Frequently Asked Questions

From Grantsfire

General Questions

What is hGrant?

hGrant is a very simple way to mark up grants information using plain old HTML (the standard language of the Web) on a plain old Web page. Publishing using hGrant allows third party software to read grants information all over the Web and aggregate it on a central database. Once it's aggregated, it can be searched and categorized, and you can view the information in all sorts of interesting new ways.

An excellent example of this is the GrantsFire prototype, which has some real data it has sucked in from the Mott Foundation and other sources.

What's the purpose of hGrant?

hGrant was developed as part of the GrantsFire project, whose goal is to help foundations publish their grants information on their Web sites. Doing so will:

Make it easier for nonprofits to find grants information, while improving the quality of grant applications to foundations.
Surface new knowledge about what is and isn't being funded in the nonprofit sector.
Encourage foundations to be more open and transparent.

Is hGrant the same thing as GrantsFire?

No. They are related, but different. hGrant is the technical specification for publishing grants information on the Web. GrantsFire is a project that is encouraging foundations to publish their grants information using hGrant. hGrant was created as part of the GrantsFire project.

The Specification

How do I use hGrant?

All you have to do is modify your web site so that it uses hGrant, which is a special version of HTML, the standard language of the Web. For more information, read the tutorial.

Does it cost anything?

Nope. hGrant is a royalty-free, community-created, open specification.

Who created hGrant?

You did! Okay, let me explain.

The original specification was created in Fall 2006, when a few of us from Community Technology Foundation of California, Hewlett Foundation, and Mott Foundation got together with a few of us from Blue Oxen Associates and Solpath. The goal was to come up with a simple data model and microformat (see below) for representing grants information.

We expect the specification to continue to evolve as more people use it and give their feedback. We also are putting the specification through the microformat community process (see below).

I love the idea, but hGrant doesn't do everything I want.

hGrant will never be all things to all people, but we want it to be as broadly useful as possible. The only way for this to happen is for you to make yourself heard. Don't be shy! Participate on the gf_working mailing list or add your comments to hGrant Discussion.

Where can I get some help?

Start with this Wiki and the mailing list. If you'd like some more one-on-one assistance, you can hire the GrantsFire team. Not only will we help you get your grants information up, but you'll be supporting a very worthwhile project. For more information, contact Eugene Eric Kim.

Technical Trivia

What does the "h" in "hGrant" stand for?

"h" stands for HTML. It's a typical prefix for microformats (see below).

What is a microformat?

A microformat is an unfortunate name for a very good idea. Most Web pages are designed for humans to read. Sometimes, we'd like software to be able to read Web content also. The traditional way to do this is to define some new language -- usually some variant of XML -- to describe your data. Microformats let you use plain old HTML -- the standard and most commonly used language of the Web -- to describe your data. In other words, the same Web content that is readable by humans is also readable by machines, with only minor changes to your Web site. It's a very simple way to start publishing aggregatable information.

For more information, see the microformats web site.

Miscellaneous

I found a typo on this page.

Please fix it! This is a Wiki, which means that anybody can edit it. We encourage you to do so!