The Netherlands Red Cross builds a digital volunteer force with OutSystems

Challenge

Matchmaking bottleneck prevents volunteer-force scaling

The Netherlands Red Cross is one of the country's most important pillars of disaster relief and community support. The organization works with almost 10,000 trained first aiders and volunteers, providing first aid at public events, supporting vulnerable people at home, and responding to emergency crises when needed.

However, managing such a large volunteer force isn't an easy endeavor. "Each volunteer has their own qualifications, skills, and availability," Jan Veldhuis, IT Manager and Lead CoE, explained. "Matching them with the right task was a highly manual process that could take us up to an hour per person."

The situation became critical when the pandemic reached the Netherlands. "In the first two months of lockdown, the number of medically trained and non-medical volunteers almost doubled. Suddenly, we had more than 100,000 volunteers keen to help, and requests piled up," Jan recalled.

Then, the national health service requested the Netherlands Red Cross assistance to run COVID-19 testing sites, a long-term, structured operational challenge the Netherlands Red Cross had no efficient system to handle.

Solution

Jumping the dev queue—six weeks to go-live

The team, already stretched thin, urgently needed a more effective system. Without an internal IT team, the Netherlands Red Cross turned to a leading consulting firm that recommended building the solution on the OutSystems platform.

“As soon as we got the requirements, we thought this sounds like an ideal fit for OutSystems,” said the partner. “Top of the list was time to market. Also, considering the need to deploy this to volunteers using mobile devices, OutSystems was ideal, providing a great UX and flexible deployment options, including PWA, native apps on iOS and Android, and reactive web.”

In just six weeks, the Netherlands Red Cross launched “Tools2Go”, a mobile app that lets volunteers receive alerts for shifts that match their qualifications and preferences and allows them to self-select the ones they want.

Since the launch of “Tools2Go”, the charity has consistently delivered new updates monthly. For example, when the government imposed mandatory curfews during the pandemic, the Netherlands Red Cross rapidly launched a module that auto-generated permission statements volunteers could show on their phones if stopped by police. The feature made the app indispensable and drove a rapid increase in downloads.

The next-gen of "Tools2Go": adding AI for proactive risk analysis

Over the years, "Tools2Go" has grown beyond its original scope. Today, Jan describes it as the Swiss Army Knife for the Netherlands Red Cross volunteers, a single destination for everything they need. Key features include exploring and self-selecting activities depending on the volunteers skills, accessing incident documentation and operational guidelines, and submitting expense claims for reimbursement.

Most recently, the Netherlands Red Cross added an AI risk analysis agent. Previously, when the charity was recruited to support massive events like the Zevenheuvelenloop race, the team struggled to predict if they would actually have enough volunteers months in advance.

"Now, the moment a request comes in, the AI agent automatically runs a risk analysis based on historical patterns and volunteer interests," Jan explained. If the AI detects a staffing risk, the team can take action to fix it before committing; if not, the request is accepted. "This way, we never make a promise we can't keep."

Results

1,000+ Hours saved and a new volunteer program to scale app development

The efficiency gains with "Tools2Go" were immediate. The Netherlands Red Cross eliminated over 1,000 hours of volunteer-matching administration every month, while improving real-time visibility of who is doing what across the entire volunteer network. More than 35,000 volunteers use the app.

As for the risk analysis agent, the Netherlands Red Cross saw a 20% reduction in last-minute staffing issues, and hopes to reach 40% during peak festival season.

The success of "Tools2Go" also revealed an entirely new model for building technology at the Netherlands Red Cross. Noticing that many of its volunteers had professional IT backgrounds, the Netherlands Red Cross launched the Digital Volunteers Program.

"In this program, developer volunteers, partners, universities and high schools build the apps we need using the OutSystems platform," Jan said. With the support of a leading consultant firm, the Netherlands Red Cross set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) that ensures all apps adhere to strict architectural rules and best practices.

"Our CoE provides the training, best practices, and reusable modules for our volunteers to use. We even have our own internal Forge. Nothing goes to production without the CoE's seal of approval," Jan described.

Recently, the Netherlands Red Cross decided to create its internal development team to scale its development efforts even further. Aligned with the company's humanitarian values, the Netherlands Red Cross made the distinctive choice to hire refugees. “We provide them with training on OutSystems, and they now work with us as full-time developers,” shared Jan.

Since the beginning of this journey, the Netherlands Red Cross has launched 10 other applications with OutSystems. These include an event management app to coordinate complex logistics such as food and housing, and a specialized app to manage refugee housing across the Netherlands. These aren't just tools; they're key assets that enable the Netherlands Red Cross to turn the goodwill of its volunteers into real help for people across the Netherlands and the world.