How a conservation trust in Taranaki streamlined their community engagement with infoodle.
Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust is a conservation success story in the heart of rural eastern Taranaki. We spoke with Tricia about the challenges they faced managing contacts and communications – and how infoodle helped them bring it all together.
Can you tell us a bit about your organisation?
Rotokare Scenic Reserve Trust is a community-led charity, established in 2004 with the mission to restore, protect, and enhance the indigenous ecosystem at Rotokare Scenic Reserve and beyond. Over the last twenty years, they’ve made significant strides towards that goal.
One of their biggest milestones was the installation of an 8.2km pest-proff fence enclosing the 230-hectare site, which protects extensive wetlands, a lake, and a stunning native forest. They have managed to successfully reintroduce rare and vulnerable native species of wildlife to the site – many of which had been absent from the region for up to a century. A thriving kiwi population at the reserve has also been established at the reserve, and these birds are now relocated annually to other protected areas to support national conservation efforts.
Beyond the fence, they maintain a “halo zone” to protect the species that roam beyond the sanctuary. None of this would be possible with the skilled and motivated volunteer workforce, whose passion and dedication support the Trust’s mission and drive ecological gains across the region.
What systems were you using before infoodle, and what problems did you face?
Prior to adopting infoodle, the Trust’s contact management system was held on a simple spreadsheet. Tricia commented that it was “cumbersome, frustrating, and frequently incorrect.” Data could be entered by anyone with access to the spreadsheet, which would often lead to duplication, and missing and incorrect fields.
“I dreaded sending out our bi-monthly newsletter because the system was so clunky. It took hours to sort physical addresses or import emails into our email system.” They had a dream to communicate better with their community, and tailor communications for acknowledgements, birthdays, and different contact types within their organisation.
How did infoodle help?
Tricia met our team at a conference in New Plymouth and immediately recognised the potential infoodle had for Rotokare.
They now use infoodle to communicate quickly and efficiently with their many stakeholders. She noted the designer emails and the ability to save templates are great features that help her alongside the forms they use for volunteers, youth ambassadors, and visiting schools. Standard reporting on membership expiries and birthday reminders are another particularly helpful feature, and having control over the permissions for their different users ensures their data stays clean.
Tricia also appreciated the ability to trial the optional package add-ons without having to commit to a subscription, especially when some features – like Finance – weren’t cost-effective for their current needs.
What has been the impact so far?
“It’s hard to quantify the savings in terms of hours and dollars, but we are doing more in the way of interacting with our members. You can’t quantify the value that confidence in using infoodle brings to our organisation.”
The team at Rotokare are now able to move forward with a greater confidence in the accuracy of the information they hold. Sending out newsletters to members has become very simple and efficient.
The customisation and areas of infoodle they’ve yet to explore continuously keeps the platform relevant, and they have already recommended infoodle to other organisations.
If you had to summarise the difference infoodle has made, how would you put it?
“Overall, life before infoodle was a bit of a nightmare. Life with infoodle is streamlined, empowering, and reliable. We’ve gone from dreading communications to actually enjoying the process. And that means we have more time to focus on what matters most: conservation, education, and community engagement.”
