Programs & categories

When to create a new program

Create a new program for each cycle. Past programs stay around as a permanent record. You can archive them once you are done.

Examples of what a program might be:

• 2026 Annual Awards (a yearly Chamber award)
• Spring 2026 Scholarship Round (semester based)
• Community Impact Grants, 2026 cycle

Set up a program with Setup Autopilot

Setup Autopilot lets an AI agent turn your source material into one structured organization-and-program plan. You review the visible plan, authorize that exact version, and then let the agent build it with resumable checkpoints.

• Program basics creates the draft program and its settings.
• Program + scoring also creates categories and a rubric.
• Application ready also builds the application form.
• Complete draft also prepares notification copy.
• Custom includes only the setup sections you select.

Use the dashboard after setup

Setup completion and day-to-day readiness are different. The dashboard highlights one prioritized operational action even after every setup step is complete. An agent can read the same recommendation and open its reviewed workflow, but it cannot perform the consequential action.

• Programs still open after their configured closing time
• Reviewer conflicts, overdue reviews, and incomplete reviews
• Entries without reviewers in the selected review round's participant ledger
• Applications waiting on more information
• Rounds ready for full score and decision-readiness review

Reuse a prior cycle

Open a prior program and choose Clone program to start the next cycle. You can review whether to copy categories, eligibility questions, the application form, rubric, and notification setup.

A clone always starts as a draft with blank opening and closing dates. Applications, nominations, files, reviewers, assignments, scores, decisions, and email delivery history are never copied.

Organization templates

Templates are maintained organization blueprints for workflows you expect to use repeatedly. Save one from a configured program, then use it to create future draft programs without copying submissions or other operational history.

• Templates include program instructions, categories, eligibility, forms, rubrics, notification copy, reminder rules, and review-round structure.
• New programs always start as drafts with blank opening and closing dates.
• The original program and programs created from the template remain independent.

Categories

Categories let one program have multiple award types. For example, your 2026 Annual Awards program might have four categories.

• Small Business of the Year
• Best Marketing Campaign
• Volunteer of the Year
• Innovator of the Year

Each category can have:

• Its own description and eligibility criteria
• Its own sponsor (optional)
• Per-category form sections or fields if you need different questions for different award types
• A nominee type, which is individual, business, or either

For a long category list, choose Import categories. Paste spreadsheet data or upload CSV/TSV, resolve every validation issue, and confirm one atomic import. An agent can draft and correct the visible rows, but cannot commit them.

Sponsor recognition

Each category can have a sponsor name, logo, and link. The sponsor info shows up on the public application page when an applicant picks that category. Useful for “sponsored by Local Bank” type programs.

Program status workflow

A program moves through statuses as you work through it.

• Draft. Setup phase, not visible to applicants.
• Open. Accepting submissions. The public application URL is live.
• Closed. No new submissions, but you can still triage and score what you have.
• In review. Optional flag if you want to mark the program as actively being judged.
• Complete. Winners selected, program done.
• Archived. Hidden from active views.

You change the status from the program's Settings tab.

Review workflow

Each program also has a review workflow. Most teams can use a single review round, but programs that need a short list can turn on Initial + finalist review from the Settings tab.

• Single review round. Reviewers score once, then you choose finalists and winners from that result.
• Initial + finalist review. Reviewers score an initial round, admins advance selected entries, then finalist assignments and scores are tracked separately.

The Scores tab shows the active round, review completion, pending assignments, unassigned entries, and ranked entries for that stage. This keeps early screening scores from getting mixed into final decision scores.