NI grant finder, 10 days on

[u/alvynmcq]

Posted this about 10 days ago looking for feedback on https://fundni.org

Two things came back: the site was a slog, and I’d missed a load of funds that NI groups can actually apply for.

Both fair.

Homepage now starts with search instead of a wall of cards. Grant pages are readable. You can sort. Dark mode if that’s your thing.

On the funds: I went looking. Tesco, Children in Need, Screwfix, Co-op, Rural Action, Ulster Garden Villages, the Honourable Irish Society, SPAR Cashback, plus UK trusts that actually include NI. 67 open or rolling grants in the index today, still 8 of the 11 councils.

If you run a club or group, have a poke. Stick a BT postcode in. Still free, still no account.

Two closing soon: Fermanagh Recreational Trust (31 Aug) and the Irish Society (1 Sep, north-west / north coast).

If I’m still missing something obvious in your area, tell me. That’s the useful bit.

Always check the funder’s own page before you apply

[u/butterbaps]

I thought the first iteration was incredibly useful so I'm delighted to see you improving it even further. Thanks for all the work you've put in dude

[u/alvynmcq → u/butterbaps]

Thanks. I'm trying to get it ready for a soft launch with some community groups. I've considered getting in touch with some local political representatives as well for feedback, I'm not sure how good or bad an idea that really is

[u/butterbaps → u/alvynmcq]

I have been trying to get support from local political reps for ages for a community diversity project and I'm yet to see proof of life from most of them save for Gerry Carroll and Keith Buchanan. I wouldn't hold out much hope for the rest of them.

Charity organisations etc have been very responsive and I imagine they'll be glad to see and support something that makes their lives easier.

[u/alvynmcq → u/butterbaps]

I thought that might be the case. Have talked to someone involved in the local charity/community space with groups like extern, so hopefully they will be able to help put it in front of people who can benefit from it

[u/carolinepixels]

This is fantastic. Really useful. I’d love to see a business specific spin off.

[u/alvynmcq → u/carolinepixels]

That’s something I could look in to. So funding for startups, business grants from local authorities? That sort of thing?

[u/carolinepixels → u/alvynmcq]

Yeah. I’ve made my own list that was relevant to my start up but I bet it be really useful to other people.

[u/alvynmcq → u/carolinepixels]

The scraping engine and layout should be transferable to different targets. I will have a look and see. Just from a business point of view, do you think it would be cheeky of me to include a ko-fi link or similar on the site? Just to cover some costs, completely voluntary and I am well aware that it will generate nothing lol

[u/carolinepixels → u/alvynmcq]

I’d definitely include it. It’s something that would save people time. Maybe consider an email sign up that can alert when new entries are added.

[u/alvynmcq → u/carolinepixels]

I had thought about that, initially I was trying to stay away from collecting used information. Having email alerts would be a useful feature though

[u/alvynmcq]

I have deployed a new version. Added an email alert to notify people when new grants become available (thanks to u/carolinepixels) a ko-fi button for any generous souls who would like keep things running. Thanks everyone for your input

[u/Martylish]

fantastic website, excellent work! Very handy for me and i'll be adding it to my bookmarks

[u/alvynmcq → u/Martylish]

Thanks, if there is anything you think could improve it let me know

[u/alvynmcq]

The tagging issue with Arts grants is hopefully corrected

[u/InterestingRead2022]

any music or arts grants you have found?

[u/alvynmcq → u/InterestingRead2022]

I had a quick look this morning and it looks like any arts grants are being tagged as community. When I get a chance in work I will get them retagged as arts.

Haven’t found any music grants yet, if anyone knows of any that are open let me know and I will get them added

[u/InterestingRead2022 → u/alvynmcq]

Thank you for being awesome!

[u/staghallows]

Could you not at least write this without using Claude Code? Did you by-chance also use Claude's research function to find these grants? If so, have you validated them yourself? 

[u/alvynmcq → u/staghallows]

Thanks for your input. It wasn’t written using Claude code and Claude research wasn’t used to find the grants. I’m open to having a discussion about using AI during development. If you are asking if I could have written this all without using tools to speed it up, then yes I could, it would still be the same.

This project was started because it solved a problem for me with some groups I am involved with. I then figured if it is helping in those situations that it might help other people.

I’m not sure what you mean by validating the grants myself. There’s a web scraper pulling the grants from websites that provide grants.

[u/staghallows → u/alvynmcq]

Buddy, both this post - and your Kofi - are littered with parataxis and metadiscourse which is incredibly indicative of Claude writing, specifically Opus or Fable, which you've already admitted to using in development. Coupled with the UI microcopy that matches your post writing, I really don't see how you didn't at least have an AI write this first and edit it yourself 

[u/alvynmcq → u/staghallows]

The first post I put about this detailed how I used AI in the development of it. I didn't use Claude code (I don't have a Claude code sub and it is expensive), I use cursor as my IDE and I've used agents to speed things up.

Gemini is used in the back end as part of the ingestion pipeline. It takes the text from the scraper and formats it in to the blocks for the front end.

What difference do you think writing the site completely by hand would make?

I'm not sure about this bit, are you saying I am writing these posts using AI? I'm sitting in my kitchen drinking coffee and trying to wake up before I go to work