Working bee sign-ups
Dates, sites, meeting points and what to bring, with capacity limits, waitlists and SMS reminders.
Environmental group software: working bees & petitions
Environmental groups: more hands in the dirt. Plant more, paperwork less.
Petitions on clipboards, working bees organised in a group chat, volunteer hours on soggy sign-in sheets and nobody quite sure how many trees went in last year. We build campaign, volunteer and impact systems for landcare, bushcare and environmental groups, then we host them and look after them.
Looking for environmental group software that handles volunteers, working bees and campaigns?
An environmental group is a volunteer crew, a campaign office, a small charity and a data project all at once. It's usually run by a handful of committee members in their spare time. The working bee goes out on Facebook and in a group chat, the sign-in sheet gets rained on, the petition lives on a clipboard at the markets and come grant time somebody spends a weekend counting hours and trees from photos.
Wollopit builds custom software for environmental groups around how your group actually works. Volunteers sign up for working bees online and sign in on site with a QR code. Hours add up on their own. Campaign pages collect signatures and donations. Every planting, weed sweep and bag of rubbish gets logged against a site on a map, so your grant report is mostly written before you start it. We connect the tools you already use and look after the lot on our own servers.
01The problems
What we hear from environmental groups
Does your environmental group have these problems? Here's how we'd fix them.
Most groups we talk to have brilliant, committed people and an admin load that lands on the same two or three of them. It works until the coordinator burns out or moves away.
- The problemWorking bees organised in a group chatFifty people see the post, twelve say 'maybe' and you buy morning tea for thirty. Then it rains and half don't get the message.How we fix itOnline working bee sign-ups with numbers you can trust, SMS reminders the day before and a one-tap 'it's cancelled' message to everyone booked.
- The problemSoggy paper sign-in sheetsNames you can't read, missing phone numbers and a sheet that has to be typed up for the insurer and the council.How we fix itQR sign-in on site with emergency contacts, a quick safety brief tick and a record that's already digital.
- The problemVolunteer hours nobody countsThe grant asks for in-kind volunteer hours and someone has to rebuild a year from old sheets and memory.How we fix itHours tallied automatically from every sign-in, by person, site and project, ready to export for grants and acquittals.
- The problemInductions and safety records all over the placeNew volunteers turn up without an induction and nobody knows who's done chainsaw, herbicide or first aid training.How we fix itOnline inductions before the first working bee, training and ticket records with expiry reminders and site risk assessments on file.
- The problemPaper petitions with limited reachA clipboard at the Saturday markets gets a few hundred names and nobody follows up with the people who signed.How we fix itOnline petitions with a share link, signature counts and supporters who can be kept in the loop as the campaign moves.
- The problemCampaigns that are hard to promoteThe issue is urgent but the details are spread across a Facebook post, a PDF flyer and an old website page.How we fix itA proper campaign page with the story, a map, clear asks, a submission template and updates as things change.
- The problemImpact guessed, not measuredAsk how many trees went in last year and the answer is 'heaps'. Funders want a number.How we fix itPlantings, weed control, rubbish collected and survey results logged per site so impact totals add up as you go.
- The problemSites with no historyEvery bushcare site has years of work behind it but the before photos and records live on someone's phone.How we fix itA site map with boundaries, photo points, work history and plant lists, all shared with the group and the land manager.
- The problemDonations that are ad hocA tin at the stall, bank transfers with no reference and receipts written by hand when someone remembers.How we fix itA donation page with one-off and monthly giving, automatic receipts (tax deductible ones if you hold DGR status) and records in Xero.
- The problemMemberships on a spreadsheetRenewals chased by email, nobody's sure who's financial before the AGM and the member list is three years stale.How we fix itOnline membership with automatic renewals, a live member list and quorum and voting rolls ready for the AGM.
- The problemGrant reports take a whole weekendPhotos, hours, plantings and spending all need pulling together from five places before the deadline.How we fix itGrant projects tracked from the start, with hours, outputs, photos and spend already sorted for the report.
02What we build
Solutions
What we build for environmental groups. Usually all talking to each other.
Pick the one that's hurting most or join the whole lot up. Everything is built around how your team works, not the other way round.
QR site sign-in
Volunteers scan in and out on their phone. Emergency contacts, safety brief ticks and hours recorded in one go.
Volunteer register
Everyone's details, skills, availability, training tickets and total hours in one place the coordinators share.
Inductions & safety
Online inductions, site risk assessments, incident reports and training records with expiry reminders.
Campaign pages
The story, a map, the ask and regular updates on a page that's easy to share and easy to update.
Petitions
Online signatures with postcode checks, live counts and exports formatted for delivery to council or a company.
Submissions & letter tools
Help supporters write to council, a minister or a developer with a template they can personalise and send.
Donations & appeals
One-off and monthly giving, appeal targets, automatic receipts and payments reconciled in Xero.
Membership & AGMs
Online joining and renewals, a live member list, AGM notices and voting rolls.
Site & impact tracking
Every site mapped with work history, plantings, weed control, rubbish weights and photo points.
Nursery & plant stock
Seed collection, propagation batches and tube stock ready for planting days, so you know what's in the shadehouse.
Citizen science & surveys
Bird counts, water testing, frog surveys and turtle nest records logged on a phone in the field.
Grant project tracker
Each grant's milestones, outputs, hours and spend tracked as you go, with report-ready exports.
Supporter emails & SMS
Working bee call-outs, campaign updates and newsletters to the right people without copying lists around.
A website that recruits
Hand-built and quick on phones, with upcoming working bees, campaigns and a big 'get involved' button.
03The systems
The big ones
Your whole group, on one system.
These are the systems environmental groups ask us about most. Each one works on its own. They get properly useful when they're joined up.
Working bees & volunteers
Know who's coming. Know who turned up.
Post a working bee once and it goes to your website, email list and socials with an online sign-up. On the day volunteers scan a QR code at the meeting point. Their hours, emergency contacts and safety brief are recorded before the first weed is pulled.
- Working bee calendar on your website
- Sign-ups with capacity limits
- SMS reminders and weather cancellations
- QR sign-in and sign-out on site
- Emergency contacts on the coordinator's phone
- Safety brief and induction ticks
- Hours tallied per volunteer and site
- Training tickets with expiry reminders
- Under-18 and guardian consent
- Morning tea numbers sorted
Campaigns & petitions
Turn a worried community into a loud one.
Campaign pages that tell the story clearly, with a map, a petition and the next action front and centre. Supporters sign, share and write to decision makers. Every signature becomes someone you can update when it matters.
- Campaign pages with maps and updates
- Online petitions with live counts
- Postcode checks for local signatures
- Petition exports ready to deliver
- Submission and letter templates
- Share buttons for every channel
- Supporter list kept up to date
- Campaign update emails
- Paper signatures entered on a phone
- Deadlines and milestone countdowns
Sites & impact
Every tree counted. Every site remembered.
Each site sits on a map with its boundary, zones, photo points and full work history. Log plantings, weed control, rubbish collected and survey results from a phone in the field. Your impact totals add up all year without anyone counting.
- Site maps with zones and boundaries
- Plantings by species and count
- Weed control logs by area
- Rubbish collected by bag and weight
- Photo points: before and after
- Field surveys on any phone
- Works offline in the bush
- Plant lists for each site
- Shared view for council or land managers
- Year to date impact totals
Grants & reporting
Grant reports that mostly write themselves.
Set up each grant with its milestones and outputs, then link working bees, plantings, photos and spending as they happen. When the acquittal is due the numbers are already there. You just add the story.
- Grant projects with milestones
- Outputs tracked against targets
- In-kind volunteer hours valued
- Spending linked to each grant
- Photos sorted by project and site
- Deadline reminders for the committee
- Report exports for funders
- Funding history for new applications
- Partner contributions recorded
Donations & members
Supporters who give, join and stay.
A donation page that takes one-off and monthly gifts, sends receipts automatically and lands everything in Xero. Memberships renew online and the committee always knows who's financial before the AGM.
- One-off and monthly giving
- Appeal pages with targets
- Automatic donation receipts
- Tax deductible receipts if you hold DGR
- Payments reconciled in Xero
- Online membership and renewals
- Live financial member list
- AGM notices and voting rolls
- Supporter history in one place
04How it changes
Before and after
A planting day, wolloped.
Here's how a Saturday creek planting could change. Every group is different, so we map yours first.
Before
- Post in the group chat and hope people see it
- Guess numbers for tools, gloves and morning tea
- Paper sign-in sheet gets wet by 9am
- Someone counts empty tube pots to guess trees planted
- Photos stay on three different phones
- Hours rebuilt from memory at grant time
After
- Working bee posted once to the website, email and socials
- Sign-ups show 34 coming with SMS reminders sent
- Volunteers scan in on site with safety brief ticked
- Plantings logged by species against the site map
- Before and after photos saved to the photo points
- Hours and trees already in the grant report
05Services
Everything under one roof
Software, websites and systems for environmental groups.
Whether you're starting fresh or upgrading what you've got, it's one team from the first sketch to the support call.
Custom software for environmental groups
Built around how your environmental group actually runs: working bee sign-ups, qR site sign-in and the admin in between, in one system you own.
Websites for environmental groups
Fast, hand-built websites that rank for the searches your customers make and turn visits into enquiries, bookings or orders.
Environmental group system upgrades
Running on spreadsheets, old software or a platform you've outgrown? We move your data across and upgrade in stages so the business never stops.
Apps and portals for environmental groups
Volunteer register and inductions & safety: customer and staff portals that work on any phone without an app store.
Integrations and automation
We connect Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Xero so information moves on its own and nobody retypes it.
Hosting, support and care
Managed hosting, updates, backups and security for your environmental group, looked after by the people who built it.
06Integrations
Connections
Plays nicely with what you already use.
We connect to the tools your group already relies on, work alongside platforms you're happy with or replace the ones holding you back.
- Google Workspace
- Microsoft 365
- Xero
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Square
- Mailchimp
- Eventbrite
- Humanitix
- TidyHQ
- Raisely
- GiveNow
- Google Maps
- iNaturalist
- QGIS
- Twilio SMS
- Zoom
- Canva
07How we work
The process
Some people dip their toe in. We turn up in a rebreather.
We get properly below the surface of your environmental group: the systems, the busy days and the jobs everyone hates. Then we fix the bits that matter most first.
- 01
Think
We come along to a working bee, sit in on a committee meeting and find out where the admin really piles up.
- 02
Archi-tech
We plan it before writing code: your sites, volunteers, campaigns, grants, members, hosting and cost.
- 03
Build
Real engineering shown to you early and often. Usually the most painful bit first, so you get a win before the next planting season.
- 04
Look after
We host it, maintain it and keep improving it. When the coordinator changes, the system and its history stay put.
08Questions
FAQ
Things environmental groups ask us.
Something else on your mind? Ring 0423 011 252 and ask the people who'd build it.
Can volunteer hours be used for grant reporting?
Yes. Hours are recorded every time someone signs in, so you can export them by person, site, project or grant for applications and acquittals.
Does QR sign-in work for our insurance and council records?
It gives you a clear digital record of who was on site, when they arrived and left and that they had the safety brief. We'll set it up to match what your insurer and land manager ask for.
What about volunteers who don't have a smartphone?
No problem. A coordinator can sign people in from their own phone or tablet and paper sheets can still be entered later in a few taps.
Will it work out in the bush with no reception?
We can build field tools that work offline and sync when you're back in range, so plantings and surveys aren't lost.
Can online petitions go to parliament?
State and federal parliaments have their own petition rules and e-petition systems. We can link supporters to those and run your own petitions for council, companies and community campaigns with exports ready to deliver.
We already use TidyHQ or Mailchimp. Do we have to switch?
No. If a platform is doing its job we build around it and connect to it. If it's holding you back we'll show you what replacing it would involve before anything changes.
How much does a system for an environmental group cost?
It depends on what you need, so we quote up front once we understand it. No surprise invoices, no lock-in and you own what we build.
How long does it take?
Smaller jobs like working bee sign-ups or a petition page can be quick. Bigger systems are planned in stages so you get the first win early instead of waiting for everything at once.
Who looks after it once it's built?
We do. We host it on our own managed servers and keep it updated and secure. When you need something you ring the people who built it.
We already have systems. Can you upgrade them instead of starting again?
Usually, yes. Most environmental groups we work with keep what's working and upgrade the rest in stages. We move your data across, connect the old and new while we switch and retire the old system only when the new one is proven.
Contact
Got an environmental group problem? Consider it wolloped.
Tell us what's slow, broken, manual or missing. You don't need a spec, just describe what's going on.