The Spanish Red Cross app, connecting the volunteers of the association

The Red Cross App is a technological tool that aims to mobilise society against vulnerability. On its app, the Spanish Red Cross proposes several humanitarian missions anyone can participate in. It is useful to encourage people to commit and to increase the organisation’s means.

Volunteer commitment is crucial to respond to humanitarian challenges. That is the reason why the Red Cross App was created in 2019. By downloading this app, people can access many humanitarian missions and personalise their searches depending on their interests and availability. This tool enables the Spanish Red Cross to offer its volunteers new ways of commitment and to recruit new ones temporary. The launching of the app is a response to the commitments made at the IXth General Assembly of the Spanish Red Cross in 2019.

The mobile application was developed by the SRC volunteer board through design thinking processes based on user experience. It has played such a big part in the SRC digitalisation strategy that new features were added. Missions are no longer restricted to external volunteers, all SRC members are now allowed to participate. The Red Cross App is currently available on Android and iOS.

The app is accessible, both for people who are already part of the SRC, and for people who are outside of it. Anyone can access the public content of the App, however, it acquires its maximum operational capacity when the person accesses their private area.

• Updating personal and contact information.
• High and low of the Red Cross membership fee, as well as the updating  bank details.
• Registration and management of available volunteer activities.
• Personalised schedule of volunteer activity and training received.
• Push-up system to receive volunteer proposals adapted to the profile.
• Search for formations.
• Download the volunteer file.
• Download certificate of donations.

Anyone can download the app and access its public content. However, it is more interesting to create a personal account to benefit from the maximum operational capacity of the app. 

The content of the App is managed through the “Liferay” content manager, which is connected with the structure of the Spanish Red Cross: databases and internal applications for programming activities. This specification allows actions, activities and services to be displayed in the mobile application in real time, improving the capacity for self-management by the user.

The “Liferay” content manager plans the proposed activities of the App thanks to its connection to the SRC’s databases and internal applications. Then many actions, activities and services are displayed on the App in real time, improving the users’ ability to choose the missions they want to serve.

Following the IXth SRC General Assembly held in April 2019, the Red Cross App became operational in November 2019. 

Previously, a multidisciplinary work team was set up to design, produce and test the product. The App is constantly evolving, incorporating progressive changes and innovations. 

Since its launching, the App has been used by 94,719 people (73.5% of them on Android and 26.5% on iOS). 

Organisations and people who wanted to collaborate with the SRC (volunteers previously or not) used the App to participate and thus meet the demand raised by the emergency situation.