Make A Difference Storytelling Initiative (MAD)
Connecting volunteer reflections and feedback with MEL data to enable continuous learning and faster decision-making across MAD’s network
Active Citizenship, Social Impact, Education
Community Engagement, Program Innovation
The platform has made it possible for us to capture real, authentic stories from the ground. Volunteers are now able to easily share their experiences: what’s working, what’s challenging, and what’s shifting for the children they work with. It’s also become a way for us to listen better. We’re able to spot challenges that volunteers or children are facing in real time, and then design timely solutions
About the partner
Make A Difference (MAD) works with young people in child-care institutions and low-income schools across India, supporting them with long-term learning, emotional, and life-skills programs
Outcome of the study
With Dots, MAD brings together volunteer stories and feedback alongside structured MEL data, enabling real-time insights, faster decision-making, and a continuous learning loop across MAD chapters and centers
Needs for MAD Team
1
Consistently capture weekly activities and on-ground experiences, from attendance and volunteer reporting to stories, reflections, and feedback, in a way that is easy and accessible
2
Provide volunteers with a clear view of their own progress, enabling reflection, peer learning, and improved program delivery in classrooms
3
Enable decentralized decision-making across stakeholders, from volunteers and community organizers to program teams and leadership, through access to unified qualitative and quantitative data across centers, cities, and states
Solution Snapshot
1
WhatsApp-based collection to capture volunteer stories and feedback easily, as part of their routine
2
Unified view of qualitative stories and quantitative metrics to understand what’s working and why
3
Role-based dashboards that give volunteers access to relevant, real-time insights across the system
Dots helped me notice that sessions I felt were ordinary often had meaningful outcomes for children. Looking back at my reflections, I could see how children's confidence, participation, and trust developed over time. It helped me understand that small positive interactions are often where real change begins
WhatsApp-based data collection
Collect children stories and M&E responses at scale, directly through WhatsApp
Increased field participation and real-time, on-ground visibility into program experiences
Unified qualitative + quantitative data pipeline
Bring children narratives and outcome metrics into a single, connected view
Enables a volunteer to understand what the metrics show, alongside context grounded in lived experiences
Real-time dashboards
Track patterns across chapters & centers and cohorts in real time
Equips volunteers with timely insights for faster response and decision-making
Role-based data views
Give volunteers access to data based on their role and responsibilities
Democratizes access to data across the system, enabling decisions at every level, including on-ground teams
The integration with MAD’s existing architecture through Platform Commons has made the experience seamless for our volunteers, with single sign-on removing the need to manage multiple logins. It’s also made user management easier for our teams, with access, roles, and permissions handled in one place
