Synced Operations Get in touch

Helping organizations get their tools, processes, and people working in sync.

Finance, HR, systems, technology, and strategy, from someone who has run all of it from the inside.

Get in touch
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The work

Finance

  • Create budgets, forecasts, and what-if scenarios an executive director actually uses
  • Track restricted and federal grants: what's spent, what's left, what's billable
  • Design board and finance committee reports, ideally ones that update themselves
  • Review the monthly financials before they go to the board
  • Prepare for the audit and the 990; manage a move to an outside accounting firm and work alongside it
What if the federal reimbursement is late?
$215klowest cash, SepStays above the reserve floor

Month-end cash, fiscal year July to June. Dashed line: the reserve floor, two months of expenses.

Example

People and HR

  • Set up hiring, onboarding, and offboarding that run the same way every time
  • Draft the handbooks and policies a growing organization needs before it needs them
  • Sort out who does what as a team grows: an org chart and job descriptions that match the real work
  • Set up payroll, benefits, and PTO so they run without anyone thinking about them
  • Plan staffing when the budget changes
  • Bring an outside set of eyes when a team isn't working
New hire, week one3 of 5
Example

Systems and process

  • Connect the donor database, program records, and accounting system so the numbers match
  • Automate repetitive work like thank-you letters, intake forms, and monthly reports
  • Write down how the work gets done, so it doesn't walk out the door when someone leaves
  • Build one shared place to track a program, your grants, or a process that lives in one person's head
Grant portfolio Grants FINAL v3 (copy).xlsx
FunderAwardReport dueStatus
Community foundation$50,000Mar 15On track
Federal (USDA)$180,000Jan 31Report due
Family foundation$25,000Jun 30On track
Corporate giving$15,000NoneClosed

One place, one format, a status anyone can read.

ABCD 1who$$due??notes 2Comm Fdn500003/15ASK FINANCE 3USDA grant180,000.00Jan 31stsee email 4usda#REF!dup? delete?? 5Family fdn.$25kjuneDONE (I think) 6Corp15000n/a
Sheet1Sheet1 (2)OLD do not use
Example

Technology and AI

  • Choose, set up, or fix the software a team relies on
  • Train staff so new tools get used, and are still in use six months later
  • Bring in AI with guardrails: a clear policy, hands-on training, and uses that save real time
  • Keep the tech stack in order: what you pay for, who has access, and what can go
Staff assistant
Can you summarize our donor list and each person's giving history?donors_2026.csv
Ground rule 1: keep people's data out. Take out names and contact details first, or run this in the reporting tool.
OK. Here are monthly totals, no names.
Giving rose in spring and dipped in July. Want a draft paragraph for the board report? A person reads it before it goes out.
1 Keep people's data out2 A person reads it first3 Use the approved tools
Example

Strategy

  • Turn the operational pieces of a strategic plan into work that gets done
  • Serve as a thought partner for the executive director on what's realistic
  • Map what a new program or funding source will really take to run, before committing to it
  • Organize board materials, committees, and governance documents
  • Guide an organization through a leadership transition or a change in funding
Plan goal: steadier revenue
Clean up the donor database
Launch monthly giving
Board giving policy
Grant calendar, all year
Example

When to reach out

Day one

Starting something new?

A program, a first federal grant, a new line of business. Easier to set it up right now than to untangle it in year two.

Year four

Outgrown the duct tape?

The spreadsheet somebody built four years ago, under pressure, that everything now depends on.

Any time

In the middle of a change?

A new plan, a new leader, a key person leaving, money shifting under you.

Matt Holbrook

Principal · Matt Holbrook

Matt has spent eleven years running the back office of two Atlanta nonprofits: Georgia Innocence Project and Global Growers Network.

At Georgia Innocence Project, he helped grow the staff from 2 to 15, and he now serves on its board of directors as treasurer and chair of the finance committee. At Global Growers Network, he is Director of Operations and staff liaison to the board's finance committee. He knows the work from both sides of the board table.

He has spoken at SXSW, NTEN, ZapConnect, and Relativity Fest. Synced Operations takes on clients starting in early 2027.

Let's sync up.

Start with a conversation about what could work better.

Matt Holbrook · [email protected]

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