Beyond the Spreadsheet: A Replicable Analytical Infrastructure Methodology for Mission-Driven Institutional Investors

The paper proposes the Institutional Analytical Framework (IAF), a documented five-module methodology for building institutional-grade analytical infrastructure in-house using widely available technology. The framework formalizes analytical practices the author developed or supported through professional work in a nonprofit institutional investment environment and subsequently restated in institution-agnostic form: a three-source monthly reconciliation control spanning custodian, manager-provided, and institution-maintained records; a relational data model spanning eight table families; deterministic scenario-based asset-liability analysis; a two-layer liquidity architecture combining holding-level tiering with near-term day-bucket cash forecasting; and a governance and knowledge-transfer layer. The paper sets out the implementation pathway, the acceptance criteria that define completion of each module, the confidentiality boundaries that make the methodology transferable, and the conditions under which it is likely — and unlikely — to be worth adopting.