noHold Kicks Off Virtual Volunteers With its First Charitable Virtual Assistant Awarded to Family Giving Tree

Photo Credit: familygivingtree.org

October 16, 2014, MILPITAS, CA – noHold is proud to announce its charitable initiative called “Virtual Volunteers,” with its first Virtual Assistant donation given to Family Giving Tree of California. The goal of noHold’s Virtual Volunteers is to provide charities, non-profits and foundations with a Virtual Assistant that interacts with website visitors to get real answers to questions real fast. Virtual Volunteers work similar to live chat; however, instead of interacting with a live person, end users interact with an Artificial Intelligence (AI). These Virtual Assistants are available 24/7 and allow supporters to find answers without human intervention. Virtual Volunteers improve customer satisfaction, help the recipient get closer to its audience, and increases donation/volunteer rates. 

Family Giving Tree is one of the first recipients, and has recently launched a Virtual Assistant. The Virtual Elf is ever-present as visitors to the website navigate through various pages, and provides a wealth of knowledge for hosts, volunteers, agencies, and offers additional information about how to donate. With successful programs focused on back to school as well as the holidays, Family Giving Tree accepted the donation to keep up with the growing popularity of giving back. In its 23rd year, the total number of gifts and backpacks donated had grown to over 900,000, making the Family Giving Tree the largest gift and backpack donation program in California.

By donating a Virtual Assistant, noHold will empower the organization to focus on its charitable mission and spend less time answering calls. Since Family Giving Tree has frequent changes in volunteer locations, donation centers, etc., the “Virtual Elf” can be updated as necessary based on the needs of the organization and its audience. In addition, the Virtual Elf will capture actionable feedback from its users, which provides a unique way for Family Giving Tree to get closer to supporters. For example, a visitor to the site might have questions about leading a drive, volunteering, donating or he/she may even be part of an agency. The Elf will first determine which of these groups the visitor belongs to, then answer specific questions automatically.  To interact with the Virtual Elf, visit www.familygivingtree.org, and click on “Ask the Elf!” on the lower right corner. 

“I have been a longtime fan of Family Giving Tree, so I was thrilled when they were selected to receive the same great Virtual Assistant technology we provide to our for-profit customers.  By having a Virtual “Elf” to answer common questions, the fabulous folks at Family Giving Tree can focus even more of their time on fulfilling families’ wishes.  And volunteers, agencies and hosts can get answers from the Virtual Assistant right away, even when Family Giving Tree offices are closed,” said Andrea Sahli, Member of Virtual Volunteers Committee, and Implementation Manager at noHold. 

“In order to give back to our community, noHold has recently launched Virtual Volunteers. Working with trusted brands over the past 15 years has proven that Virtual Assistants can significantly reduce costs while increasing customer satisfaction. noHold looks forward to working with The Family Giving Tree as they achieve the same success as our customers,” said Diego Ventura, CEO and Founder of noHold. 

“We are extremely grateful to noHold, Inc. for donating their time, energy and support in providing our organization with a fantastic Virtual Assistant.  The quality of service, commitment and expertise from the entire noHold staff has been incredible. We feel very privileged to work beside them on this endeavor, and highly recommend their expertise and product to both for-profit and non-profit agencies alike,” said Ashley Gilmer, Communications Specialist Elf. 

noHold plans to donate two Virtual Assistants each year to organizations selected by the Virtual Volunteers committee. More information and submission criteria can be found at: www.nohold.com/virtual-volunteers.html, or you can "Ask Vint" about noHold's charitable initiative.

About Family Giving Tree
The Family Giving Tree began in 1990 as a San Jose State University MBA class project. Jennifer Cullenbine and Todd Yoshida were asked to "create a program that adds value to someone else's life." They created the Family Giving Tree with the hope of providing holiday gifts to 300 children in East Palo Alto. Encouraged by the success of the first year, Jennifer decided to continue and expand the organization. In the 23rd year of the program's existence, the total number of gifts and backpacks donated had grown to over 900,000, making the Family Giving Tree the largest gift and backpack donation program in California.

About noHold Inc.
noHold is a privately held company established in 1999 and is headquartered in Milpitas, CA, USA (Silicon Valley). noHold is the acknowledged leader in Web based self-service solutions with a mission to deliver real answers to real questions - real fast. Simple to use, easy to implement and as close to human as you can get, noHold turns automated customer experience into cognitive customer interaction. noHold customers include Toshiba, Lenovo, Cisco and a host of industry leaders. More information can be found at www.nohold.com.


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