A Look Back on 2025 with Digital Future Aotearoa
There’s a lot to look back on in 2025! This has been a year full of developments and milestones for our staff, volunteers, and communities. Through it all, the kaupapa remains the same: creating a fairer digital future for Aotearoa.
Take a walk along memory lane with us as we reflect on what’s happened at Recycle A Device, Code Club Aotearoa, Ōtautahi Outreach, Digital Pīkau, and Digital Future Aotearoa as a whole.
Milestones and team updates
The major milestone we celebrated in 2025 was Recycle A Device’s fifth birthday. For an initiative that’s only just steady to start school, it has achieved a lot already! Take a look at our previous blog posts to read about the last five years of RAD and what’s to come in the next five.
At DFA headquarters, we said a sad goodbye to Bronwyn Scott as she left the general manager role for new challenges, but were stoked to welcome back Kris Dempster-Rivett. He was a member of the DFA whānau previously and we’re looking forward to the future with Kris at the helm. Together, the team is making plans to continue promoting digital equity in 2026 and beyond.
Navigating challenges
The DFA team continued to deliver engaging learning experiences for tamariki throughout 2025.
2025 was a challenging year financially, not only for DFA but for many charitable organisations. We’ve seen non-profits closing their doors at a higher rate than usual, with funding drying up significantly due to both a tough economic climate and a government with other priorities.
It’s alarming to see so many options disappear for struggling whānau! The DFA team has done their best to maintain our programmes, but we have certainly felt the effects of the funding scarcity. A huge thank you to our amazing donors and volunteers keeping the doors open and providing opportunities for New Zealanders to gain the skills, equipment, and opportunities they need to participate in all the digital world has to offer.
Families are feeling the squeeze too. As the cost of living rises, it is becoming difficult for people to pay for food, shelter, stationery, and uniforms, let alone devices—even when these are required for school. Government support through MSD has been tightened or removed, compounding financial challenges for many New Zealanders. Full participation in the digital world can easily be a casualty in this battle; DFA is working to ensure it isn’t.
Literacy, numeracy, and assessment are the focus for the Ministry of Education, and this has left some kaiako lacking in digital literacy skills and the confidence to introduce more complex technological concepts. Our tamariki will live in a world that’s even more based on digital technology than the current one, and it’s important that their teachers are able to prepare them for this. Through Ōtautahi Outreach and other initiatives, we are working to address this.
Success stories
We’ve loved hearing stories of how our programmes have positive impacts on participants! One example of this is the upskilling of the kaiako who participated in the Ōtautahi Outreach pilot programme back in 2021. This year, we have heard tales of these wonderful educators moving into support or even leadership roles for the digital technology programmes in their schools. The programme made a positive contribution to their professional development, and their colleagues, students, and schools are benefitting too.
“When Outreach kaiako become digital pouahi, it’s proof that immersive, classroom-based PLD creates lasting impact.”
Award alert
The team was recognised with two awards in 2025! At the New Zealand CIO Awards in August, Digital Future Aotearoa was named Community Tech Champion. This award honours initiatives that promote digital equity, diversity, and accessibility to tech careers in Aotearoa.
In October, DFA was also awarded the DE&I partner award at the Reseller News Innovation Awards. We’re grateful for the opportunity these awards provide to get our message out and to platform the cause of digital equity.
These recognitions demonstrate the immense need for this mahi and the impact our programmes have in the community. We honour our kaimahi, including our volunteers in these achievements.
Partnership as a priority
We worked with some incredible companies, people, and organisations in 2025. Some were old partnerships, some new. Without them, we couldn’t keep our programmes running. In a time of scarce funding and many needs to be met, collaboration and helping each other out is how non-profits and social impact initiatives can survive.
There’s our logistics partner Entelar who have been generously helping us distribute devices to those who need them since 2020, and Echo who help us to recycle or ethically dispose of any unused electronics. There are businesses like Chorus who regularly donate devices and like Spark Foundation who provide much-needed funding. There are multiple community partners like Noel Leeming St Lukes and Linwood Library and TechMate who help us to collect laptops and find recipients for devices. There are schools and community hubs all over Aotearoa that host RAD clubs and Code Clubs.
We look forward to continuing these connections and making new ones in 2026 and beyond! If you are interested in donating, volunteering, or collaborating, please get in touch with the team.
