Café: Workplace Engagement Hub for Hybrid Teams

Staff indicate whether they're working from the office, home, or a coworking space. This information appears directly in Slack/Teams profiles, so teammates can see at a glance who's available for in-person collaboration.

Nonprofit Benefits:

• Spontaneous collaboration: Development officer sees that the program director is in the office and suggests a quick brainstorm about an upcoming grant proposal
• Reduced coordination overhead: No more "who's coming in this week?" email chains
• New hire connections: Remote new employees can identify when teammates are in the office and coordinate their first in-person visits

Staff create profiles with their interests, hobbies, and affinities. Café suggests connections with colleagues who share those interests, helping build relationships beyond formal org chart structures. Support for Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and affinity groups with dedicated spaces.

Nonprofit Benefits:

• Cross-departmental relationships: Finance staff discover they share hiking interests with program team members, leading to informal knowledge exchange
• DEI initiatives: Support affinity groups (LGBTQ+ staff, BIPOC employees, parents) with dedicated communication channels and event coordination
• Reduce isolation: Remote staff feel more connected to the broader team through visible shared interests

Create events (team lunches, all-hands meetings, workshops, social gatherings) with dynamic audience targeting. Events automatically appear for relevant staff based on location, department, interests, or custom criteria. Integrated feedback forms capture post-event insights.

Nonprofit Benefits:

• Targeted invitations: "All staff in the Chicago office on Thursday" automatically updates as people adjust their schedules—no manual list updates
• Increase participation: Staff see events relevant to them in Slack/Teams rather than buried in email
• Capture feedback efficiently: Post-event surveys delivered automatically; responses tracked in one place

Create recurring employee surveys (weekly check-ins, monthly pulse surveys, quarterly engagement assessments) using templates or custom questions. Set up automated workflows to route responses appropriately and track trends over time.

Nonprofit Benefits:

• Early warning system: Identify team morale issues or burnout risks before they escalate
• Lightweight feedback: Quick surveys in Slack/Teams get higher response rates than emailed SurveyMonkey links
• Demonstrate responsiveness: Show staff their feedback matters by tracking and addressing recurring themes

For nonprofits with hot-desking or limited office space, manage desk and meeting room bookings directly from Slack/Teams. See office capacity at a glance and ensure space is available when staff plan to come in.

Nonprofit Benefits:

• Optimize limited space: Smaller nonprofits downsizing office space can ensure desks are available without over-booking
• Reduce friction: Staff book spaces from Slack rather than calling the office or using a separate system
• Visibility into usage: Understand actual office utilization to inform real estate decisions

• Read this guide thoroughly
• Explore Café's website and blog content
• Check Slack Marketplace reviews (primary source of user feedback)
• Watch any demo videos available
• Check if development is active (recent blog posts, product updates)

• Sign up for free trial (no credit card required per their website)
• Test with real staff (10-15 people pilot group)
• Try your top 3 use cases (e.g., location sharing, event coordination, pulse survey)
• Test key integrations (Slack/Teams, HRIS if applicable)
• Reach out to support with a question (gauge responsiveness)
• Time common tasks vs. current manual process

• Have 2-3 team members test independently
• Gather feedback on usability
• Calculate actual time savings (if any)
• Assess learning curve realistically
• Check with IT/admin on security/compliance concerns

Café is backed by Y Combinator and Slack's Future of Work program, which provides credibility. The platform is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant, showing commitment to security. However, as a newer platform (or new to us), it's best suited for small to mid-sized nonprofits with some technical capacity. We recommend starting with a pilot program to validate reliability for your specific needs before full rollout. Enterprise clients like Deloitte and Capgemini suggest it's production-ready for business use.

Café works within Slack and Teams rather than replacing them. While Slack/Teams handle communication, Café adds structured features for hybrid work coordination: location sharing, event management, employee surveys, and community building. It's purpose-built for hybrid team coordination, whereas Slack/Teams are general communication platforms that require manual processes for these activities.

Think of it this way: Slack is where you communicate; Café is where you coordinate who's where, what's happening, and who shares your interests—all surfaced within Slack so you don't need to switch apps.

Café advertises 24/7 customer support, which is impressive for a newer platform. However, the depth and quality of this support for complex scenarios isn't extensively documented. As an emerging tool, expect potentially slower responses for advanced troubleshooting compared to established enterprise platforms with large support teams. The company appears responsive based on their backing and enterprise clients, but test support quality during your trial period by asking actual questions and gauging response time and helpfulness.

Café is SOC 2 Type 2 certified and GDPR compliant, indicating solid security practices. They integrate with enterprise HRIS systems (Workday, BambooHR) and support SAML-based SSO through providers like Okta, which are positive security indicators.

However, as with any newer platform, conduct your own security assessment: review their data processing agreements, confirm they meet your specific compliance requirements (HIPAA if applicable, data residency needs, etc.), and ensure they align with your organization's security standards before importing sensitive data. Start with non-sensitive information during trials.

Café offers monthly subscriptions with no long-term contracts mentioned, allowing you to cancel if it doesn't meet your needs. Before committing, verify their data export capabilities so you can retrieve any information you've added (staff profiles, event history, survey responses).

The staged evaluation approach we recommend (free trial → limited pilot → gradual expansion) minimizes risk. Start small, maintain your current processes in parallel until confident, and only expand once you've proven value. The low starting price ($2-5/user/month) means financial risk is minimal during evaluation.

While Café is optimized for hybrid teams (where location coordination is critical), fully remote teams can still benefit from the Community, Events, and Pulse modules. Interest-based connections, internal event management, and employee surveys work regardless of work model. However, if you're 100% remote with no in-person coordination needs, the location-sharing features (a key differentiator) provide less value. Evaluate whether the community and event features alone justify the cost vs. free alternatives.

Realistic timeline: Plan for 3-5 hours of admin setup (installing integration, importing directory, configuring locations and modules). Don't expect the "2 hours" sometimes advertised for complex deployments—real users report longer initial setup.

Staff adoption: Basic features (updating location, RSVPing to events) take 10-15 minutes for staff to learn. Full proficiency with all modules takes 2-4 weeks of regular use.

Key advantage: Because it lives in Slack/Teams, there's no separate app to download or new interface to master. This dramatically improves adoption compared to standalone platforms.