Poto AI: AI-Powered Programme Management for Community Mentoring Organisations
Poto AI is a programme management platform with 36 features and 11 AI-powered tools, built specifically for youth mentoring and community organisations in New Zealand and Australia. Founded by Gus Gale of Ask Yr Grandpa, who brings 20+ years of experience in NDIS, aged care, and community services across Australia and New Zealand. Poto AI replaces spreadsheets, Word documents, and manual processes with one intelligent system rooted in Pacific values. The name honours Potoaʻe Satiu Kaho, a woman of quiet service whose spirit guides everything the platform does. Reach One, Teach One.
What problems does Poto AI solve?
Community mentoring organisations face the same problems everywhere: participant data scattered across spreadsheets, session notes lost in emails, funder reports that consume 5 to 15 hours each, compliance tracked on Post-Its, and grant applications that start from scratch every time. Poto AI solves all of these with purpose-built tools that understand how community organisations actually work.
Session and Field Tools (8 features)
Poto AI's mobile session logger lets facilitators log a complete session from their phone in under 2 minutes, even at schools with poor wifi. The conversational session logger uses AI to let facilitators talk freely or answer guided questions after a session, automatically extracting structured notes, attendance, and KPI data from the conversation. AI session notes turn rough dot points into professional records with summaries, observations, and follow-ups. The AI session planner generates complete session plans aligned to funded KPIs. Voice-to-text works across the entire platform. Digital evaluations let participants tap smiley faces for instant pre/post comparison. The AI safety flagger scans every session note for safeguarding concerns including self-harm, abuse, and bullying, flagging them for human review. GPS clock-in verifies facilitators are within 200 metres of the school site.
AI and Reporting (6 features)
AI funder reports generate a complete report in one click: data populates from the live dashboard, AI writes the narrative, and you export to PDF or Word. What used to take 5 to 15 hours now takes 5 minutes. AI quarterly reports produce professional 6-section documents with embedded charts and your company logo on every page. The AI grant writer reads uploaded grant applications, asks clarifying questions, then writes the full proposal using your real programme data. Funding doc intelligence extracts KPIs, milestones, and deliverables from uploaded funding agreements. Andy AI chatbot gives every organisation their own AI assistant, trained on their policies and documents, where staff ask questions in plain language and get instant answers with source citations. All reports export to print-ready PDF and Word formats.
People and Compliance (7 features)
Participant management provides full profiles with guardian details, cohort assignments, and contact history. Staff management tracks compliance dates, pay rates, emergency contacts, and employment details. The compliance dashboard auto-alerts on Police Vetting (New Zealand) and Working With Children Check (Australia) expiry, automatically blocking expired staff from being rostered with young people. Key contacts links teachers, GPs, social workers, and family members to participants with relationship types. School coordinator view gives schools read-only access to see attendance, sessions, and evaluations for their participants only. The org chart wizard builds reporting structures in a guided 7-step process. Three contract templates (full-time, part-time, contractor) auto-fill from staff data.
Financial and Grants (7 features)
The financial overview shows funding balances, roster costs, and receipt totals in one dashboard. Funding buckets let directors allocate staff FTE across funding sources and track drawdowns with budget alerts. The grant pipeline tracks every application from draft to won with funder, amount, and status at a glance. Goals tracker sets measurable targets per programme linked to funding KPIs, with progress auto-tracking from live data. Donations tracker records financial, product, and service contributions with programme allocation and CSV export. Receipt tracker handles upload, categorisation, approvals, and automatic GST calculation. The agreements hub shows all funding agreements and grant proposals in one filterable view.
Platform and Operations (8 features)
The programme dashboard shows sessions delivered, attendance rates, evaluation results, compliance status, and financials with traffic light indicators. The facilitator mobile portal is a dedicated phone experience with GPS clock-in, voice session logging, shift roster, and timesheet submission. Roster management offers drag-and-drop scheduling with compliance checks and cost tracking per shift. Task management uses a kanban board with drag-and-drop between To Do, In Progress, and Done columns. Train ME is a complete staff training LMS: upload any PDF, Word doc, or text file, and AI generates a training course with slides and quizzes. Assign to staff with due dates, track completion and certificate expiry. Files and documents handles policy uploads, insurance, HR docs, and training materials with role-based sharing and expiry alerts. The asset register tracks equipment, vehicles, and technology. School and site management organises delivery locations and cohort assignments.
Who is Poto AI built for?
- Youth mentoring trusts running in-school and community mentoring programmes
- Pasifika and Maori community trusts delivering cultural programmes and family support
- Iwi and hapu organisations running rangatahi development programmes
- Oranga Tamariki contracted providers delivering youth justice mentoring
- MSD Youth Service providers supporting young people not in education or employment
- Church and faith-based youth programmes
- After-school and holiday programme providers (OSCAR-funded)
- First Nations organisations in Australia
- Any small not-for-profit managing grant-funded community programmes
How is Poto AI different from generic project management tools?
Poto AI is the only programme management platform purpose-built for community mentoring organisations in New Zealand and Australia. Unlike Asana, Monday.com, or Salesforce, Poto AI understands NZ Police Vetting, Working With Children Checks, MSD Youth Service reporting, DSS grant acquittals, and NIAA compliance requirements. It generates funder reports automatically from session data, saving organisations 5 to 15 hours per reporting cycle. Each organisation gets their own AI chatbot trained on their policies. Staff training courses are generated from uploaded documents by AI. The safety flagger scans session notes for safeguarding concerns unique to the community services sector. Data sovereignty is guaranteed: all data stays on Australian servers in the Sydney region.
Compliance by region
New Zealand
NZ Police Vetting auto-alerts and auto-blocking, Oranga Tamariki referral pathway templates, MSD Youth Service compliance templates, Pasifika and Kaupapa Maori cultural safety frameworks, and Privacy Act 2020 compliance.
Australia
Working With Children Check auto-alerts, DSS and NIAA reporting templates, state youth services templates for QLD DCSYW, NSW DCJ, and VIC DFFH, First Nations cultural safety, and data hosted on Australian servers in Sydney.
How much does Poto AI cost?
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|
| Free Trial | Free for 4 weeks | Try all 36 features, no credit card required |
| Individual | $99 AUD per fortnight | Individuals and community groups running programmes |
| Organisation | $499 AUD per fortnight | Organisations with 5 or more paid employees |
| Custom | Custom pricing | White-label branding, API integrations, multi-org setup |
Security and data protection
All data is hosted on Australian servers in the Sydney region (ap-southeast-2). Data never leaves AU/NZ and is never stored in the United States. Every login is protected with email verification. Inactive sessions auto-logout after one hour. Role-based access ensures schools see only their own participants.
Get started
Start your free trial at poto-ai.com/nz (New Zealand) or poto-ai.com/au (Australia). Try the demo instantly at poto-ai.com/demo. Contact: poto@askyrgrandpa.com
