[uf-discuss] proposal for grants microformat (hGrant)

[Michael Everett-Lane]

Hi, I'm new to the group but am intrigued by the hGrant idea, especially
as I work at a organization, www.donorschoose.org , that both gives
grants (to teachers) and receives them (from the public). We have
thousands of proposals that public school teachers have posted on our
site, and individuals can give directly to those projects. (Similar
"microphilanthropy" sites include Kiva.org, Modestneeds.org, and Global
Giving.) We've been talking about applying microformats to our proposals
(each has its own page) to make them semantic, but none of the existing
microformats seem to fit what we're doing.

Ideally, instead of hGrant you'd have something slightly more general
like hGive. This would allow organizations that are seeking
contributions / in-kind donations / volunteers to use it, as well as
organizations/people who are looking to volunteer, donate, etc. (I'm
thinking of online volunteer clearinghouses such as
http://www.nycares.org which exist in most US cities I believe.)

Possible fields:

* direction: seeking or offering?
* medium: cash or items or volunteer time?
* project cost / grant size: (perhaps other pricing data like minimum
donation, payment types accepted, currency -- not sure what the
standards are for price data among other microformats). Also, loan or
grant? (For example, Kiva and ModestNeeds give loans, DonorsChoose and
Global Giving give grants)
* demographic: some kind of data about the recipients -- avg income?,
number of people the project will serve, etc.
* geotag
* keyword tags ("education," "Shakespeare," "clean water" etc.)

I'm sure there are other possibilities / desiderata, especially around
volunteer projects (one time vs ongoing, group vs individual, etc) but
this is what comes to mind. 

If there were an implementable standard, I'm pretty sure I could get
DonorsChoose to start using it, and help spread the word to our sister
sites.

Eugene, I hope this isn't hijacking your thread, since it's a bit
different from what you originally proposed, which I think is a great
idea (I've been a fundraiser for many years so I know how hard it is to
get to that foundation data). 

Thanks,

Mike Everett-Lane
Executive Director, DonorsChoose New York

--------------------
347 West 36th Street, Suite 503, New York, NY 10018
212-239-3615 ext 204
michael at donorschoose.org
www.donorschoose.org