Community needs

A community need belongs to a funding case. The Program Officer can record the description, quantity, unit, reported date and amount alongside the source reference. This gives the case a concrete statement of what people asked for and where the observation came from. The need also carries an outcome of Pending, Accepted or Rejected, so the team can distinguish an item still being assessed from one included or excluded in the decision.

The parent case supplies the program, organization, owner and overall status. Keeping the need linked to that case means an Independent Grant Reviewer can look from a proposed award back to the underlying observations. A case may have several need lines with different outcomes. Review them separately; a single case decision should not hide a rejected line inside an accepted total.

• Capture. Record the need’s description, quantity, unit, date and source while the case is being prepared.
• Assessment. Use the outcome to distinguish items being considered from accepted and rejected items, with a reason where appropriate.
• Evidence. Keep source identifiers and related attachments close enough that a reviewer can inspect the basis for the line.

Decide who records community observations and which source identifiers have authority. Agree the meaning of quantity and unit for common programs: a count of households and a monetary request answer different questions. Choose a policy for amounts that have no estimate yet so an empty amount is not mistaken for zero. Define when a need can be marked Accepted or Rejected and which reviewer decision governs the case as a whole.

If a partner system sends need records, identify a stable source record ID. Review the field mapping under the relevant program before importing. A source reference, reported date and document hash can help the team compare an imported line with its origin. Where evidence is a file, keep it as a case attachment and check its verification state before using it in a decision.

Consider a request for a shared neighborhood service. Record one need for access equipment and another for volunteer training, each with its own quantity and supporting source. Link both to the same case. Have the Program Officer check that neither source line was duplicated, then have the Independent Grant Reviewer compare the proposed outcome with the attachment and source reference. If one line is rejected, preserve its reason and leave the accepted line visible. The case decision can then explain what will actually be delivered.

• Community needs by outcome — Need lines grouped by their current assessment result and linked case.
• Unverified attachments — Supporting documents that still need evidence review.

See case preparation for intake and review and decision for the decision point.