Grant Tracker
Laura & Vie's Legacy, LLC
June 2026 — Active Development & Deployment
The Organization
Laura & Vie's Legacy, LLC is a Virginia-based umbrella company operating three integrated ventures: Marketing Consulting, Joyriding With Jash (25K+ community travel platform), and El Puente del Sabor (Afro-Colombian cultural experiences in Medellín). The business operates on circular economy principles, with each venture earning revenue and actively reinvesting back into its community.
As a founder managing multiple ventures in parallel, accessing diverse funding sources, from grants to accelerators to fellowships, is critical to growth. However, the landscape is fragmented: opportunities live across dozens of databases, eligibility criteria vary widely, and tracking progress manually creates administrative overhead that detracts from core business work.
The Challenge
With 50+ funding opportunities arriving weekly across multiple sources (grant databases, accelerator programs, fellowships, incubators, cohort programs), manually researching and organizing each opportunity was consuming:
- 4–5 hours per day researching, reading eligibility, verifying alignment, and recording in a spreadsheet
- No centralized source of truth — opportunities scattered across emails, browser tabs, notes
- No scoring system — difficult to prioritize which opportunities to pursue
- Manual status tracking — no visibility into application pipeline or deadline urgency
- Duplicate work — reviewing the same opportunity across multiple sources
The goal: build a system that could automate the research intake, intelligently score opportunities, separate grants from programs, and provide a real-time view of the entire funding pipeline.
My Role
- Full-stack developer: Architected the database schema, built API routes, designed reusable React components
- Product designer: Mapped the user workflow, designed status flows, decided information hierarchy
- DevOps/Automation: Wrote import scripts and daily automation routines to feed opportunities into the system
- First user: Validated the design by using the tool daily and refining based on real workflow
The Approach
The platform was built in four phases, each layering new capability onto a foundation designed to automate research and surface the best-aligned opportunities.
Architecture & Data Model
Built a modular, scalable foundation: Prisma ORM and SQLite for flexible, queryable data storage; separate Grant and Program models with distinct status flows; status history tracking for an audit trail and decision documentation; and an alignment scoring system (1–10 scale) for intelligent prioritization.
Frontend & User Experience
Designed workflows that matched the research-to-decision process: a dashboard overview showing stats, upcoming deadlines, and recent activity; dual sections separating Grants (opportunity-focused) from Programs & Accelerators (program-focused); multi-select filtering by status and type; detailed pages for each opportunity with full edit capabilities; and visual badges for status, type, equity, and alignment score.
Automation & Integration
Built the daily research routine: automated daily funding opportunity search via Claude AI; a report parser that reads markdown and extracts structured data; an import script that deduplicates and loads new opportunities; and an alignment scoring algorithm that weighs demographic fit, industry match, and stage alignment.
Deployment & Operations
Local deployment at localhost:3000, a daily cron-triggered routine that populates new opportunities, and a real-time dashboard reflecting the current pipeline state.
Dashboard Overview
Real-time dashboard showing 36 grant opportunities and 12 programs tracked, with $235K in pending applications across 6 active submissions.
Opportunity Detail View
Detailed view of an individual opportunity with full edit capabilities, status tracking, and decision history for an audit trail.
Multi-Status Filtering
Multi-select filtering system allows rapid organization of 48 opportunities by stage, status, and deadline urgency.
By the Numbers
48
Total Opportunities Tracked
36 grants + 12 programs
$235,000
Pending Applications
Across 6 active grants
6
Active Progress
Grants currently being developed
~12
Daily Opportunities
Via automated routine
85 hrs/mo
Manual Research Time Eliminated
vs. spreadsheet-based tracking
12+
Status History Records
Full audit trail of decisions
1–10
Alignment Score Range
Intelligent prioritization system
Stack
Next.js · TypeScript · Prisma ORM · SQLite · React · Tailwind CSS · Claude AI Scripts
Impact Snapshot
Before Grant Tracker
- 4–5 hours/day researching opportunities manually
- Opportunities scattered across multiple spreadsheets and emails
- No visibility into application pipeline or deadline urgency
- Manual deduplication of opportunities across sources
- 100+ hours per month spent on grant research admin
After Grant Tracker
- 30–45 minutes/day reviewing automatically curated opportunities
- Single source of truth for all 48 opportunities
- Real-time dashboard showing pending applications, deadlines, status
- Automated deduplication and import process
- 85 hours/month freed up for core business work
What Performed Best
The dual-section architecture (Grants vs. Programs) solved a critical problem: these opportunities require different evaluation criteria and timelines.
- Grants focus on dollar amounts and award timelines (weeks/months)
- Programs focus on commitment level, equity implications, and duration (months/years)
Separating them visually allowed for different filtering strategies and prevented decision fatigue from comparing apples to oranges. The alignment scoring system was the other high-impact feature, automatically scoring each opportunity against founder demographic, business stage, and mission created a reliable way to prioritize which opportunities deserved deeper research.
What We Learned
- Automation compounds over time. A 30-minute daily review vs. 4–5 hours of manual research saves 85 hours/month, a full work week reclaimed every month.
- Architecture matters for scaling. Built with modular components and clean API design from day one, this system can now serve other grant-seeking founders without major refactoring.
- Status history is underrated. Recording not just the current status but the full decision trail (who moved it, when, why) transforms how you review your own decision-making and explain choices to funders.
- Scoring systems reduce decision fatigue. Letting the system quantify fit (1–10 alignment score) freed mental energy for deeper evaluation of opportunities that actually warrant time.
- Dual pipelines are non-negotiable. Grants and programs are fundamentally different opportunities and should be tracked separately, but on the same platform for visibility.
What This Built
Beyond a personal tracking tool, this project produced:
- A replicable framework for grant/program management that other early-stage founders can adopt
- Automation best practices, how to integrate daily research, parse unstructured data, and load into structured databases
- Design patterns for status management, multi-level filtering, and alignment scoring that extend beyond grants
- Proof of technical capability, full-stack development, database design, automation, and product thinking
The tool is operational and in daily use. The architecture is intentionally modular so the framework can scale to serve other founders without major changes.
The Grant Tracker is an active, living project. It's actively managed, updated, and improved in response to real-world use and user feedback, so this case study evolves in real time as the tool grows. At Laura and Vie's Legacy, we're always looking for ways to refine our custom software tools and services for clients. We value your feedback and treat it as a core part of how we build, ensuring every tool keeps delivering the best possible service.
Let's Build Something Together
Building tools that solve real problems is how I work. This started as a personal need and became a framework. Whether you're a founder seeking a grant management system, or a tech team looking for a developer who thinks about architecture and scale from day one, let's talk.