Optimize Our Data Collection Practices (Google Sheets)

Our organization needs your help becoming more data-driven!

We are looking for a volunteer who can help us design and build a consolidated outcomes reporting system in Google Sheets. As a small nonprofit managing anywhere from 5 small piece meal outcomes grants, to about 3-5 very complicated data-active grants across two states (Arizona and Utah), our program and finance staff currently track outcomes manually across multiple disconnected systems — including Apricot (our client database), an OQ/YOQ mental health assessment tool, and manual class and survey records — resulting in significant time loss and data integrity risks at every reporting cycle.

The project goal is to build a clean, three-layer Google Sheets data spine that: (1) accepts raw CSV exports from Apricot and OQ as monthly data dumps, (2) deduplicates and reconciles client records across grants using a master client table, and (3) produces grant-specific output tabs that auto-populate quarterly and annual reporting requirements for submission to state funders.

Our starting point is VOCA Arizona, which has clearly defined quarterly outcome fields including unduplicated client counts, service type categories, victimization types, demographics, and Likert-scale satisfaction data. Once the VOCA model is validated, the architecture will be replicated across remaining grants.

The ideal volunteer is comfortable with Google Sheets architecture, COUNTIF/SUMIF logic, and basic data modeling. No automation or scripting is required — this is clean spreadsheet architecture built for a single internal owner to maintain with 2-4 hours of monthly upkeep.

We have all source documents, reporting templates, and data field maps ready to share at the start of engagement. We would LOVE a more thorough system - like Tableau or integrated apps support - like Looker, but we are all about starting with reasonable and growing from there! We are GRATEFUL for ANY support to get started!!!!

If you've watched The False Prophet on Netflix, you've seen the faces of the community we serve every day. Behind every story in that documentary is a family- a mother, a child, a survivor , who found their way to Cherish Families. We are the organization on the ground helping them escape, heal, and rebuild their lives after leaving the FLDS and other high-control religious communities. We provide therapy, legal advocacy, housing stability, peer support, and crisis intervention to some of the most isolated and underserved victims in the country.
Right now, the people doing that work are drowning in spreadsheets instead of serving survivors. Every hour our CFO spends hunting down grant data is an hour not spent keeping the lights on for our programs. Every reporting error risks the funding that pays for a child's therapy or a mother's safe housing. This data system isn't an administrative project — it's a lifeline. A skilled volunteer who helps us build this spine is directly freeing up the capacity we need to serve more survivors, sustain more programs, and answer the call when the next family walks through our door ready to start over. We are faced everyday with funding restrictions and budget cuts- this restricts our ability to apply the man-hours to creating outcome reports that donors can rely on for constant need.

We are committed to a harmonious relationship! We have completed a full scoping and discovery process and are ready to build immediately upon being matched. All grant reporting templates have been gathered, every data source has been documented, and we have the actual state submission templates in hand so the volunteer knows exactly what the output needs to look like. We have chosen Google Sheets as our platform, agreed on a three-layer architecture, and selected VOCA Arizona as our proof-of-concept starting point. The volunteer walks into a scoped, documented, ready-to-build project — not ambiguity.
Internal ownership and leadership alignment are already in place. The Director of Operations and HR will serve as the single system owner and is committed to a monthly 2-4 hour maintenance cycle after handoff, so there is no ongoing dependency on the volunteer. Our CFO and program leadership are aligned on this as an organizational priority and are prepared to adopt the system immediately upon completion. We are a prepared, communicative partner committed to making the best use of every hour shared with us.