Grants and the website
This folder is for grant writers, directors and project leads. A website can be the subject of a grant (a new site, a relaunch, a translation into a new language) or a tool that delivers and documents a grant-funded program. Both need a plan, a budget that does not stop on launch day, and evidence for the final report.
Note
Exponential has no grant management module: no application tracker, no funder database, no reporting generator. A search of the code and the documentation finds none. What the site does supply is evidence: the pages you published, the files people downloaded, the forms they sent, the figures Exponential records and the audit trail. This folder shows how to use them.
Contents
The pages of this folder
| Page | What it answers |
|---|---|
| Grant-funded website project plan | Phases, deliverables, roles and a timeline a funder can follow |
| The technical section of a grant proposal | How to describe the platform, its license, hosting, accessibility and sustainability |
| Budget lines for hosting and maintenance | Which costs to plan for, during and after the grant |
| Grant outcomes for funders | Turning what the site records into an outcome report |
| Measuring outcomes with site data | What Exponential counts itself, and what needs a service you add |
Worksheets: Grant budget worksheet.
Three kinds of grant
| Kind | Example | What matters most |
|---|---|---|
| The site is the project | A relaunch, an accessible redesign, a new language | Deliverables, launch date, who maintains it afterward |
| The site delivers the project | Course materials, a resource library, an information service | Content plan, usage evidence, permanence of the material |
| The site documents the project | A project blog, events, publications | Regular publishing, archive, download figures |
Funders often ask how the work continues after the grant ends. For a site that means hosting, updates and an owner. Exponential has no license fee to renew (Licensing for buyers), so the sustainability question is mostly about people and hosting; see Budget lines for hosting and maintenance.
What the site can supply as evidence
| Evidence | Where it comes from | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pages and publications produced | The content tree, versions with dates | Versions of an object |
| Who published what, and when | The audit trail (content channel) | The audit trail |
| Sign-ups and requests received | Collected information, with CSV export | Collected information |
| Newsletter reach | cjw_newsletter lists and the send archive | cjw_newsletter |
| Page views | View counts (cron part updateviewcount) or an analytics service | Visitor statistics and analytics |
| What people searched for | Search statistics, off by default | same page |
Where to start
- Read the Grant-funded website project plan before you write the proposal.
- Fill in the Grant budget worksheet with your own quotes.
- Before the project starts, switch on the measurements you will need for the report (Measuring outcomes with site data): figures that were never recorded cannot be reported later.
Related pages
- Non-profits: start here
- Non-profit site planning
- Worked example: a nonprofit
- Project managers: start here
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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