Foundations
The grant cycle
A foundation's website follows its grant cycle. Guidelines go up, applicants ask questions, the deadline arrives, reviewers read, awards are announced, reports come due. For an applicant, the website is often the only explanation of a program: who may apply, what you will not fund, when the deadline is, and how to apply. When the guideline PDF and the web page disagree, applicants follow the wrong one.
What the site has to do
- Give each program one page that is obviously current, with the deadline near the top.
- Move last cycle's information to a clearly labeled archive.
- Send applicants to your grants system with the right link, if you have one.
- Let program staff change a date or add a question to the FAQ themselves.
- Give the board a page they can send to a partner.
What we will not assume
We do not install a grants-management product and call it a website. If you already take applications in a grants system, the website explains the program and links to it. Applicant data stays in that system, not in a web form on the public site. A deeper connection is scoped after we see the system, like any integration.
What you can look at
LSCalado has not published a foundation client. The approach page describes how we plan a site around a calendar like yours.