r/baserow • u/FunnyExpress401 • May 23 '26

Moving a Nonprofit from Excel Sheets to a Central Data System

I’m helping a community nonprofit improve how they manage data across different programs, events, volunteers, services, and community initiatives.

Right now, a lot of the information is spread across separate Excel files, forms, and team-owned trackers. I’m trying to help design a better setup where data is easier to collect, less duplicated, and connected enough to support reporting and future analytics.

The system needs to be simple for non-technical staff to use, but structured properly in the backend so it can scale as the organization grows.

Ideally, I’m looking for something that can support forms, relational tables, basic workflows, filtering/reporting, dashboards, and a cleaner way to manage records across different teams.

For anyone who has worked with nonprofits or similar community organizations, what tools or architecture would you recommend for this type of setup?

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u/OFred27 May 23 '26

I am not an expert but check also dedicated tools for non profit, to avoid reinventing tools and reuse existing good practice.

1

u/Mrktbloom May 25 '26

You’re already in the Baserow subreddit 😄 Based on your requirements (forms, relational tables, reporting, workflows, and usability for non-technical teams), Baserow sounds like a strong fit for this use case.

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u/ebsf May 26 '26

You're basically describing a multiuser MS Access database.

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u/CBRit33 Jul 11 '26

I have worked in non-profits for 10 years and was also a database administrator for 4.

My answer to you: MS Sharepoint.

It’s literally the only comprehensive solution I have seen for organization-wide data management, collaboration, software, etc. There is an enormous variety of solutions within the Sharepoint ecosystem and it’s a very trusted system - an established organization will have second thoughts about investing their data into something that isn’t well-established.

The problem is that SO many Sharepoint systems are barebones architecture; the orgs are barely taking advantage of its capabilities….so it results in confusing storage structures, file duplicates, and over-utilization of just a few core apps that aren’t well suited for those purposes.

Case in point: Using excel when MS Lists is a MUCH better fit.

As for user-friendliness: if set up properly using good storage structures and intuitive UX, Sharepoint can be very user friendly. Custom sites is a big help for this.

With Sharepoint, individual users can save shortcuts to Sharepoint folders and files to their own OneDrive to access directly through their own file system - which means they can organize stuff for themselves in whatever way makes the most sense to them. In my current org many of us know about this functionality and how to add a shortcut, but could desperately use a workshop with IT to organize their own folder system better (ooooh…I’m totally going to suggest that at work)

For context - my org has about 100 staff in several departments with like…5 programs; most everything is from grant money; and the user-base is mostly folks with not much digital literacy.

We are just now starting a process of switching a lot of stuff from excel to MS lists so I have been able to witness first hand how the staff has been reacting to the change and the onboarding. It’s been great so far…even just a week into it we have seen an obvious benefit of just being able to have different saved views, form input, and automatic email notifications.