Our nation needs a safe, authentic, engaging place to discuss the person of Jesus. Transformed lives transform society. Alpha Canada is strategically placed with its innovations to reach more people than ever before.
| Organization Name: | Alpha Ministries Canada |
| Location: | Richmond, BC |
| Project Name: | Alpha Concierge Project |
| Amount Awarded: | $85,000.00 |
| Date Awarded: | 12/10/2016 |
| Participating Grantmakers: | Bridgeway Foundation, John & Rebecca Horwood, Kehila Fund, Redleaf Foundation, River Dali Fund |
| Purpose of Investment: | To create and launch new online support and customized service for 7,000 leaders of a new evangelism course to enhance the quality of courses being delivered across Canada. |
Executive Summary from Alpha:
This is a critical season of accelerated growth for Alpha. The release of leading edge new resources, including the Alpha Film Series and a global advertising initiative featuring Bear Grylls starting in the fall, means many new churches are engaging. So far, over 750 churches ran Alpha in 2016 but not in 2015 and at the mid-point of the year our team has already presented to 5710 leaders. To remain sustainable in our growth we will be connecting with up to 7000 leaders a year and need to have a quality support system in place. In-person support has been our recognized standard of service and our challenge is to maintain that level without increasing staff numbers to meet the need.
Evangelism through Alpha is most effective when the experience sparks a recommendation – friends bring friends. Alpha surveys show that when teams are trained 33% of guests come to faith, compared to 20% when training was not conducted.
We are beginning to address this need with the innovative on-line Alpha Builder. It provides a seamless process to preview our resources and products and a new suite of training modules which equip leaders to get started and to provide an incredible introduction to Christianity for their guests. Builder goes a long way to fulfilling our dream of providing practical and bite-sized support, but for many users there remains a need for a personal connection and the opportunity for questions to be asked, concerns to be assuaged, stories to be shared, prayers to be said and encouragement to be given.
Concierge will eventually give users exactly what they need at any point in their journey – across Canada’s time zones. Triggered by user metrics, it will organize and triage customer issues through multiple channels of support while remaining loyal to our brand of being relational. This live chat and/or video interface support service and marketing automation platform will add a further dynamic aspect to enhance the effectiveness of Alpha Builder.
Alpha Concierge will positively influence the quality of Alpha courses delivered. We anticipate the project will commence development in September 2016 with completion within 12 months and will cost $85,000.
Measurable Outcomes:
- By April 2018: Give direct, personal support (chat, phone, email) to 75% of all Alpha Leaders (75% of 2000)
- By April 2018: to see a 30% increase in the number of courses that train and equip their teams with our training resources, giving a better Alpha experience for the guests.
- By September 1 2017: to have 20 volunteer support people trained and operational for concierge service providing national coverage and support to Alpha Leaders for at least 20 hours per week.
- By April 2018: Obtain a conversion rate of 5% of all Website Visitors to Live Chat, 25% of Live Chat Users to new Alpha Builder users and 80% of new Alpha Builder users to new Alpha Leaders.