“I spent three hours today just writing emails.”
This comment from one of our program administrators stuck with me after our call. It captures a something that we hear from many afterschool program administrators. They are spending hours writing, translating, and double-checking routine emails.
So it gave us a spark of an idea. What if we could introduce some easy-to-edit templates for the most common communications they need to send?
Today, we’re sharing a tool that we’re hoping will help with this challenge - the Afterschool Program Email Generator. It’s a free resource designed to make parent communication a more manageable task.
The Challenge We’re Addressing
If you’re running an afterschool program, you’re likely familiar with the process of crafting emails over and over. Sometimes it’s a struggle to maintain a professional tone across all staff communications. Ensuring nothing important gets left out of routine updates and managing multiple versions of similar messages across your program adds up over time.
These “small” communication tasks can become hours of lost time every week – time that could be spent mentoring staff, engaging with students, or developing new program initiatives.
Communication Assistance
We wanted the Afterschool Email Template Library to be more than just a collection of pre-written emails. Our goal was to deliver something that combined professional, bilingual communication with easy customization.
Our first five templates are:
- Enrollment Reminders,
- Schedule Changes,
- Holiday Updates,
- Payment Reminders, and
- Program Updates.
This is just a start. An ideal outcome is that program admins find it helpful and want us to add more templates. Or even more capabilities as well..
Bilingual Features That Make a Difference
To ensure your messages works with more families, the library offers four language modes: English only, Spanish only, English & Spanish (English first), and Spanish & English (Spanish first). Our translations aim to be culturally appropriate, use education-specific terminology, maintain a consistent tone across languages, and account for region-specific language variations. Feedback on whether it does is welcome and we’d love to keep refining it.
Smart Customization for Your Unique Needs
Every template includes customizable snippets that allow you to easily personalize your communications. You can input your program name and contact information, specific dates and times, staff names and roles, location details, and custom messages or announcements. This flexibility ensures that each email feels tailored to your program and recipients. If there’s more customization that would make it more useful for you, let us know!
Built for Real Program Needs
We’ve designed the Email Template Library with simplicity in mind. To get started, you just need to visit our website, choose your template category, select your preferred language format, fill in your program details, preview both language versions, and copy the text for your email. There’s no login required, no software to install, and no steep learning curve to climb.
Every feature in the Template Library comes from real conversations with administrators like you. We’ve included a preview mode so you can see exactly how your email will look before sending, a quick copy feature for subject lines and body text, a reset option to start fresh without reloading the page, and mobile-friendly design for making quick updates from your phone. The tool is always available, with no downtime, so you can access it whenever you need it.
We Welcome Your Feedback
As this is our first version of the Template Library, we’re particularly interested in hearing your thoughts. We’d love to know which templates you find most useful and what additional templates or features you’d like to see. If you encounter anything confusing or have suggestions for improvement, please don’t hesitate to let us know. Your feedback will help shape future updates and ensure the tool continues to meet your needs.
Try It Today
The Email Template Library is now available for you to use. It’s completely free, with no hidden costs or limitations. We hope this tool can help streamline your communication process, allowing you to focus more on supporting your students and staff.
Share Your Experience
Your feedback will shape our tools. After trying the Email Generator, please share your thoughts with us. What worked well? What could be improved? Are there other administrative tasks you’d like help with? We’re committed to identifying and solving the small but persistent challenges that make program administration more complicated than it needs to be.
You can contact us or through your customer success manager. We’re here to listen and continue improving our offerings based on your real-world needs. Together, we can work towards spending less time on emails and more time on what matters most – supporting your students and staff.
