We use Airtable to track information about members of the network, their contributions, and things related to that. For example, the Reciprocity base records reciprocity payments we’re paying out to folks who take part in different activities. We also use it to keep track of grants Catalyst considers applying for.
In this way, we use Airtable as a CRM (customer relationship manager) tool, as it records important information about our key contacts.
Historically, Airtable was also used to keep track of financial records; however, this has moved to Google Sheets since then.
Outdated historic Airtable bases are titled ‘[Legacy]’ to make it clear they are no longer used. These have been kept for record keeping purposes.
Instead of everyone having their individual account, we all sign into Airtable using the [XXX] account. You can find the account details in 1Password.
We use this method to keep costs down, as we are only paying for 1 account.
As multiple people can sign in with the same account and make changes to bases at the same time, there are no technical limitations to this approach.
The two Airtable bases with the most important information in them are probably Catalyst Network 2025 and Catalyst Grant Opportunities Audit. The former collects information about people related to Catalyst, while the latter connects information about grant opportunities Catalyst wants to apply to.
Crucially, we are connected to some people who work at grant-making organisations whose grants we may apply for.
A synchronisation was set up that links the people working at the grant-making organisations with the notes we left about those grants. This makes it possible to see the funding notes when you look at people in the Catalyst Network 2025 base, and you can see the list of people working at grant-making organisations when you look in the Catalyst Grant Opportunities Audit base.
To use this synchronisation, when you enter a new person into the Catalyst Network 2025 base, you need to make sure to select the organisation the person works at in the ‘Organisation (if funder)’ cell. This will automatically populate the ‘Funder notes’ field in the Catalyst Network 2025 base from the Catalyst Grant Opportunities Audit base.
An easy-to-use interface was also set up that clearly shows the grant-making organisations, the notes we left about them, and the people working there, all in one place.