Grant Impact Framework walkthrough

The City wants one reporting framework across its 1,000+ grant partners that captures the breadth of its grantmaking and the depth of each program's impact, without adding burden for small partners. This walkthrough shows both, on the City's own FY26 award data and ARPA performance reports.

Start every run from a clean copy: open any page with ?fresh=1, for example /admin?fresh=1.

Story 1: approve a program's metric set and watch coverage grow (Morgan Ellis)

1. 1Sign in as Morgan Ellis (Manager of Community Grantmaking, Procurement). The portfolio dashboard opens.

• KPIs: FY26 grant awards 1,217, Maximum award value $138.3M, Departments 21.
• Framework coverage: 4 of 47 programs approved, covering 417 of 1,217 awards (34.3%), $22.29M (16.1%) of value and 131 of 457 organizations.
• The banner says 3 programs are in department review. Recent activity shows the seven earlier approvals and requests.
• Say: this is the breadth view. Every FY26 grant is in it, and coverage grows as programs are approved.

1. 1Click Programs in the rail. 47 programs, sorted by maximum value. The status toggle reads Proposed 40 · In department review 3 · Approved 4. Choose Proposed and search Main Streets.
2. 2Open "Main Streets district contracts (B1501)". The header reads Office of Eco Opp & Inclusion · 17 awards · $2,125,000 · median $125,000 · default tier Standard · Proposed.

• The Metric set tab shows the 9 Standard-tier core questions (no CORE-08) and two module indicators with the AI's reason: UI-BA-01 "Number of clients/businesses provided with assistance." and UI-BA-11 "Number and percent of clients that attributed increased sales revenue/profits to program assistance."
• Under the better-off measure: "Asked in full at the Full tier (CORE-08); at the Standard tier it is covered by the program modules."
• Boston precedent: two metrics from "Reimagining Boston's Main Streets" (arpa-9076): "More programs held within the community for the community" (goal 80, progress 498) and "Number of jobs created by Main Streets" (goal 100, progress 572). Each links to the City report.
• Confidence Medium. Burden 12.8 hours tiered vs 25.5 hours if every partner filled the full form.
• Say: this is the depth view, and the burden figure is the "won't add administrative burden" answer.

1. 1Click the Report form tab. A read-only preview of the standardized use-of-funds form: About this grant, Core questions, Program questions.

• The tier switcher shows Light 4 core + 0 modules, Standard 9 core + 2 modules, Full 10 core + 2 modules (all of this program's modules).
• About this grant is filled in from the award picker's first award: "Main Streets, Allston Village · $125,000 · 2025-07-01 to 2026-06-30".

1. 1Back on Metric set, untick UI-BA-11. The row greys out with a Restore link. Click Add indicator, keep the program area Business Assistance and Add UI-BA-08 "Number and percent of clients that made a positive change in their business or markets at least in part because of the assistance".

• Active modules now read UI-BA-01, UI-BA-08, source Edited by Morgan Ellis. UI-BA-08 is rank 3.
• Reload the page: the change is still there. The Report form at Standard now shows UI-BA-01 and UI-BA-08.

1. 1Click Approve metric set and confirm. The chip turns Approved, the header reads "Approved by Morgan Ellis, today", and the audit log has "Approved metric set: Main Streets district contracts (B1501)".
2. 2Return to Portfolio. Coverage now reads 5 of 47 programs, 434 of 1,217 awards (35.7%), $24.42M (17.7%) and 145 of 457 organizations. Recent activity shows the approval at the top.

• Say: this is "the whole picture of city grantmaking", and it moves with each approval.

Story 2: review the AI coding of a past report (Taylor Brooks)

1. 1Switch persona to Taylor Brooks (Grants Data Analyst). The Impact rollup opens.

• KPIs: 126 City reports · 281 metrics · 42 "Is anyone better off?" metrics · 20 projects with a better-off metric.
• Below is the grid of RBA question by outcome domain.

1. 1Click the "Is anyone better off?" × "Arts and culture" cell (it reads 2). The project list filters to it. Open Humphreys Studios (Mayor's Office of Housing, budgeted $434,933).
2. 2The report shows its verbatim description and its metrics. "Number of artist studios preserved", goal 29, progress 29, is coded Is anyone better off? / CORE-08. The coding note explains the call.
3. 3Change that row's RBA question to "How much did we do?" and its core indicator to CORE-04, then click Mark coding reviewed.

• The row reads "Coded by Taylor Brooks" and the report shows a Reviewed badge.
• Back on the rollup, better-off metrics read 41, and the Arts and culture better-off cell reads 1. Projects with a better-off metric stay 20, because Humphreys Studios keeps "Number of affordable housing units created" coded better-off.

Other things to show

• Casey Rowan (Grants Coordinator, Office of Arts & Culture) lands on Programs, In department review, and sees only the Office of Arts & Culture's 2 programs. Open Boston Cultural Council grants and click Confirm for approval: it moves to Ready for approval. Casey has no Approve button.
• Send to department (Morgan or Taylor, on a Proposed program): Demo fill enters the contact, a reply-by date 14 days out and the program's question. Recording it moves the program to In department review and writes an audit event. No email is sent.
• Code a report (Impact rollup): Demo fill pastes the Farmers Market Coupon Program report. With a live key, Run returns the coding as a preview; without one, the drawer says live coding is not configured.
• Indicator library: 10 common-core indicators and 217 peer indicators from the Urban Institute (2006), filterable by program area.
• Reports: "Awards by department and tier" on the FY26 awards dataset.

Appendix: Demo fill values

• Send to department (Main Streets): contact "Main Streets program lead, Office of Economic Opportunity & Inclusion"; reply by today + 14 days; question "What do the B1501 contracts actually fund (business technical assistance, events and promotion, physical improvements, or a mix), and do districts already report business counts or outcomes to the department?"
• Code a report: department "Office of Food Justice"; text = the arpa-9107 description followed by its 7 metric rows as "metric: goal X, progress Y".