Schedule check-ins for an Impact Story
Ask your storytellers for an Update on a regular rhythm, counted from the day the work starts, and see which check-ins were answered or missed.
Long programs need news on a rhythm: "every month while the well is being built, then every three months once it's running." A check-in schedule sends those asks for you. You set it up once on the Impact Story, and your storytellers get an update request on their phones each time a check-in comes around. No more calendar reminders to chase people!
Before you start: to set up a schedule on an Impact Story, you need the Request updates permission on Impact Stories in your role (administrators have it). To edit an Impact Story's Start date or Storytellers, you need permission to edit Impact Stories. Check-in templates and Start check-ins automatically need permission to edit settings. The people you ask need the Storyteller app and must be able to see the Impact Story.
How check-ins work
A check-in is an update request that Givable sends on a schedule. Everything you know about update requests applies: storytellers see it as a to-do in the Storyteller app, answer it with an ordinary Update, and get the usual reminder, and you get the usual notices when it's answered or overdue.
- Check-ins count from the Impact Story's Start date, not from the day the Impact Story was created or published. An Impact Story can sit in Givable for months before the work begins, and nobody is asked anything until then.
- The first check-in is due one interval after the Start date. Turn on Also ask on the start date if you'd like a first Update on day one too.
- Each request goes out ahead of its due date: by default 7 days before, at 9:00 in your organization's time zone, so nobody gets a notification in the middle of the night. It's due at the end of the due date, and the reminder arrives a day before (when the request went out at least two days earlier).
- Each Impact Story has one check-in schedule.
Set the Start date and Storytellers
Both live on the Impact Story's Details.
Open the Impact Story
Go to Impact Stories and open the Impact Story.
Add the Start date
On Details, fill in Start date: when the work in this Impact Story begins. Check-ins are scheduled from this date. You can set it long before the day arrives.
Add your storytellers
Under Storytellers, add the people who should be asked when a check-in goes to This Impact Story's storytellers. You can add up to 25 people from your team.
The Storytellers list doesn't give anyone access to the Impact Story. It only says who to ask. Someone who can't see the Impact Story is never asked, and the list shows Can't see this Impact Story beside their name. To change who can see it, change their role, groups or the Impact Story's visibility.
Set up check-ins
Open the Update requests tab
On the Impact Story, select the Update requests tab. The Check-in schedule panel sits at the top and says No check-in schedule.
Pick a template
Select Set up check-ins. Under Template, your organization's default template is already chosen. Pick another if it suits this Impact Story better. Everything it fills in can be changed for this Impact Story.
Set the rhythm
Each phase reads Every [number] [weeks or months] for [number] times. Select Add a phase to change rhythm partway through, up to 5 phases. The last phase can repeat until the Impact Story ends instead of a set number of times.
Choose when requests go out
Turn on Also ask on the start date for a first Update on day one. In Send the request [number] days before it's due, choose anything from 0 to 30 days. The default is 7.
Choose who should add the Update
Under Who should add the Update?, choose People, Roles, Groups or This Impact Story's storytellers, or a mix. The people are worked out fresh at every check-in, so someone who joins a group later is asked from the next check-in on.
Add a note and hints
Add a note about what you'd like to see, if it helps. You can also pick an Update type or a Form so the app opens the right one.
Check the dates and save
Next check-ins previews the next five due dates. When they look right, save the schedule. You're now its owner.
The note is shown in the Storyteller app at every check-in. Don't include personal details about the people in the Impact Story.
Monthly for six months, then quarterly is two phases: Every 1 months for 6 times, then Every 3 months until the Impact Story ends. Dates always count from the Start date, so an Impact Story that starts on January 31 checks in on February 28, March 31 and so on, at the end of each month.
Manage a schedule
Once it's set up, the Check-in schedule panel shows the rhythm in a sentence (for example "Every month for 6 months, then every 3 months, from Mar 1, 2027"), the date of the next check-in, the owner, and one of these statuses:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Next check-in and a date | The schedule is running. |
| Waiting for a start date | The Impact Story has no Start date. Add one on Details and the schedule starts. |
| Paused | Someone paused it. Nothing is sent until it's resumed. |
| Finished | Every check-in in the schedule has been sent. |
| Stopped because this Impact Story ended. | The Impact Story ended or was archived. |
- Edit changes the rhythm, lead time, people, note or hints. Changes apply from the next check-in: a check-in that's already out keeps its people and note.
- Pause stops new check-ins. Resume picks up again from today.
- Remove deletes the schedule: "Open check-ins will be closed. Nobody is notified." Check-ins already answered or missed stay in the list as history.
- Update from template shows when the template this schedule came from has changed since you set it up. Editing a template never changes a schedule on its own.
The owner gets the notices in the bell at the top of Givable when a check-in is answered or overdue. That's the person who set up the schedule, and you can change it.
What to expect
These rules keep check-ins useful rather than noisy.
Check-in templates
Templates save you setting up the same rhythm on every Impact Story. The default template is, in effect, your organization's check-in rhythm.
Open the Check-ins tab
Go to Settings > Impact Stories and select Check-ins. Templates lists your templates; the default is marked Default.
Create a template
Add a template and give it a name. Set its phases, Also ask on the start date, the lead time, Who should add the Update?, a note and the Update type or Form hints, exactly as on an Impact Story.
Choose a default
Turn on Use as the default for the template that Set up check-ins should pick first. Only one template is the default at a time.
People you name in a template are asked on every Impact Story that uses it. For templates you'll use widely, choose roles, groups or This Impact Story's storytellers instead.
- Editing a template never changes schedules already set up from it. Those schedules offer Update from template instead.
- Archive a template you no longer need. Schedules set up from it keep running.
Start check-ins automatically
Start check-ins automatically is off by default. When it's on: "When an Impact Story with a start date becomes active, check-ins start from the default template. People are asked on their phones without anyone setting it up."
- It also starts a schedule when someone adds a Start date to an Impact Story that's already active and has no schedule.
- The person who made that change becomes the schedule's owner.
- It needs a default template. Impact Stories without a Start date aren't affected.
Keep track
To see check-ins across all your Impact Stories, go to Impact Stories and select Update requests.
- The Source column shows Manual for a request someone sent and Check-in for one from a schedule. Check-ins also show which check-in they are, for example Check-in 3.
- Missed marks a check-in that closed unanswered when the next one went out. Story ended and Schedule removed mark check-ins closed for those reasons.
- The Overdue check-ins and Missed check-ins views show which Impact Stories need a nudge.
Troubleshooting
Related
Ask storytellers for an update
Send a one-off request with a due date.
Set up the Storyteller app
Choose what storytellers see and what notifications say.
Still stuck?
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