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Feature details
Non-profits & NGOs
Small team, many programmes, one place to run them.
Non-profits juggle grant deadlines, programme delivery and volunteers with fewer staff than any of those jobs deserve. Tenon's free plans give a team the tracker, the docs and the chat in one place, and Brain writes the first draft of the funder report from the work already recorded.
Recommended: Tenon Cloud Free or Team; self-hosted Community for data-sensitive programmes
82% diversifying into new grants
After federal funding changes, 82% of surveyed non-profits began diversifying into private and corporate grants and 67% started submitting more applications, with the same staff.
Source: Federal Funding Changes Report via Charity Charge
What goes wrong today
The three problems we hear most from non-profits & ngos.
- More applications, same peopleDiversifying funding means more proposals, more reporting calendars and more deadlines, tracked in a spreadsheet that one person understands.
- Reports are rebuilt from scratchEvery funder wants a narrative report. The information exists, scattered across email, drive folders and someone's memory. Writing it takes a week.
- Volunteers and staff on different toolsStaff have the paid tool; volunteers get a WhatsApp group. Hand-offs between them are where things get lost.
How Tenon fits
Four things that change on day one.
Every deadline on one timeline
Grant applications, reporting dates and programme milestones on a single timeline, per person, so the week with three submissions is visible in September, not the night before.
Feature detailsReports drafted from the work
Ask Brain for a summary of the youth programme this quarter. It reads the tickets, pages and standups and drafts the narrative; you add the stories.
Feature detailsVolunteers in the same workspace
Invite volunteers as members with access to their programme's project only. Same board, same chat, same page links, nothing else visible.
Feature details
In the product
What it looks like for non-profits & ngos.
Deadlines on one timelineApplications, reports and sessions per person, with the crowded week visible in advance.
Everyone's own listStaff and volunteers each see their tasks with dates, nothing else.
Up Next and mentionsThe day starts with what is due and who mentioned you, not with an inbox.
Three projects, ready to copy
How to set up the board, the fields and the pages.
These are complete configurations, not suggestions. Create the project, add these columns and custom fields, create the pages, and the rituals column tells you which Tenon features carry the week.
Grant cycle
Track every application from prospect to reporting without a spreadsheet.
Board columns
- Prospect
- Eligible
- Drafting
- Submitted
- Awarded
- Reporting
- Closed
Custom fields
- Funder (text)
- Amount (number)
- Deadline (date)
- Report due (date)
Pages
- Boilerplate library
- Budget template
- Funder notes
- Report drafts
Rituals
Timeline of deadlines reviewed Monday. Boilerplate pages linked from every application. Decision cards for go / no-go on each prospect.
Programme delivery
Run a community programme with sessions, outcomes and evidence for funders.
Board columns
- Planned
- Scheduled
- Delivered
- Outcomes recorded
- Reported
Custom fields
- Site (select)
- Participants (number)
- Outcome measure (text)
Pages
- Programme design
- Session plans
- Outcome log
- Case studies
Rituals
Volunteers submit async standups after sessions. Outcome log page updated weekly. Quarterly narrative drafted by Brain from the outcome log.
Fundraising event
Deliver an event with a mixed staff and volunteer team.
Board columns
- Idea
- Confirmed
- In progress
- Ready
- Day of
- Wrap-up
Custom fields
- Owner type (select: staff, volunteer)
- Cost (number)
- Sponsor (text)
Pages
- Run of show
- Sponsor deck outline
- Volunteer briefing
- Post-event report
Rituals
Volunteer briefing shared by public link. Day-of channel with the run-of-show page pinned. Post-event report generated from the board.
A week with Tenon
What Monday, Wednesday and Friday look like.
- Monday: the timeline shows two applications due Friday and a funder report due Thursday. Priya moves one application's internal deadline and records why.
- Wednesday: a volunteer coordinator logs Tuesday's session as an async standup: 14 participants, one safeguarding note. It lands in the programme channel, not a WhatsApp group.
- Thursday: the funder report. Priya asks Brain to summarise the programme since July. Three paragraphs, with numbers from the outcome log. She adds two participant stories and sends it.
Illustrative scenario based on how teams in this sector describe their week.
Questions
Common questions from non-profits & ngos.
Is there non-profit pricing?
The Cloud Free plan and self-hosted Community edition are free. For Team or Business, ask about the non-profit discount.
Can volunteers use it without paying seats?
Volunteers are members like anyone else. On Free, up to five members total; on Team, every active member counts, and inactive volunteers in a quiet month do not.
Do we need AI to use it?
No. Everything works without a provider. If you add one (Gemini has a free tier), Brain starts drafting summaries and reports.
Other industries
Similar problems, different vocabulary.
Set it up for your team this afternoon.
Start free on Tenon Cloud, or self-host it. Copy one of the project setups above and you have a working board in ten minutes.