Replacing spreadsheets, shared drives and archive boxes with one operational platform.
12-person nonprofit · 91% Charity Navigator · Custom platform
A nonprofit ran a global audio-Bible programme out of Excel files, Google Docs, a local file server and physical media. We built the system of record it should have had: 34 linked data tables, a reporting layer leadership can actually read, and shareable snapshots for partners and donors.
The situation
Talking Bibles International records, licenses and distributes audio Scripture in languages that often have no written form. That work generates a lot of state: recordings and their masters, the texts behind them, copyright and voice-release agreements, partner organisations, physical inventory, and field programmes running in several countries.
All of it lived in the wrong places. A working database in Excel. Context in Google Docs. Masters on a local file server, with backup copies on CDs and DVDs in physical archive boxes, and a temporary holding area staff genuinely referred to as the junk box. Answering a question like "which agreements expire this year, and which recordings do they cover?" meant somebody opening several files and reconciling them by hand.
They did not have a technology problem in the abstract. They had a specific one: no single place where a fact could be true.
What we built
A custom platform on Next.js and Convex, structured around 34 linked tables rather than a folder hierarchy. Languages, texts, recordings and audio files connect to the agreements that permit them, the organisations those agreements are with, and the inventory and locations they ship to.
Agreements became first-class: renewal tracking, bulk import of historical paperwork, and a reconciliation view for agreements that arrived without a matching recording. Field programmes got their own modules — schools, teachers, data officers, QR batches for distribution tracking, and structured field updates captured over WhatsApp instead of email.
The reporting layer is the piece leadership notices. Reports render from live data, and any report can be turned into a shareable link with a token, so a partner or donor can be sent a current snapshot without being given an account.
Sensitive operations are audited. Exports containing personal information are logged, roles gate what each staff member can reach, and there is an administrative view for data audits and disaster recovery.
Why it worked
We did not start by choosing software. We started by mapping the workflow they already had, including the parts that ran on paper, and then modelled the data underneath it.
Nothing in the platform is a feature nobody asked for. Every module traces back to a question staff were previously answering by opening three files.
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