How India Partner Network used Glific to move from manual messaging to an automated, scalable engagement engine

4,000+ NGOs on platform

110+ WhatsApp opt-ins in 4–5 months

1 in 3 Engagements via mobile

2 Live use cases deployed

01 / BACKGROUND

Who is India Partner Network?

India Partner Network (IPN) is a free, self learning capacity building platform built specifically for small and medium-sized NGOs across India. The platform offers a broad range of organisational development resources and learning opportunities — from fundraising, compliance and monitoring & evaluation guidance to communication, technology and AI frameworks and toolkits can be used by nonprofits anytime and anywhere they want. Delivered through live webinars, templates, quick-learn videos, and easy self-diagnostic maturity assessments that help NGOs understand where they stand and how to improve across these key operational areas.

More recently, IPN has introduced a service provider directory, enabling NGOs to directly connect with relevant experts and support organisations, forums and communities and relevant organization development programs and courses  across the social sector — making IPN not just a resource library, but a live ecosystem.

Puneeth JN, Senior Consultant – Tech Advisory & Digital Transformation, Sattva Consulting, shared with us the thought process behind opting for Glific to build a chatbot, what all went into creating it and how has the journey been so far.

02 / THE PROBLEM

Email wasn’t enough — and everyone knew it.

IPN regularly communicates with its 4,000+ member NGOs through email — sending out weekly news and updates every Wednesday and a fortnightly resource digest. But two friction points were becoming impossible to ignore.

“Small and medium NGOs are more engaged through WhatsApp compared to emails. If we can send WhatsApp updates and see the engagement rates — that’s something we needed to explore.” — Puneeth JN

First, the operational burden: both the weekly and fortnightly updates were entirely manual activities for the marketing team — a recurring, repetitive effort with no automation in place. 

Second, and more fundamentally, the channel wasn’t reaching people where they actually were. 

For the small and medium NGOs that IPN serves, WhatsApp is the primary communication tool, not email. Platform engagement was being left on the table because the nudges weren’t reaching users on the right channel.

03 / ENTER GLIFIC

A ready-made solution for a clearly defined problem.

IPN began exploring Glific roughly four to five months before this case study, drawn in by one core proposition: a WhatsApp-native platform built for nonprofits, with automation, flows, and integration capabilities already designed for the social sector context.

The appeal wasn’t just the tool — it was the ecosystem. As Puneeth JN described it, there’s enormous value in seeing problems that have already been solved and walking straight toward the solution, rather than rebuilding from scratch. Glific offered exactly that: a community of NGOs, documented use cases, and a support network that removed the need to figure everything out alone.

04 / WHAT WAS BUILT

Two use cases, live and running.

Within the first few months, IPN deployed two core communication flows on Glific:

📰  Weekly News & Updates Curated sector news and IPN platform highlights, sent to opted-in contacts via WhatsApp — replacing a previously manual send process. Every Wednesday

📚  Resource Digest A fortnightly roundup of new and popular capacity building resources added to the IPN platform, designed to drive active engagement and return visits. Every Two Weeks

Both flows were previously handled manually by the marketing team on a recurring basis. With Glific, the team is now building toward full automation of these sends — freeing up capacity and ensuring consistency.

05 / EARLY RESULTS

The numbers pointed where the team already suspected.

With approximately 3,000 contacts on the email list and 110+ opted in on Glific, the signal from the data was already clear: one-third of all news and update engagements were coming from mobile. The IPN team linked this directly to WhatsApp — a strong early validation that the channel shift was worth pursuing at scale.

What the data is pointing to →  Mobile now accounts for 1 in 3 engagements with IPN’s news and updates content — far outpacing expectations for such an early-stage rollout. →  Opted-in WhatsApp contacts are a self-selected, high-intent audience — likely representing IPN’s most engaged segment. →  The gap between 4,000+ platform users and 110+ WhatsApp contacts is not a problem — it’s the opportunity. Closing that gap is the team’s primary growth target.

06 / WHAT’S NEXT

Scale, automate, and integrate.

The IPN team has a clear two-horizon roadmap for their Glific integration:

1.  Migrate the existing base

Move as many of the 4,000+ IPN users as possible onto WhatsApp, using targeted opt-in campaigns and existing touchpoints to grow the Glific contact base.

2.  Automate new user onboarding

Build a seamless pipeline so that every new NGO joining IPN is automatically routed into the WhatsApp channel — eliminating future migration debt.

3.  API integration between IPN and Glific

Use Glific’s open APIs to create a live bridge between the IPN platform and WhatsApp — so that platform activity (new resources, events, updates) can automatically trigger personalised WhatsApp nudges without any manual intervention.

4.  Expand to richer use cases

Explore chatbot-driven discovery, learning pathways, and peer connection features within WhatsApp — meeting NGOs inside the platform they’re already using for everything else.

07 / LEARNINGS

Advice for NGOs considering Glific.

“Start with the problems that already have solutions. There’s a community of people who’ve walked this path. You’re never building alone.” — Puneeth JN

For organisations looking to integrate Glific, IPN’s early experience offers a clear framework:

Identify the manual first. The easiest wins are processes your team is already doing by hand, repeatedly. Automating those builds confidence and demonstrates value quickly to internal stakeholders.

Start with the channel, not just the content. The question isn’t just “what do we send?” but “where are our users actually paying attention?” For most Indian NGOs, WhatsApp is that place. Let that insight drive the strategy.

Think of WhatsApp as a gateway, not a destination. IPN’s model is instructive: WhatsApp isn’t replacing the platform — it’s the on-ramp that brings users to it. The nudge drives the visit; the platform delivers the value.

Use the community. The Glific ecosystem — the documented use cases, the peer network, the partner organisations — is part of the product. Don’t underestimate it.