Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne is a nonprofit supporting one of the world's great botanic gardens and the National Herbarium of Victoria. Based at Gate Lodge, 100 Birdwood Avenue, Melbourne, the Friends offer seven membership tiers — from $60 Concession to $280 Platinum Friend — with 1-year and 3-year options. Members receive digital publications, access to Friends-only walks, talks, and events, and discounts at Growing Friends Plant Sales. Volunteer groups include the Growing Friends and a Photography Group. Contact: Suzy Chandler (suzy.chandler@frbgmelb.org.au).

Managing 6,790 contacts across seven membership tiers ($60–$280), coordinating dozens of events annually — from guided walks and talks to major Growing Friends plant sales and photography group outings — processing donations, running volunteer programs, and distributing digital publications requires a platform that can scale.

TidyHQ has been the Friends' operational backbone. Custom domain, custom mail domain, Dropbox integration, Google Analytics, Mailchimp, and the full suite of membership, event, meeting, shop, and communication tools run the organisation. Seven membership tiers process through Stripe with 1-year and 3-year billing options.

Volunteer time is finite. Friends of the Royal Botanic now spends it where it matters — on their members, not on admin.

• 6,790 — Contacts in the database
• 10+ — Years of operational history preserved
• 7 — Membership tiers from $60 to $280

From their public website to membership renewals to event management, Friends of the Royal Botanic handles it all from one dashboard. New committee members inherit a working system, not a collection of logins and spreadsheets.