Non-profits

Grant reports and donor letters, drafted from your own records.

Non-profits carry an administrative load sized for a much larger organization, from board packets to compliance paperwork and program records. All of it has to be right, much of it is document work AI handles well, and the organization has to stay in charge of its data the whole way through.

Start a conversationHow we work
Drafts from the Standard, sent by a personOn the left, the Operating Standard as a stack of ruled sheets with three numbered sections: 1 records, 2 funder rules, 3 past reports. A highlighted flow line branches from it to three drafts: a grant report, a donor letter and a board packet. The drafts then converge on a person, who reads and sends every one.THE STANDARDDRAFTSREVIEWOPERATING STANDARD1RECORDS2FUNDER RULES3PAST REPORTSSOURCED · DATEDGRANT REPORTDONOR LETTERBOARD PACKETA PERSON READSAND SENDS EVERY ONETITLEDRAFTS, THEN A PERSONDWG D-08REV ASHEET 1/1Drafts from the Standard, sent by a personOn the left, the Operating Standard as a stack of ruled sheets with three numbered sections: 1 records, 2 funder rules, 3 past reports. A highlighted flow line branches from it to three drafts: a grant report, a donor letter and a board packet. The drafts then converge on a person, who reads and sends every one.THE STANDARDOPERATING STANDARD1RECORDS2FUNDER RULES3PAST REPORTSSOURCED · DATEDDRAFTSGRANT REPORTDONOR LETTERBOARD PACKETA PERSON READSAND SENDS EVERY ONETITLEDRAFTS, THEN A PERSONDWG D-08REV ASHEET 1/1
Your Operating Standard holds your records, your funders’ rules and your past reports. Drafts come from it (a grant report, a donor letter, a board packet), and a person reads and sends every one.

The work

Where the paperwork is heaviest

The system assembles and drafts from records you own. A person reviews and sends anything that reaches a funder, a donor or a family.

01

Grant and funder reporting

Every cycle, someone rebuilds a report from records you already keep, in each funder’s format.

  • The systemAssembles the report from your records in the funder’s format and drafts the narrative from real program data, with each figure traced to its record.
  • People approveProgram staff check the facts and the story, and a person submits every report.
02

Donor and constituent letters

A letter that reflects what a particular person supported, and when, reads differently from a merge field.

  • The systemDrafts from the donor record your organization owns, including what the person gave to and what they’ve already heard from you.
  • People approveA person reads, edits and sends every letter. Nothing goes to a donor on its own.
03

Board and compliance packets

The same packet gets assembled from the same places every quarter.

  • The systemPulls the pieces together on a schedule and flags anything missing or out of date.
  • People approveYour director reviews the packet before it goes to the board.
04

Program records and intake

Intake paperwork varies by program and by person, so answering a funder’s question turns into a file hunt.

  • The systemOrganizes intake into consistent, searchable records under the access rules your leaders set.
  • People approveThe staff who work with clients decide what gets recorded and who can see it.
05

How the organization works

When someone leaves a small organization, a lot of how things get done leaves with them.

  • The systemYour Operating Standard holds how the work is done, who owns each step and where the records live, in files the organization owns.
  • People approveThe people doing the work keep it current, and when the record is wrong, it gets fixed the same day.

How we work

How an engagement runs

Every engagement is scoped independently, so there’s no fixed package and no published price. The order of the steps stays the same. Conversations are always free.

Every step in detail

  1. OP 010

    A conversation

    You getAn answer, including “not yet”

    Budgets here are real limits, and sometimes the honest answer is “not yet, and here’s what would change that.” We’ll say so in the first conversation.

  2. OP 020

    Working sessions and data rules

    You getWritten data rules and an agreed first process

    When the first conversation shows a real path, a working session is usually the next step, and it’s typically free too. We sit with the people who do the work and agree on one process to start with. Your leaders decide what data may be touched, what never leaves your systems, who approves what, and where a person stays in the loop, and that’s written down before anything is built.

  3. OP 030

    A scoped first project

    You getA written scope you approve

    We write the first project down in plain language: the process, the result we’re after, what’s left out, how we’ll test that it’s done, and a limit you approve. Nothing starts until you approve it.

  4. OP 050

    A foundation the organization owns

    You getYour accounts, your files

    We set up your Operating Standard in accounts the organization controls, with a named login for each person and passwords in the organization’s password manager. Hardware, network and account decisions wait for your IT partner, and because a written instruction to an AI tool isn’t a security control, we rely on account permissions instead.

  5. OP 060

    One process, sized to the budget

    You getOne reviewed process

    We start with one narrow process, reviewed by the people who do it. Sometimes the right answer is something your staff can do themselves, and we’ll point you there.

  6. OP 070

    A Champion on staff

    You getSomeone inside who can run it

    Your Champion is usually someone already on your staff, because they’re the one who’ll be there, and they learn to run the system and change it.

  7. OP 080

    Handoff

    You getThe code, instructions, settings and accounts

    Your people run it, fix it and change it without us. Ongoing support, which we call Cadence, is optional and month to month, and you can cancel any month.

Our approach

How we judge the result

We judge the result three ways: what it gives your staff back for the people you serve, the quality of the reports and letters that go out, and how much less depends on any one person. When there are results worth publishing, they’ll appear here with their source.

Holden Richardson

Who you’ll work with

Holden Richardson

Founder and principal

He’s the person you work with, from the first conversation through handoff, and the working sessions happen on site with the people who do the work.

About HoldenHolden on LinkedIn

The honest list

What we’ll tell you not to build

We’d rather say it early, before you spend anything.

  • Anything that would put donor or client information somewhere it shouldn’t be, at any price.
  • Fully automated messages to donors or families. Those relationships are the organization’s real asset, so a person sends every message.
  • Replacing a case manager’s or program director’s judgment. The system supports that judgment and leaves the decision with them.
  • A large build when a narrow one would do. Non-profit budgets deserve the smallest thing that works.

Further reading

Reading for non-profits

Longer pieces on the same problems, each written to be useful whether or not you ever call us.

All articles

Conversations are always free.

Tell us where the paperwork is heaviest, and we’ll tell you whether AI fits your budget and your data rules.

Start a conversationAll focus areas