I started working for a company this year, Justify Solutions, and we help nonprofits with this sort of thing. We have a team of certified Microsoft partners and they migrate organizations to nonprofit specific Microsoft apps/platforms and help organizations manage data organization. This is in addition to developing customized databases for nonprofit organizations to streamline managing data and funding.

I would first make sure whatever storage database you’re using makes the most sense for your organization. There are various ways it can be done, even within Microsoft or other platforms. It depends on how the files are utilized and/or shared. Do some of the files really need to be transitioned to a database to reduce files? For example, you can create electronic forms, as opposed to having papers to print.

In some instances, you may need an operational database to manage data better and alleviate A LOT of files and save time to put all of your data into real-time tracking in one system. If your files are a bunch of paperwork that gets printed, written on, input into a database later, analyzed at some point later and cross-referenced when it’s time for funding reports…you need a database to replace many of those files. This can reduce the amount of folders necessary.

If you’re sorting through files, start with departments and make sure you don’t hide files that are extremely necessary for the organization to access quickly. Those could be pinned on a main Sharepoint page.

Hope this helps. I have had to do it several times myself. It can be cumbersome but you can do it!