2023..

Visit the community

The community challenge

Each year, JA Worldwide’s network of over 450,000 teachers and business volunteers serves more than 12 million students in over 100 countries.

Millions of people worldwide have had life-changing experiences with JA Worldwide’s programs. The NGO wanted to further strengthen the impact and reach of its programs by keeping in touch with alumni and enabling them to connect with each other.

”Research has shown that one JA student directly influences the lives of five other students in their peer group. We wanted to connect all of our alumni around the world and offer them an interactive space where they could continue to grow, strengthen individual and collective networks, and help others” said Sarah Rapp, Director, Alumni and People Engagement, JA Worldwide.

The organization decided to create its online community, Gather, to eliminate geographic and generational barriers and enable alumni with decades of work experience to interact, ask questions, share ideas, and build relationships.

JA Worldwide benefits from a hugely diverse global network of alumni with different passions, skill sets, languages, and ambitions.

Gather currently counts over 50,000 members and has 110 sub-communities based on location and interest that sit within its wider community. These sub-communities are run by over 250 alumni leaders, saving the core-team effort and time while increasing engagement and impact.

The Hivebrite solution

Alumni leaders are selected each year to represent their country and drive engagement from the ground up. Leaders can facilitate discussions in the forums, send push campaigns to promote content, and organize events based on demographic member data.

”Our alumni leaders do incredible work on the ground to ensure that especially the underserved youth around the world are listened to and get the skills they need to thrive. By centralizing all of our activities on one platform, we have greater visibility of the impact of all our initiatives, meaning we can help support our different leaders and volunteers. It has also greatly simplified our communication with all members,” said Sarah Rapp, Director, Alumni and People Engagement at JA Worldwide.

With Hivebrite, JA Worldwide can also offer its members a fully branded mobile application available in both the App Store and Google Play. The mobile app version of our community has been instrumental in improving member accessibility given the majority access the platform from a mobile device.

Members can also strengthen their careers and companies with Gather Opportunities, a virtual careers board offering mentoring opportunities, career advice, and job listings.

JA Alumni networks organize numerous events including the annual JA Alumni Europe Conference to bring together alumni for three days of workshops and panel sessions on entrepreneurship and innovation.

The team leverages the community to enhance the attendee experience before, during, 
 and after its events by sharing resources, encouraging attendees to connect, and sharing the latest event information.

The outcome

The team is focused on removing all barriers to joining and engaging in the community.

Signing up and getting involved with the community is fast, simple, and personalized—new members are recommended starting points in the community based on their interests. Non-members can view upcoming events to encourage them to join.

The online community is available in multiple languages to meet the needs of JA Worldwide’s international alumni. There is also a branded mobile app version of the community to empower members to more conveniently connect, facilitate deeper engagement, and enhance brand recognition.

The team behind the community can work serenely knowing that the community strategy is future-proofed. They can turn off and on features as their strategy evolves and have greater visibility on engagement activities at a local and global level. With greater visibility, the team can encourage collaborations and knowledge sharing between different groups to drive more impact.

“ We wanted to provide a community experience that would resonate with each member. With Hivebrite, we can empower alumni leaders to run sub-communities where members can exchange and collaborate with a more targeted selection of people while maintaining the objectives of the wider community.”

Sarah Rapp
Director, Alumni and People Engagement at JA Worldwide