Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action
I helped move this small climate organisation from spreadsheets to an integrated, multi-platform tech stack that perfectly aligns with their needs.
Making sense of messy systems
Australia’s bushfires have been worsening in recent decades, driven by climate change. Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action (BSCA) is a community-led response to this reality: coordinating the voices of those affected by the impacts of bushfires, smoke, and evacuation from impacted areas.
BSCA runs a lean operation, with a few part-time staff, one full-time CEO, Serena, and passionate board members who have been with BSCA since its inception.
Until the end of 2023, the organisation only had a couple of hundred people in its community and relied on manageable, manual data processes. But through a successful petition campaign , this changed – over three months, the number of supporters increased five-fold. And BSCA intends to grow further. It would simply not be viable to continue as things have always been done.
I’ve supported Serena’s work before, so when I launched Systems of Impact, she reached out, knowing I would be able to help!
Serena inherited a patchwork of online systems, with a lot of overlapping functionality. My first task was to understand what data there was, put it all in one place, and ensure this remained up to date over the next few months – to eventually facilitate a smooth CRM implementation.
While exploring the BSCA data ecosystem, with permission, I tweaked a few data capture processes that I felt were core to the organisation’s mission and created a pathway for engaged supporters to share their stories of bushfires. This intuition came from my deep knowledge of advocacy campaigns – I understand what data is required for longevity and growth.
With me, you’re not getting someone who fixes things illogically. I fix them in a way that makes sense for campaigners, organisers, or fundraisers because I’ve worked across all of these job functions before. I know what data you’ll need to operate effectively, and I can help you secure it.
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​After the initial clean-up, I set off building Zaps (I call them “data bridges”) between applications like Mailchimp, Squarespace, Action Network, and Raisely – reducing the need for manual processes and giving BSCA staff a clear understanding of who is part of their (rapidly expanding!) community at any given time.
Phase 2: Finding the right CRM
As a second phase of this project, Serena asked me to find an appropriate CRM for BSCA. Before diving into research, I wanted to understand which features the team wanted most. I ran a needs assessment workshop, which revealed that the most important things were ease of use, automation, and cost.
While I did do some research, we couldn’t find an all-in-one system that ticked enough boxes – especially cost, advocacy applications, and customisation. I suggested an alternative setup: keeping systems roughly as they were, with an Airtable base taking over the majority of the CRM capabilities. This solution is extremely cost-effective (Airtable licenses for not-for-profits are around $10 USD per month when billed annually) and flexible, as everything in Airtable can be changed.
The result of this was a combination of systems that, with the right setup in Zapier, all talk to each other (thanks to Zapier). Though this setup does require a small amount of upkeep, the team now uses it to effectively track petition campaigns, event attendances, MP interactions, and of course their growing database of bushfire survivors.
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Serena says...
We can't recommend Ajaya highly enough.
Ajaya combines top-notch technical expertise with climate campaigning nous – so we know he gets it. He's also a warm and engaging human who is easy to work with, even over different time zones.
A final word from Ajaya...
I love making a system from scratch. It brings so much flexibility to the exact needs of a team. It's been great watching this system grow with the needs of the organisations. It's always a pleasure working with Serena and the team!