Case Study: Istanbul Gönüllüleri achieves rapid volunteer growth and streamlined engagement with NationBuilder

Istanbul Volunteers engages citizens eager for change

Istanbul Gönüllüleri (Istanbul Volunteers) is a grassroots organization that grew out of the 2019 Istanbul mayoral campaign and faced the challenge of converting large, campaign‑era volunteer energy into a sustainable civic movement. They needed a digital infrastructure to re‑engage and manage a very large supporter base, coordinate events and services across the city, and pivot operations for COVID‑19 relief. To meet that need they partnered with NationBuilder, using its website, built‑in action pages and "paths & goals" features.

NationBuilder helped Istanbul Gönüllüleri relaunch a site, create a COVID‑19 information hub, build event and petition pages, and automate volunteer workflows and a digital help desk. The platform supported measurable growth and activity — roughly 10% membership growth in a month from a base of ~100,000, about 250 new supporters per day, plus outcomes cited across their program (83K SMS messages sent, 106K volunteers engaged and 100 events/projects) — enabling Istanbul Gönüllüleri to scale operations and track engagement more effectively.

Istanbul Gönüllüleri

Binali Yıldırım

Former Prime Minister