Airtable Assessment and Optimization

We are seeking a volunteer to optimize our current Airtable system to better meet our organizational needs, with a strong focus on enhanced financial tracking and cross-team usage.

This project involves:
1. Airtable System Evaluation: Reviewing the existing Airtable structure (which tracks team members, vendors, contracts/grants, invoices, staff reimbursement requests, and grant reports) and recommending improvements to make it more user-friendly and efficient. One of our main goals is to integrate account codes and grant funding so we can track expenses in one place and eliminate the need for a separate Google Sheet to manage budgets, contracts, and payments. As part of this effort, we also want to expand our system to better support teams beyond Operations, including incorporating requested features from the Press and Communications teams, so that Airtable can serve organization-wide workflows more effectively.

2. Implementation & Data Visualization Support: Refining the current Airtable structure, supporting data migration from Google Sheets, and building an integrated financial dashboard within Airtable. The goal is to improve tracking, reporting, and overall visibility, so teams can access clear, reliable information in a single centralized system.

3. Training & Documentation: Providing a training session and clear documentation for the Operations team, along with post-launch guidance and best practices to ensure the Operations and other teams feel confident using, maintaining, and getting the most out of this system over time.

This project will help our team better track and manage resources across contracts, grants, and expenses, ensuring funds are used where they can make the biggest impact. By creating a more organized and accessible system in Airtable, our team members will feel more empowered to make more informed decisions, coordinate more effectively across teams, and focus on delivering programs, campaigns, and partnerships that benefit the communities we support in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We’ve taken several steps to ensure this project is set up for success and that a volunteer partner will have the support and clarity they need to make a meaningful impact.

First, we’ve shared details about this Airtable project with our full team to build internal awareness and buy-in. Currently, our group of project and communications coordinators and managers actively use our existing system to view and track the status of invoices, grants, and contracts, and we meet bi-weekly to assess these moving pieces and talk about any questions or updates. This experience has given us an understanding of what’s working well and where improvements are needed, providing a strong foundation for the next phase of this project.

We have also gathered the core materials that will inform this work, including the spreadsheets we use to track budgets, contracts, invoices, and other financial information, which we intend to migrate to Airtable. The volunteer will have access to these materials to ensure a smooth and accurate transition, with the understanding that all shared documents must remain confidential and are not distributed externally.

We’ve identified an internal lead for this project who will work closely with the volunteer and facilitate access to team members the volunteer would need to speak with. There are also two team members who will be supporting the internal lead and this project. This ensures they can ask detailed questions and receive feedback throughout the project. We will also provide background and details about our program, mission, and vision so that the system improvements align with how we operate and make decisions. In addition, we will share existing financial tracking materials and reports to give full context.

We are committed to implementing the outcomes of this project. By improving and centralizing our financial tracking in Airtable, we will reduce duplicative work, enhance team coordination, and create a better system for managing expenses and related workflows. This will improve how we monitor, manage, and report on our finances and other organizational activities across teams.