Creating A Safer, Connected and More Resilient Community
Neighbourhood Support Manawatū is a charity and incorporated society that manages Neighbourhood Support activity in the Manawatū district of New Zealand.
We spoke to Lorraine Thompson, General Manager of Neighbourhood Support Manawatū, about the work they do in the community and how having a good database and administration system is essential.
“We encourage members to form street or area groups to help themselves stay connected with their neighbours, to build safe and resilient communities, and to help each other in times of crisis.
Members of our database are kept up to date with crime prevention tips and news about what is happening in the community. We also work closely with Emergency Management (EM) and staff of the District Council (MDC). We hold two registers within our database that EM can ask for in an emergency. These are the Emergency Response Skills Register and Vulnerable Persons Register. The Vulnerable Persons register can identify anyone who may need particular or special assistance in an emergency.”
Like many charities, it takes a team of committed volunteers and staff to ensure the charity operates well and achieves its vision and purpose. “We have two paid staff, and approx 50 volunteers who are street coordinators. We have a part-time Community Engagement Coordinator who focuses on connecting with new and existing members, helping them to form street groups. We have a manager who looks after the organisation’s administration, As well as a voluntary governance committee/board.
It is essential, particularly in an emergency situation, to have good communication and ensure the contact details for everyone are accurate. “Prior to infoodle, NSM had a legacy database that was no longer supported which we couldn’t effectively use. We weren’t able to easily add or update our records, and somewhere along the line it had been disconnected from our core email service, so we had different email addresses attached to different functions which was inconsistent and disjointed for our member experience. Fortunately, we were able to export the data from the old database when we switched to infoodle, and subsequently have been able to cleanse and update it as we go”.
For Neighbourhood Support groups like Manawatū to be able to function efficiently they need a reliable and accurate database that is easily accessible from any location. It needs to be able to quickly and easily communicate with its members, emergency management and local government, as well as being able to produce reports. It also needs to be able to import/add data easily and update people’s details so everyone who needs to has access to the most updated details.
“We chose infoodle for our CRM database because of the great people management and communication features. infoodle has a nice ‘designer’ feature for emails which makes nice newsletters. infoodle makes it easy to delegate areas of responsibility so the workload can be shared. Coordinators have log-ins and they can manage their own street groups. We are working to train our governance committee to use infoodle, mainly as a risk mitigation. Having all our organisation’s information accessible by more than one or two people brings a level of accountability. Each login has its own level or permission, what they can see and what they can add to the database.
infoodle is easy to maintain, it is no problem to add further groups, connect people to different organisations and households, or add further fields. Adding new members via forms is easy and accurate – no manual data entry needed, a very effective and powerful way to manage data.
Of course, like most databases, there is some training and learning to be done to achieve what you need, but once learned, it has been very easy to use.”
One of the core values for Neighbourhood Support is to help communities be resilient. Situations change and we need to learn to adapt to the changing situation. This also means an adaptable CRM and database is required. Lorraine shared with us how they were able to customise their infoodle database to their particular needs.
“An adaptation I have made is adding Iwi. I have been able to add iwi members and assign them to the same marae. Not all iwi live in or near their marae but by assigning people from elsewhere to the marae, we can communicate with them, and they can assign a person as their coordinator, and can manage their group in the same way that a street coordinator does. Having people connected to more than one address, and being able to have different households at the same address is so helpful.”
Like most charities, NSM rely on volunteers who give of their own free time to help fulfil the charities shared goals and mission. Time can be short so having good streamlined systems are important but so is having the help and support you need, when you need it.
“We have found the infoodle online training modules very helpful, and they are very detailed. You can learn the system by working through all the modules. infoodle’s Helpline and support is also very good – the technicians are so helpful and knowledgeable. They can make minor adjustments or set up additional processes while on the phone. It is great when they remote in and sort out any issues, especially when I am with a new street coordinator and trying to get them set up on infoodle.”
Lorraine shares some final words to other organisations considering infoodle.
“NSM installed infoodle back in July 2021, we use most of the features that it offers.
I personally have used infoodle for two years now. I would definitely recommend infoodle, as it does everything our organisation needs, probably more than we know! It is great for creating reports and downloading information. Also very good for creating and sending newsletters and emails.
I would recommend infoodle to other Neighbourhood Support organisations as it is very appropriate for our use. I have heard comments from other NHS organisations who use another CRM that they find theirs not user friendly.
Infoodle is a very useful CRM tool.”
