Protecting vulnerable British wildlife

 
Who are they?
BADGER TRUST.

Where are they?
East Grinstead, working nationally.

What do they do?
Promote the conservation and welfare of badgers.

How big are they?
Turnover of £100-150k p.a.

What did they receive?
MS Windows Server 2003 & Small Business Server, Terminal Services User Client Access Licenses and copies of Office Professional Plus.

The outcome?
A new small office setup for the charity.

An iconic resident of the British countryside, the badger is a protected species under law, with a multitude of groups across the country working for the benefit of these much-loved animals.

Photographer: Hugh Clark 

Nevertheless, the creature faces threats on all sides, from individual snaring or baiting, through to the destruction of setts by development, road traffic and the pressure from some parties to cull due to a claimed link with bovine TB.

“Badgers are an easy target – they can’t speak up for themselves,” says Jeff Hayden, explaining the role of the Badger Trust in bringing these various local groups together under one umbrella. “The regional groups tend to be county or half-county based – they might have a membership of as few as 11 to as many as 250 people – but most of those will be supporters rather than activists. We act as a central organisation for them”

“A local group does valuable hands-on work, but they could not contemplate changing the law. But we have,” he adds proudly.

This encapsulates why the Trust was formed back in the 1980’s – to take on the national tasks that were just not possible for the local badger groups. With an extensive website full of resources for enthusiasts and the general public, the Trust is certainly on top of its game IT-wise. And partly thanks to Microsoft donations via the CTX programme, major infrastructure changes have been possible to benefit the efficient running of the charity.

“We’ve been able to relocate our offices from London to Sussex,” reports Jeff, “with people being able to log in remotely in order to work. In fact, we’ve even situated our server elsewhere – in Southampton – where there’s more space available for it.”

New copies of Office are installed on the Trust’s PC’s, aiding the production of complex documents from lobbying materials to factsheets and the charity’s own magazine, Badger News. Meanwhile, an extensive database manages contacts – not just supporters and subscribers but a wealth of other relevant organisations from other animal welfare charities and groups to the Police and MP’s.

The CTX programme is designed not just to supply top-class software to deserving organisations, but to make the acquisition process as simple as possible too. The Badger Trust now has an excellent small office setup courtesy of Microsoft, which was quick and easy to obtain. “It was very straightforward,” confirms Jeff.