We just wrapped one of our most second NPO Builder Crew session, and if you missed it, the recording is embedded below. Close to 100 builders joined from across the globe (Belgium, Guatemala, Fairbanks, The Bahamas, and everywhere in between!) to dig into how Airtable can make grant reporting less painful and more credible.
Our host
What we covered
Pello showed a full nonprofit reporting base live, showing how Airtable connects grant data, program outcomes, and financial tracking in one place. Highlights from the session:
- Linking indicators and outcomes directly to specific grants, so reports can be filtered to a single funder rather than pulling everything at once
- Tracking budget vs. actuals with expense data entered manually or pulled from connected tools like QuickBooks
- Using rollup fields to aggregate outcomes across programs and time periods
- Building donor-facing interfaces with filters, graphics, and simplified views for different audiences
- Using AI fields to verify data and draft funder-ready narrative reports, with a clear review checklist built into the output
The AI prompt Pello used
One of the most-requested moments from the session was the Omni prompt Pello used to generate a first-draft donor report. Here it is in full, and check out another prompt from Pello in the comments below.
You're helping Brightpath Foundation draft a donor report. Below is the data for one grant, pulled straight from our system. Write a first-draft narrative report for the funder, something a program officer can then edit and finalise.
Data:
Indicator: Youth women trained in vocational & digital skills
Grant: Northwind Youth Employment GrantWrite it in this structure:
Executive summary (3-4 sentences), Results against targets (narrate the headline indicator in plain language), A story from the field (work in the beneficiary story and quote), Financial summary (one short paragraph on budget vs actual), Challenges and lessons learned (honest, not glossy)Tone: warm but credible, concrete, no jargon or overclaiming. Funder-facing.
Then, at the end, add a short "For the team to review" list with 3-4 bullets flagging where a human should add detail, verify a number, or make a judgement call (e.g. "confirm Q3 placement figures," "add a second beneficiary voice if you have consent").
Resources from the session
- Join the NPO Builder Crew to connect with your peers
- Connect Claude + Airtable (MCP)
- 11-min intro to Airtable MCP
- Ways to connect with Pello:
- Moonland website (Airtable Services Partner)
Questions that sparked great conversation
A few threads that came up and are worth continuing in the crew:
- How do you handle reports that span different grant timelines (June-May vs. October-September)?
- Can filters on an interface be locked for all users, or are they personal? (Short answer: both, depending on how your admin configures the view.)
- What's the best way to connect accounting tools like QuickBooks to pull in live expense data?
Bring these to the crew! The NPO Builder Crew is already over 100 members strong and this is exactly the kind of conversation it was built for.
Want to go deeper? Reach out to Pello directly if you're looking for hands-on help building grant tracking bases, interfaces, or automations for your organization.
See you at the next one.
