Data-Use & Anonymization Policy

This policy applies to user-submitted funded narratives — any grant proposal text, strongest sections, outcome insights, or narrative snippets you contribute to the shared community library on Grant Search US. This includes:

• Winning snippets — your strongest proposal section, pasted when you log an awarded outcome.
• Outcome insights — your 2-sentence reflection on why you won or lost.
• Manually shared snippets — any narrative snippet you create or edit and mark as shared with the community.

It does not apply to snippets that remain private (your personal snippet library). Private snippets are visible only to you and platform administrators, governed by the standard Privacy Policy.

No snippet is indexed into the shared community library without your explicit, checked consent. Specifically:

• Auto-extracted snippets (pulled from your application answers by the extraction pipeline) are created as private by default. They are never shared unless you later explicitly mark them as shared.
• Outcome-form snippets require you to check a consent box before the "why" insight or strongest section is shared.
• Manually created snippets require you to check a consent acknowledgment — including a link to this policy — before the snippet is shared with the community.

When you consent, you confirm that:

• You have the right to share the text (you own it or have permission from your organization).
• You grant Grant Search US a non-exclusive license to display it, anonymized, to other users for educational purposes.
• You understand the text will be anonymized before it is visible to other users.

Before a shared snippet is visible to other users, the following identifying details are stripped or generalized:

• Organization name — removed or replaced with a generic descriptor (e.g. "a community health nonprofit").
• EIN / Tax ID — removed entirely.
• Named individuals — client names, partner names, board member names, and staff names are removed.
• Specific addresses — street addresses and exact locations are generalized to the city or county level.
• Direct contact details — phone numbers, email addresses, and URLs are removed.

The anonymized flag is set to true on every shared snippet record, and the contributor's email is stored internally (for takedown provenance) but is never displayed to other users.

When you share a snippet, the following provenance data is stored internally (not visible to other users):

• sharing_consent — set to true, confirming you checked the consent box.
• consented_at — the timestamp you granted consent.
• contributor_email — your account email, used for takedown request verification.
• anonymized — set to true, marking the snippet as anonymized.
• retention_expires_at — 3 years from the consent date, after which the snippet is automatically purged.
• takedown_status — active until you request removal.

Shared snippets are retained for 3 years from the date you granted consent. After the retention period expires, the snippet content is automatically purged from the shared library. The internal record (with anonymized metadata) may be retained for audit purposes only, per our standard data retention practices.

If you re-share the same snippet after it has been purged, a new consent and retention period begin from the new consent date.

You can remove your shared snippet from the community library at any time, through any of these methods:

• From the Outcomes page — use the takedown button on any outcome record to remove its associated shared snippet.
• From the Snippet Library — uncheck the "Share with community" box on any snippet you own to immediately remove it from the shared pool.
• Via Support — contact us through the Support page with "Snippet Takedown Request" and the snippet title; we will remove it within 2 business days.

When you request takedown:

• The snippet is immediately hidden from other users (the takedown_status is set to removed).
• The internal record is retained for audit provenance, but the content is no longer visible to anyone except platform administrators.
• Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of sharing prior to your withdrawal.

We may update this Data-Use & Anonymization Policy from time to time. When we make material changes — particularly those affecting how we share or retain your funded narratives — we will notify you via email at least 7 days before changes take effect and update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Your continued use of the shared snippet library after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy. Snippets shared under a prior version of this policy remain governed by the version in effect at the time you consented, unless you re-consent.

For questions about this policy, to request takedown, or to withdraw consent for a specific snippet, contact us via the Support page with "Data-Use Policy" in your message. We aim to respond within 2 business days.