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QuickTip #11: How Can I Gain Access to a Project?

If you want to make changes to a project page, update the financials, enter history log entries, or upload documents and photos you need to be one of the project partners so that you can have access to the Administration pages. Access can be granted to you by one of the existing project partners. This is done in the "Add People to the Distribution List / Give Administrative Access" section of the "History Logs" tab of the administration page for your project. Just enter the name and email address of the person and click "Add".

QuickTip #10: How do I Remove my Club from a Project?

If you are the Host Partner of the project you would have to drop the project alltogether. To do so send a request by clicking on the "Drop Request..." button on the administration page of your project. You will need to provide the reason for dropping the project since this will have to be documented on the project page.

If you are the International Partner or just a project participant you cannot request to drop the project because the Host Partner may wish to continue doing the project without you. All you can do is to remove all references to you and your club on the project page. You will need to follow these 3 steps:

1. Remove Financial Pledges
Go to the "Financing" tab of the Project Administration Page and click the red delete icon on the right of your club pledge. Only delete your own club pledge since the other pledges might still be valid.

2. Remove Yourself as International Partner
If you are the Primary International Partner for this project you would need to Edit the Project Page and remove the references to you and your club in the "Primary International Partner" section. Remove the text in all 4 fields: District Number, Rotary Club of, Contact Name, and Email.

3. Remove Yourself from the Project Distribution List
Doing step #2 might revoke your administrative access to the project, in which case you are done. But you may still be included in the project distribution list for another reason. In this case, go to the "History Logs" table of the Project Administration Page and follow the instructions in the following section #9 to be completely removed from the project.

QuickTip #9: How do I Stop Receiving Emails about a Project?

If you are a Primary Project Partner (either Host or International) you will always be included in the email distribution list for the project. To stop receiving the emails you need to edit the project page and replace your name and email by another contact person in your club.

If you are not a Primary Project Partner you were added to the distribution list because you either:

1. created the project page
2. made a pledge to the project
3. have a role in your club or district that warrants you having access to the project
4. were added manually to the list by another project partner.

In either of these situations you can remove yourself from the project distribution list. Go to the "History Logs" tab of the Project Administration Page. In the bottom section, "Remove from the Distribution List / Revoke Administrative Access" you can select your email address and click "Remove Email".

QuickTip #8: What is a Good or a Bad History Log Entry?

In the "History Logs" tab of a project page, you will find some history log entries. Some of these are automatically entered by the system when there is a significant action for the project, some other history log entries are entered by the project partners as needed. This is an excellent way to log in a central location the latest information about a project. If you are dealing with many projects, you will just have to go back to a project page to find out what its current status is. To make good use of this feature you will need to remember to make these entries whenever needed.

You create a new history log entry from the "History Log" tab of the administration page. On top of the section you select the date of the entry, and type your name. Then you have 2 fields to enter some text. The top field (below the red text) is for the text that is going to be added to the project page. So you want in there only the significant information about this step. The text should not be too long. Just one or two sentences, straight to the point. The bottom field (below the green text) is NOT going to be added to the project page, but will be added to the notification email sent to the project partners. So this is where you can add some specific instructions, maybe assign a specific task to somebody.

In addition to recording the history log entry on the project page, a notification email is sent to the project partners. This will be sent to all the people included in the distribution list displayed in green between the two text fields. This distribution list includes the project main project partners, and the people listed in the online application form. People can be added and removed using the fields and buttons at the bottom of the section.

Examples of Bad History Log Entries

• Our Project is looking for funding. Duh! We could not figure this out!
• Copying and pasting an entire email from TRF. This is way too long. The essence of the email should be summarized in one or two sentences. Straight to the point.
• John, please send the pro-forma invoice to TRF. This sentence should be sent by email through the bottom field of the history log tool, not logged on the website. See correct entry below.

Examples of Good History Log Entries

• $4,000 contribution from Torrey Pines sent to TRF. Add a history log entry each time some money is sent to TRF. This way the other partners will know that this has been done, and that your club is not holding up the payment process.
• Project on hold because of missing report from project #xxxxx. By logging the project number for the missing report, you will be able to go to the project page later to remember which report is holding up the process, and you will be able to search the Global Grants website for this project number and get the status information if this project is also listed on this website.
• Pro-format invoice sent to TRF. To echo the bad entry above, it is correct to make this entry when the action is done, not when we ask somebody to do it.

Check out the following projects for some good examples of history log entries: G-1, or G-4.

QuickTip #7: How to Upload Photos on your Project page?

On the "Photos" tab of the administration page you will find the "Upload Project Photos" section. The top section lets you browse for a photo on your computer to upload it to the website. The bottom section shows the photos that are currently displayed on your project page.

To upload a photo, click the "Browse" button and select the photo on your computer. This needs to be a file in the JPG format. Fill in a caption then click on the "Upload" button. You can upload up to 40 photos (one at a time). When you already have 40 photos for your project, you will no longer see the upload fields, and you will need to make some room by deleting one of the existing photo to be able to load some new photos. To delete an existing photo, just click the "Delete" button under the photo in the bottom section.

Once uploaded, the photos are displayed with thumbnails on your project page, under the "Photos" tab. Clicking on a thumbnail will bring a popup window with a bigger version of the photo and the caption on top. Photos are resized automatically by the website to fit within 800x800 pixels.

QuickTip #6: What are the various Project Statuses?

From start to completion, a project on the Global Grants Website goes through various statuses. Here is some information on each of them. Note that you can search by status on the Search Page, and sort the lists by status by clicking on the "Status" heading on top of the list of projects.

1. Proposed
A project has the status of Proposed when it is first submitted to the Global Grants Website using the online form. A "Proposed" project already has its dedicated page, but is not displayed on the list of projects.

2. Looking for Funding
After the project is reviewed and approved by the Website Administrator, its status is changed to Looking for Funding. This means it is displayed on the list of projects with Need $x,xxx in the status column.

3. Fully Pledged
Once all the funded has been identified for the project, and has been correctly entered in the project page (QuickTip #5), the status is automatically changed to Fully Pledged. This means that you can no longer make a pledge for the project, and the project partners are supposed to work on the application to send to The Rotary Foundation.

4. Application Sent
Once the application information has been sent to TRF, the project status should be changed to Application Sent. Note that you have to change the status yourself by clicking on the "Application Sent" button on the administration page. Please do not click the "Application Sent" button unless the application has really been sent to The Rotary Foundation. Clicking the button will automatically enter a History Log Entry, and notify all the project partners by email. Once the project status has been changed to "Application Sent", a field will appear on the administration page to enter the Global Grant number you will receive from The Rotary Foundation. Any further communication with TRF should include this 5-digit number, not the number from the Global Grants Website. You will receive some automatic reminder emails from the system as long as the TRF Global Grant number is not entered on the website. This is to make sure the project page is properly updated, and that the project is following the approval process. The TRF Global Grant number is added to the project page, and you can use the Search function to find a project with its TRF Global Grant Number.

5. Approved
Once you receive the official approval notice of your proposal from The Rotary Foundation, the project status should be changed to Approved. Note that you have to change the status yourself by clicking on the "Approved" button on the administration page. Please do not click the "Approved" button unless you have received the official approval notice from The Rotary Foundation. Clicking the button will automatically enter a History Log Entry, and notify all the project partners by email.

6. Paid
After approval the club contributions and payment forms should be sent to The Rotary Foundation. When this is done and The Rotary Foundation sent the funds to the project account the project status should be changed to Paid. Note that you have to change the status yourself by clicking on the "Paid" button on the administration page. Please do not click the "Paid" button unless you have received the funds in the project account. Clicking the button will automatically enter a History Log Entry, and notify all the project partners by email.

7. Reported
After the project is completed and a Final Report has been sent to The Rotary Foundation the project status should be changed to Reported. Note that you have to change the status yourself by clicking on the "Reported" button on the administration page. Please do not click the "Reported" button unless you have sent the Final Report to The Rotary Foundation. Clicking the button will automatically enter a History Log Entry, and notify all the project partners by email.

8. Completed
After receiving the Closure Letter or Email, the project status should be changed to Completed. Note that you have to change the status yourself by clicking on the "Completed" button on the administration page. Please do not click the "Completed" button unless you have received the Closure Letter or Email from The Rotary Foundation. Clicking the button will automatically enter a History Log Entry, and notify all the project partners by email. We recommend that you upload to the Global Grants Website the Final Report and the Closure Letter in PDF format. This way all the project partners will be able to access this document from anywhere, 24/7. "Completed" projects stay on the Global Grants Website forever, as a testimony of your achievements.

QuickTip #5: How do I Modify the Proposed Financing?

The information displayed on the "Financing" tab is coming from whatever pledges have been entered in the system. It is very important to keep this information up-to-date. It is only when all the contributions have been entered that the project status changes to Fully Funded and that you can drive the project through the approval process.

To update the Proposed Financing you need to go to the "Financing" tab of the administration page (QuickTip #1).

You can update the amounts for the current clubs and districts listed by clicking on the edit icon on the right of each entry. At the bottom, you can add a contribution for another club or District (one by one) by clicking on Record a New Contribution below the list. If you need to remove a club or district, just click on the delete icon on the right of each entry.

To change the Total Amount for the project you need to edit the project as explained in the QuickTip #1 below. Clicking the edit icon on the right of the total amount on the "Financing" tab will bring you to the edit page.

QuickTip #4: Is this Website only to find Project Partners?

No! This website is also very useful to:

• Help you fill the paperwork online, and collect the aplication information to send to TRF.
• Communicate by email between the project partners (the website takes care of the distribution list for you).
• Keep track of the current status of the project through the history log entries.
• Have a repository of project documents (application, MOUs, reports, etc.) accessible by all project partners 24/7.
• Have a testimony of your club's achievement through the project page that stays on indefinitely. Note that the information on the TRF website is password protected, so the public cannot see it.

All these extra features can be discovered on your own, or will be described in details in future QuickTips.

From time to time I get requests to remove a project from the website after funding has been secured. Doing so would deprive you from all these other advantages and penalize other project participants who might have expected to use all these features. This website is meant to have projects followed through completion. Please think twice before you confirm the request to be removed. And if you do, I would kindly request that you refrain from submitting future projects.

QuickTip #3: Yearly Cycle

All projects on the Global Grants website are listed for a given Rotary year (July 1 to June 30). This is the year of approval for Approved projects, or the current year for projects still looking for funding. By default, the current year projects are listed in the main project list, but you can select a different year in the pulldown meny at the top right of the project list to look at projects from previous years. The search feature also gives you the option to search for all the years, or for any given Rotary year.

After June 30 on any given year, projects still looking for funding have to be carried over to the next year if they want to stay listed on the website. This is done by pushing the "Carry Over to 20xx-xx Rotary Year" button on the administration page of the project. Reminder emails with detailed instructions are sent to all project partners every 2 weeks from July 1 to November 1, and failure to take action by November 1 will cause the project to be dropped from the Global Grants website.

All this is to make sure the list of projects on the website only contains current projects, and we have not lost contact with the project partners for any given project.

Once a project has been approved, it will stay listed on the website indefinitely.

QuickTip #2: Account Passwords

First, note that an account is only created if you submit a project, or pledge support to a project, or are listed as a project partner. You do not need an account to search the projects on the website. The account is only needed to administer the projects you participate in, and gives you easy access to your list of projects.

Some of the project information is protected with a password: the Administration Page, the Online Application Form, but also the supporting PDF documents when they have been published with restricted access (PDF icon with a lock). This is because these pages and documents contain some private contact information that should not be released to the general public. Each user has a different password linked to their email address, and all the projects have a list of partners who can have access to this information. Once you are logged in as yourself, you can have access to all your projects. Your computer should remember your login as long as you stay on the same computer.

When trying to access a password-protected page or document you might be redirected to a Login Page asking for the password. If you know your password, just type it in and click the "Login" button, this will give you access to the page or document.

If you don't know your password you can request to have it sent to you by email. To receive the password by email, type your email address in the "Forgot Password?" section of the Login Page, and click "Send Password". Note that accounts are only created for people who are involved in a project on the website. So if you see a response that your email address is not listed in our database this is because you have not been included in any project. If you believe you should have access to a specific project, you need to ask one of the existing project partners to add you to the list of participants for this project. This is done at the bottom of the "History Log/Email Communication" section of the administration page. An account will be created for you when you are added to the project.

QuickTip #1: Updating Your Projects

From your project page you can click on the "Administration" button on the top right, above the "History Logs" tab. This will bring you to your project Administration Page. If you are asked for a password, see QuickTip #2 above. There is also a direct link to the Administration Page at the bottom of all the notification emails you receive from the website.

On the top right of the Administration page you can click on the "Edit Project Page" button to make changes to your project page. You can make changes to the Project Description, to the contact information for the Primary Host Partner or the Primary International Partner, and to the Total Budget.

Click the "Save" button once you have made the changes, and your project page will be updated accordingly. Note that you might have to "Refresh" the project page on your web browser to see the changes, as an old version of the page might be cached into your computer memory.

In the "Financing" tab of the administration page you can add some contributions from clubs or districts (one at a time). If you add contributions this way instead of using the "Pledge Support to this Project" button, the contributions are added without sending a notification email, and without adding a history log entry. To remove or make changes to a club contribution, just click the delete or edit icons on the right of each entry.