From idea to a ready nonprofit project — with AI
A couple of people, a crowd of volunteers, several grants with different conditions and a board that meets once a month — how do you make sure the promised activities get done and every grant euro is reported correctly? Projektiassistent brings your organisation's projects into one workspace: a plan with schedule, budget, risks and owners is ready in minutes, the application comes from the same plan, and the board sees every project in one view.
Nonprofit projects shouldn't live in Excel, email and one activist's laptop
The application, budget, volunteer list, board decisions and reporting deadlines are often spread across files and inboxes. Projektiassistent brings them under one project and helps check feasibility before the grant agreement is signed.
Everything rests on one person
Only one activist really knows where the project stands. If they fall ill, move away or take another job, the project's memory goes with them.
Volunteers' time is limited
People work evenings and weekends. If the task, deadline and owner aren't clear, the work simply doesn't get done.
Every euro has to add up
Several grants with different conditions, co-financing and a tight budget. Mixed-up accounting only surfaces when the report is due — when it's hard to fix.
Reporting takes time from the mission
For the funder report, activities, costs and results have to be pulled together from several places — time that should have gone to the people you serve.
Before the board signs: is the project really ready?
A well-written application and a decision-ready project are not the same thing. Before launch, goal, activities, owners, volunteer roles, budget, co-financing and funding conditions have to be consistent. Approval checkpoints, the budget warning and attention signals show what is still missing.
- Approval checkpoints before launch
Record co-financing, partner confirmation and funding conditions as milestones for an approver to confirm — the system saves who approved and when. The project stays in Draft status until the board decides to launch it.
- Contradictions made visible
If costs exceed the budget, the budget block shows a warning; the critical path shows the projected end and whether the deadline fits between dependencies — before the decision, not after the money is spent.
- A tight budget under control
Cost lines in net and VAT separately, by category and status (planned, committed, invoiced, paid), with reserved, used and free balance in real time — every euro is trackable.
What nonprofits use Projektiassistent for
You get a plan built for the specific project, not an empty template. The AI accounts for how nonprofits work — tight budgets and co-financing, volunteers' limited time, partners and each funder's own conditions.
Community projects
Village squares, community halls and local initiatives — activities, volunteer work days, budget and owners in one plan.
Events & community days
Village days, fairs and charity events — organisation, volunteers and communication tied together.
Campaigns & awareness work
Awareness and engagement campaigns — messages, channels and deadlines linked to goals and indicators.
Training & mentoring programmes
Training series, workshops and mentoring — modules, trainers, participants and schedule across the whole programme.
Youth & social projects
Youth work and activities for older people and people with special needs — long-running programmes with clear owners.
Environment & volunteer clean-ups
Clean-up days, nature education and environmental initiatives — seasonal activities and volunteer roles written down.
Volunteer engagement
Roles, tasks and deadlines clearly assigned — everyone knows what's expected of them, even when time is short.
Network & partnership projects
Umbrella organisations and partnerships — a shared schedule, partner responsibilities and cross-project dependencies.
Organisational development & grant projects
Strategy, capacity building and KÜSK, LEADER or municipal grant projects — conditions inside the plan from the start.
How a nonprofit project moves from idea to report
Example: a village society wants to build a village square with community work days and hold an opening day there. The same project goes through every stage in one workspace — nobody has to copy information from file to file.
Idea
“We want to build a village square together with the community, through volunteer work days.” You describe the project in a couple of sentences and the AI turns it into a structured draft plan.
Pre-assessment
Activities, work days, volunteer roles, the landowner agreement, budget, co-financing and risks are thought through before anything is approved.
Board decision
The board sees whether the project is realistic for the organisation, what it costs, how much co-financing it needs and what risks come with it.
Funding
From the same plan, the AI prepares an application to the LEADER measure and, if needed, to the municipality — a separate one for each, nothing rewritten.
Delivery
Gantt, tasks, owners and risk register. Volunteers see their own tasks, and when a work day moves, the impact on what follows is visible immediately.
Reporting
Activities completed, budget use, decisions made and results — report content for the funder and the general meeting from the same data.
One organisation, several projects and grants — all in one view
Projektiassistent isn't just for running a single project. In the Business plan, grant projects, events, programmes and internal development work come together in a portfolio where every project carries a health score.
The chair, executive director or a board member gets the answers at a glance:
- Which projects and grants are running right now?
- Which are behind schedule, or have a reporting deadline coming up?
- Where is the budget at risk of overspending or a deadline slipping?
- Which of our few people is carrying too much?
- Which decisions are waiting for the next board meeting?
What happens when the project changes?
Something always changes in a nonprofit project: the grant comes in lower, a key person drops out or a work day is postponed. The what-if simulation in the Business plan shows a delay's impact on the project end before the board makes its decision.
The grant is smaller
Adjust the cost lines and the budget block immediately shows the free balance and warns if costs exceed the budget. The board's decision on what gets dropped goes into the decision log.
A key person drops out
Resource planning shows each person's open tasks, hours and workload percentage — when the project manager or an active volunteer leaves or runs out of time, you see who can take over.
The event moves
Pick the work day or event task, enter a delay in days and see how far it pushes the project end. Simulations are kept in the history.
From your organisation's purpose to real activities — and back to the funder
A purpose written in the statutes achieves nothing unless it reaches a concrete project, budget and owner. In Projektiassistent that chain lives in one place — so when someone asks “what did we achieve with this grant?”, the answer is there.
- Organisation's purpose
- Strategy
- Community need
- Project
- Activities
- Owners & volunteers
- Budget
- Results
- Funder report
- Summary for the funder or general meeting
The AI status summary gives the project's current state in moments. The project document exports as PDF or DOCX in one of five design templates — filling in the funder's form doesn't start from scratch.
- Board decisions don't get lost
Every important decision is saved with its rationale, decision-maker, status and date. When the board changes, the new members can see what was decided, when and why.
- Applied for vs delivered
In the Business plan, the audit log records major changes with who and when, and earlier versions can be restored. You can see, and show the funder, how the project changed from application to delivery, and why.
Civil society funding — an application from the same plan
The AI gathers your goals, action plan, budget, risks and team into a structured application for the chosen funding programme. Create several applications per project for different funders — 3 a month on Standard, unlimited on Business. The Standard plan costs €29/month — it fits even a tight-budget organisation.
National Foundation of Civil Society (KÜSK)
Project and development grants for civil society organisations — an application from your plan, not a blank page.
LEADER
Local action group grants for community and rural initiatives — regional impact and sustainability clearly set out.
Municipalities, foundations & EU programmes
Municipal project grants, foundation funds and programmes such as Erasmus+ — one plan, several applications with different conditions.
You can enter the programme's web address when drafting the plan and the AI takes its content into account, so you can check the application before submitting. Whether a grant is awarded and which costs are eligible is always decided by the funder — KÜSK, the local action group, the municipality or the foundation.
Excel is fine for a list. Several grants and a volunteer team need a system.
Excel isn't a bad tool — it just wasn't built to manage several grants, volunteer tasks, dependencies and board decisions. Here's where it stops being enough.
| Projektiassistent | Excel | |
|---|---|---|
| Project status | A live project that updates as work happens | A static table updated by hand |
| Volunteer tasks | An owner and deadline on every task | A list someone updates by hand |
| Budget | Net, VAT and free balance in real time | Formulas that drift apart across copies |
| Funder report | AI status summary from the same data | Written up by hand |
| Where information lives | One project workspace | Files, emails and people's laptops |
| Board decisions | Decision log with rationale | In minutes and emails |
| Multiple projects | Portfolio view for the whole organisation (Business) | One file at a time |
Volunteers come and go — access stays under control
Nonprofit projects involve volunteers, partners and board members whose line-up changes. Not everyone needs access to everything, and when someone leaves, their access has to end straight away. Permissions are checked on every request. Permission levels and the decision log come with every plan; the audit log, versions and workspaces are in the Business plan.
Role-based permissions
Three permission levels: Viewer, Editor and Admin. A volunteer can be an Editor, a partner or board member a Viewer — they see and comment but can't change anything.
Invitations and revocation
Volunteers are invited by email and decide for themselves whether to join. When someone leaves, the share can be removed immediately.
Workspaces
An umbrella organisation's member groups or separate programmes in their own workspaces; a role profile sets which modules a user can see or edit.
Audit log
Major changes, decisions, risks and approvals on one timeline, with who and when.
Encrypted connection
All traffic over HTTPS with HSTS; every request checks that the data belongs to an environment the user has access to.
Data export and GDPR
“Export my data” downloads a copy of your personal data, “Delete my account” removes the account; the project document exports as PDF or DOCX.
If your organisation has data protection questions you'd like to go through before adoption, write to us — we'll answer question by question. Contact →
The right methodology for a nonprofit project
Simple Project for smaller events and campaigns with minimal overhead; a Kanban flow for ongoing activity; milestones and Gantt for grant projects, showing the deadlines that matter to the funder. Switching methodology never changes the project's substance.
Start with one real project, not the whole organisation
A new tool doesn't have to be rolled out across the whole organisation at once. The fastest way to see the value is to take one current or planned project and run it through Projektiassistent.
One project
Pick your next grant project or event and build its plan. The trial lasts 14 days (up to 3 projects) and no credit card is required.
Pilot with the team
Invite the project manager, the bookkeeper, a couple of active volunteers and the board — each with their own permissions. The first status summary shows whether it saves time.
The whole organisation
If the pilot works, bring the remaining projects into the portfolio on the Business plan; an umbrella organisation can separate member groups into workspaces.
Frequently asked questions from nonprofits
Is Projektiassistent suitable for a small nonprofit without a paid project manager?
Yes. You can start with one project and a couple of users — the Standard plan covers Gantt, Kanban, risks, budget and the AI plan for up to 20 active projects. The plan is drafted from a couple of sentences, and every task carries an owner and a deadline, so volunteers working in the evenings know what's expected of them. For an umbrella organisation, the Business plan adds the portfolio view, workspaces, role profiles and up to 100 active projects.
Can we keep track of several projects and grants at once?
Yes. The Business plan's portfolio view shows all of your organisation's projects on one screen: each carries a health score (on track, monitoring, at risk, blocked), and overdue tasks and risks show up as signals. On every plan, the dashboard shows the number of overdue tasks and your upcoming deadlines. Reporting deadlines can be added as milestones, so an interim or final report deadline doesn't come as a surprise.
Does it help with KÜSK, LEADER or municipal grant applications and reports?
Yes. The AI prepares a structured application from the same project plan for the chosen programme, and one project can have several applications for different funders (3 a month on Standard, unlimited on Business). Report content — activities completed, budget use and results — comes from the project data, not from searching through folders. Whether a grant is awarded and which costs are eligible is always decided by the funder.
How do we keep track of a tight budget and several grants?
Every cost line has a description, category, status (planned, committed, invoiced, paid), net amount and VAT rate — VAT and gross are calculated automatically, and the notes can record which grant a cost is charged to. Reserved, Used and Free balance update after every cost line, and a warning appears if costs exceed the budget. Covering co-financing can be recorded as a milestone for approval — the project stays in Draft status until you decide to launch it.
Can volunteers, partners and the board have different permissions?
Yes. Sharing a project has three permission levels — Viewer, Editor and Admin — so a volunteer can update tasks as an Editor, the board or a partner can follow progress and comment as a Viewer without changing anything, and the general meeting or funder can be sent the project document as PDF or DOCX. Volunteers are invited by email, and when someone leaves, the share can be removed immediately. The Business plan adds workspaces, for example per member organisation of an umbrella body, and role profiles that set each module's level (none, view, manage).
Does Projektiassistent replace accounting or a membership register?
No. It is a workspace for planning and managing projects — plan, schedule, budget, risks, decisions and reports. Accounting, the annual report and member data stay in their own systems; the project budget is for tracking grant costs and funder reporting. On the Business plan, Projektiassistent can be connected to existing systems through API tokens and webhooks.
How is our data protected when volunteers come and go?
Permissions are checked on every request, and a departing volunteer's share can be removed immediately. All traffic is encrypted (HTTPS and HSTS); on the Business plan, changes are recorded in the audit log with who and when. Users can download a copy of their personal data and delete their account. Data processing is described in detail in the privacy policy.
Can we start with a single project?
Yes — and that's the most sensible way, for example with your next grant project or event. The trial lasts 14 days, includes up to 3 projects and 20 AI requests and requires no credit card. The AI funding application and Business plan features (portfolio, what-if, workspaces) are not part of the trial — if you'd like to see them and your own project first, request a demo through the contact page.
Let's make your organisation's next project decision-ready
Try 14 days free — 3 projects and 20 AI requests, no credit card required. Want to see how it looks with your own project first? Request a demo.