PolicyEngine Grant Applications

Centralized repository for all PolicyEngine grant applications.

Overview

This repository contains application materials for PolicyEngine grants, organized with:

• Questions in YAML - Single source of truth for question text and metadata
• Responses in Markdown - One .md file per response for easy editing and version control
• Financial Documents - Budgets, statements, and supporting materials
• Unified Viewer - Interactive web interface for all grants at policyengine.github.io/grants

Repository Structure

grants/
├── grant_registry.yaml           # Central index of all grants
├── grants_builder/               # Build system for viewer
│   ├── builder.py                # Main builder logic
│   ├── cli.py                    # Command-line interface
│   └── utils.py                  # Utility functions
├── {grant-name}/                 # Individual grant directory
│   ├── grant.yaml                # Grant metadata
│   ├── README.md                 # Grant overview
│   ├── application/              # Application materials
│   │   ├── questions.yaml        # Application questions
│   │   └── responses/            # Application responses
│   ├── reports/                  # Progress/grant reports
│   │   └── {report-period}/      # e.g., 2025-11
│   │       ├── questions.yaml    # Report questions
│   │       └── responses/        # Report responses
│   ├── financials/               # Financial documents
│   └── supporting_docs/          # Supporting materials
└── docs/                         # GitHub Pages viewer

Grant Directory Structure

New grants should use the separated structure with formal entity distinction:

• application/: Original application materials (single entity per grant)

  • questions.yaml - Application questions with metadata
  • responses/ - Application response files

• reports/{period}/: Progress and grant reports (multiple entities per grant)

  • {period}/questions.yaml - Report questions and metadata (e.g., 2025-11 for November 2025)
  • {period}/responses/ - Report response files

This structure creates a formal separation between:

1. Application entity: Submitted once at the beginning
2. Report entities: Submitted multiple times throughout and after the grant period

The grant_registry.yaml tracks this with:

has_application: true/false
has_reports: true/false
reports:
  - period: "2025-02"
    type: "final"
    date: "2025-02-15"

Adding a New Grant

1. Create directory: mkdir new-grant/
2. Add to grant_registry.yaml
3. Create grant.yaml with metadata
4. Create questions.yaml with question structure (or use application/ and reports/ structure)
5. Write responses in responses/*.md (one file per question)
6. Mark questions needing document exports with needs_export: true in questions.yaml
7. Run make build to generate viewer and export documents
8. Commit and push

Document Exports

To generate DOCX and PDF exports for specific responses (e.g., for grant portals that require file uploads):

Requirements: Install Pandoc and LaTeX (for PDF):

brew install pandoc
brew install --cask basictex  # For PDF generation

Usage:

1. Add needs_export: true to the question in questions.yaml:

   sections:
     milestone_status:
       title: "Milestone Status Update"
       question: "Provide milestone status..."
       file: "responses/milestone_status.md"
       needs_export: true  # Generates DOCX and PDF

2. Run make build to generate exports in docs/exports/{grant-id}/

3. Exports include:

   • Properly formatted DOCX with markdown rendered (bold, links, tables, lists)
   • PDF version with the same formatting
   • Both files ready for upload to grant portals
   • Served as static files via GitHub Pages

Viewing Applications

Visit https://policyengine.github.io/grants to view all grant applications with:

• Character count tracking
• Copy buttons for easy paste into grant portals
• DOCX and PDF exports for responses marked with needs_export: true
• Financial document downloads
• Status tracking

Design Principles

• Markdown First: All content in plain text .md files
• YAML Metadata: Questions and structure in YAML
• Database Ready: Structure designed for future DB migration
• Version Control: Full history in git
• Transparency: Public GitHub Pages deployment
• Reusability: Shared scripts and templates

Grants

Active Applications

• PBIF (Public Benefit Innovation Fund) - $700k, 2-year grant for Policy Library
• Pritzker (PCI) - $150k, 1-year grant for Policy Analysis Expansion

Future Extensions

• Search across grants
• Deadline tracking
• Budget comparisons
• Response templates
• Multi-foundation analytics