Charity IT Systems & Automation

Client

Aim RDA

Aim RDA is a newly formed charity and a member group of the Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA), providing therapeutic and recreational riding opportunities for people with disabilities. From the very beginning, the trustees wanted to be a forward-thinking organisation — using technology in the right way to make their operations smoother and more sustainable. None of the trustees came from a technical background, so they needed a partner who could turn ideas into reality and keep things simple along the way.

The Challenge

Starting from scratch, Aim RDA needed everything: email systems, secure data storage, a public web presence, and reliable processes for volunteers, members, and donations. They wanted to take advantage of modern cloud tools but didn’t want complexity or high running costs. Beyond that, they hoped to reduce the manual admin work that charities often struggle with — tasks like creating invoices, reconciling payments, and managing volunteer paperwork.

The Solution

TINCS worked alongside Aim RDA to design and deploy a complete digital foundation for the charity. The first step was setting up centralised email, SharePoint document libraries, and OneDrive storage under Microsoft 365, giving trustees and volunteers secure, shared access to email and files — all protected with multi-factor authentication and managed data security. This immediately provided a reliable, professional communication platform for the organisation.

Next came the website, built on WooCommerce for the charity’s online shop. Every product sale is now picked up by a Make.com automation that raises the corresponding invoice in the charity’s accounting system, letting the treasurer match payments without manual reconciliation.

Volunteer onboarding was transformed with a custom form TINCS built, feeding into a set of Make.com automations rather than hand-written scripts — a deliberate choice, since the trustees don’t have technical staff and needed something they could adjust in future without relying on custom code. The digital form replaced paper versions, creating records directly in the central volunteer database. When a volunteer applies, reference requests are sent automatically to their referees. Once completed, each reference is converted to a PDF, stored securely, and sent to the relevant trustee — creating a full, traceable audit trail for every application.

Finally, TINCS provided ongoing advice and configuration on data handling, authentication, and secure file management, ensuring that Aim RDA’s systems remain compliant, maintainable, and easy to manage by non-technical users.

The Outcome

The transformation was immediate. The time required to onboard a volunteer dropped from several hours to just a few minutes, while the success rate of receiving completed references jumped from the low teens to over 90%. The treasurer’s workload was significantly reduced, and trustees now have a clear view of every record without piles of paper or manual chasing.

With a simple, automated foundation in place, Aim RDA’s team can now focus on what matters — supporting their riders and growing the charity — while knowing that the technology behind it all quietly takes care of itself.