What is captools.org?
captools.org is a source of valuable additional tools and resources for Delegates/Participants and Coaches of the CAP Money Course. These include
- CAP Money Tools – developed with CAP Money Course delegates, and coaches, in mind
- CAP Coach Tools – developed to make the life of CAP Money Coaches easier
Mostly the functionality is implemented via extensions for Chrome and Chromium-based web browsers, as well as this web site which not only has a public facing side, but also provides the back-end for the browser extensions.
Who is behind captools.org?
It is a project by Phil Thomas, and distributed by Success Excellence Pty Ltd of which Phil is Managing Director.
The project is not associated with Christians Against Poverty.
Phil was a CAP Money Coach from early 2016 through mid 2023 and was an active supporter of Christians Against Poverty (CAP) in Australia. He was a well respected and experienced facilitator of the CAP Money Course and CAP Money Youth Course using both face-to-face and online delivery.
Phil has an extensive background in software development, financial markets and financial services (financial planning) as well as education and coaching. He’s semi-retired, lives in Sydney with his wife Candy and two adult children and attends Citywest Church.
How did the CAP Money Tools come about?
As a CAP Money Coach, the feedback Phil Thomas received from CAP Money Course delegates about the online Budget Worksheet was always extremely positive. Occasionally he received feedback on what would make it better which was always welcomed. The most often requested feature was the ability to export the budget worksheet to Excel. In 2017 he produced some early prototypes as a technical proof-of-concept.
The project then sat on the shelf for a year or two until the COVID-19 lock-down in 2020, at which time Phil decided to brush off the cobwebs and re-invigorate the project. First off was the Excel export functionality, but then Phil had further ideas. Reviewing the course materials and then investing hundreds of hours into the project during 2020 and 2021, he’s implemented the suite of features that now makes up the CAP Money Tools browser extension.
The project provided Phil with a much-needed distraction during COVID-19 and during a period of little work. Perhaps you’d consider making a donation to say “thanks” for the hours he’s invested into the project?
How did the CAP Coach Tools come about?
Until 2020, Phil had only delivered the CAP Money Course in face-to-face settings. The COVID-19 restrictions forced some thought about how to transition what worked in a classroom environment to online delivery.
A number of the CAP Coach Tools came out of that process, as well as a desire to streamline administration as a result of running more course s online. Initially implemented quickly for use by courses run by Citywest Church, they’ve now been re-engineered to be able to be shared more broadly with all CAP Money Coaches.
As a part of finalising the CAP Money Tools, which also use captools.org as a back-end server, Phil decided to use the time during the 2021 COVID-19 lock-down to complete development of the CAP Coach Tools.
Some of the features of the CAP Coach Tools are available through the Online Content on this web site, with the remainder implemented in a Browser Extension much like the CAP Money Tools. Due to the nature of much of the functionality, the tools require CAP Money Coaches to register (free) with captools.org in order to use them.
Please consider making a donation to say “thanks” for the hours that Phil has invested into the project?