Less admin, more adventure: how AI is helping WORD get more kids on bikes
At WORD, mountain biking is just the medium. What we really do is get 7 to 17 year olds outside, connecting with each other, building resilience and growing as leaders. Since 2013 we have grown from a small idea into a Wellington charity serving more than 800 kids last year through term sessions, holiday camps and adventures.
Behind every session sits a lot of work nobody sees. This year, a free AI course gave our small team a way to take much of it off our plates, so we can spend more time where it counts: on the trail with the kids.
The goal is to keep growing: from 800+ kids last year to 1,000+ this year and 1,200+ in 2027. Getting there without burning out a small team is exactly where these tools help.
How it started
Our board chair Abbie, sent us a link to Fundsorter's free AI training for charities. Brad and I signed up. I will admit the first session felt a bit dry, but we stuck with it, and in week two, when we started building our own tools, everything clicked. We have now built around 50 tools, each one shaped around what WORD actually needs.
Keeping prices fair
We want WORD to stay accessible while still delivering a quality, safe service. Our programmes cost more to run than basic after school care because every session is led by trained instructors, coaching time is longer, and we are audited like an outdoor adventure provider. That means the only fair comparison is like for like, not headline price alone.
Our first tool does exactly that. Comparing programmes used to take three days, so we could only do it once a year, if that. Now it takes three minutes, and we can run it whenever we like. It shaves three or four days a year off our admin load and gives our board a clear visual of where WORD sits in the market.
Safer sessions, with real-time reporting
Our compliance app brings board reporting, safety policies and procedures together in one place. It tracks expiries such as first aid certificates and police vetting, supports instructor onboarding, and helps with scheduling. It cost about $300 in AI tokens to build, for what would have been a roughly $20,000 app to develop.
It also includes an incident reporting tool with GPS location tagging. If someone is hurt, the instructor stays with the rider and sends an alert. A map pin goes to every instructor on the hill that day, and we can direct emergency services to the right spot, even from another location.
Making our community work visible
Our teens love to build, so we created a Dig Crew app to support trail maintenance and tree planting. Riders earn badges for first aid, trail work, logging hours and bringing good vibes, and the app celebrates with a burst of confetti. It is a small thing that helps teenagers feel part of something.
It also feeds an impact reporting tool for our council partners. This work always happened, but it was hidden and unrecorded. Now we can show what we really do: volunteer hours, trees planted, sites worked on, how many kids turned up and how many metres of trail we looked after.
What we would say to other charities
Charities work far more hours than appear on paper, and AI can give some of that time back. You do not need to be technical. Start small, learn one new skill a month, and give it a crack. The time you invest comes back many times over.
Our values at WORD are Adventure, Connection, Inclusion, Embracing Change and Youth Centred. Learning to use AI is simply one more way we are embracing change, so that the kids stay at the centre.
A big thank you to Lani Evans MNZM, Alanna Irving and the whole crew at Fundsorter for the training and for telling our story. Read their full write-up, or join their next free AI for Charities course, starting 29 October.
Want your child to ride with WORD? See our upcoming camps and term sessions.