Programs Collection

Overview

Programs are the core offering of most nonprofits. Each program has its own goals, impact metrics, partners, and beneficiaries. A well-structured Programs collection lets you showcase your work and report impact to donors.

Recommended fields

Required

• Name (text) — program name, the primary field.
• Description (rich text) — what the program does.

Recommended

• Impact area (select) — education, health, environment, community development, arts.
• Featured image (image) — for cards and program pages.
• Status (select) — active, completed, pilot, upcoming.
• Goals (rich text) — what the program aims to achieve.
• Partners (multi-reference) — organizations collaborating on this program.
• Location (text) — where the program operates.

Optional

• Start date (date) — when the program launched.
• End date (date) — for time-limited programs.
• Budget (number) — annual budget (if public).
• Beneficiaries served (number) — impact count.
• Impact stories (multi-reference) — links to Impact Stories collection.
• Team lead (reference) — link to Team Members.
• Donate URL (url) — direct donation link for this program.
• Annual report (file) — downloadable PDF.

Impact metrics

Many nonprofits want to display program metrics. You have two approaches:

Approach A: Fields on the program

Add number fields directly: beneficiaries served, funds raised, volunteers engaged. Simple but rigid.

Approach B: Separate Metrics collection

Create a collection with: Metric name (text), Value (number), Program (reference), Year (number). More flexible, supports historical data, but adds complexity.

For most nonprofits, Approach A is sufficient. Use Approach B if you need to show year-over-year trends.

Partners relationship

Programs often involve partner organizations. Create a Partners collection with name, logo, website, and partnership type. Then use a multi-reference from Programs to Partners.

This approach lets you:

• Display partner logos on each program page.
• Show all programs a partner is involved in (reverse lookup).
• Maintain partner information in one place.

Display patterns

Card grid

Show programs as cards with featured image, name, impact area, and status. Link each card to a detail page.

Detail page

Program pages should include: description, goals, impact metrics, partner logos, related impact stories, and a donation CTA.

Impact dashboard

Aggregate numbers from all programs (total beneficiaries, total programs, total partners) and display them as a summary section.

Tips

1. Status field is essential — donors want to see which programs are active vs. completed. Do not delete completed programs; archive them with a status change.
2. Partner logos build credibility — always include the Partners multi-reference. A program page with partner logos is more compelling.
3. Keep impact numbers updated — stale metrics are worse than no metrics. Assign someone to update beneficiary counts quarterly.
4. Donate URL per program — let donors contribute to specific programs, not just your general fund.