How It Works For Organizers

1. Why Host On HackVillage

• Builders believe your prize is real. Your hackathon only goes public once the full prize pool is in escrow, and it carries the Prize Verified badge. Strong builders skip hackathons where prizes might never arrive; yours removes that doubt before they register.
• Payouts run themselves. When you announce winners, half of each prize is sent automatically, and the rest follows when you confirm the milestone. No spreadsheets, no bank runs, no chasing winners for details.
• You get working solutions, not just pitches. By default, the second half of each prize is tied to a milestone you set, such as a handover of the working project. Winners are paid to finish, so you get something you can use.
• Judging that holds up to scrutiny. Every judge scores every team against the same scorecard you set in advance, and must leave written feedback before their scores count. Fewer complaints, clearer results.
• A public track record. Your organization profile, verification badge and trust score appear on every hackathon you host. Following through builds a reputation that brings better builders back each time.
• Outcomes you can report on. Three months after every hackathon, each team is asked what became of their project, so you can see which challenges turned into real products.

2. What It Costs

Creating an account, setting up your organization and drafting hackathons is free. You only pay when you fund a hackathon:

• A 5% platform fee, paid on top of the prize pool. For example, a KES 500,000 pool is a KES 525,000 deposit.
• Winners always receive 100% of the announced prize. The fee is never taken out of prize money.
• The prize pool must be at least KES 10,000 in total.

3. Set Up Your Organization

Hackathons belong to an organization, so your first step is to create an organizer account and set one up. You'll tell us:

• Your organization's name and what kind of organization it is: a company, university or school, community or club, nonprofit, or government agency.
• Where you're based, and optionally your website and main social link.
• A contact phone number. Only the HackVillage team sees it; it never appears on your hackathons.

Your name, kind, location, links and about text make up the organizer card that builders see on every hackathon you host. You can edit them anytime from your organizer page.

Bring your team. Share an invite code (valid for 7 days) so colleagues can join your organization. Owners and admins create and manage hackathons, judging, funding and payouts.

4. Get Verified

Because organizers hold real prize money in escrow, we check who you are before your first deposit. Start it right after setup so it never holds up your launch:

1. Open Verification from your organizer page and submit your registered legal name, registration number, KRA PIN (optional for communities and government agencies) and an authorized signatory.
2. The HackVillage team reviews it, usually within 48 hours, and emails you the decision. A reviewer may ask for documents such as your registration certificate.
3. Once verified, your hackathons carry the Verified Organizer badge and you can fund prize pools. If something needs fixing, you'll see the reviewer's note and can resubmit.

You can create and draft hackathons while verification is in review.

5. Create Your Hackathon

The hackathon builder walks you through five steps:

1. Basics: title, summary, dates, when registration closes, and whether it's in person, online or hybrid. Registration must close before the hackathon starts.
2. Problem: the problem statement and rules. Name who the problem affects and why it matters; it's what draws the right builders.
3. Prizes: one prize per place, and for each one, whether it pays half on the day and half on a milestone, or in full on the day.
4. Teams: how many teams can take part (from 2 to 200) and the roles you want, such as developers, designers or data scientists. Teams hold up to five people.
5. Review: check everything before saving your draft.

Pick up to three categories (for example AI, Fintech or ClimateTech) so builders find you through the category filter, and upload a cover image. Covers are 1600 by 900 pixels; choose a photo at least 1200 by 675 and we crop and resize it for you.

6. Publish And Fund The Prize Vault

1. Publish your draft. We check it has a title, a problem statement, at least one prize, a pool of at least KES 10,000, and dates in the right order.
2. Fund the vault from the hackathon's Prize Vault page. The deposit covers the prize pool plus the 5% fee, through our payment partner, Paystack. A checkout you start but don't complete expires after 24 hours, and you can start a new one anytime.
3. The moment the full pool is locked, your hackathon goes live with the Prize Verified badge and opens for registration.

After the deposit, the money never passes back through your hands: payouts go from escrow straight to winners. Read How Escrow Works for every step of how prize money is held and paid.

7. Set Up Judging

• Invite judges by their HackVillage handle. They accept or decline from their dashboard.
• Build your scorecard before judging opens: three to eight criteria, with weights that add up to 100. It locks when judging opens, so nobody can move the goalposts.
• Judges score each criterion from 0 to 10. A team's result is the average of every judge's weighted score, and teams with the same score share a rank.
• Before a judge's review counts, they must leave each team at least one strength, one thing to improve and one next step. Every team leaves with feedback, win or not.

See How To Build A Judging Scorecard Teams Trust for tips on choosing criteria.

8. Announce Winners And Pay Out

When the hackathon ends, you open judging. You can announce results once:

• every active judge has finalized a review for every submitted team, and
• each winning team leader has added a payout method (an M-Pesa number or bank account).

When you announce, the first payout for every winning team is sent straight away: half of the prize, or all of it for prizes set to pay in full. Winners and every participant are told the results automatically.

9. After The Hackathon

• Share media within 48 hours. Upload photos (JPEG, PNG or WebP) and short videos (MP4), up to 15 MB each, and approve at least one within 48 hours of the hackathon ending. Missing that costs your trust score 10 points; you can appeal if something got in the way.
• Confirm milestones within 30 days. When a winning team delivers, confirm the milestone and the rest of their prize is released. We send reminders if a confirmation is overdue, and if it stays unconfirmed 14 days after you announced the winners, the winner can open a dispute. The HackVillage team reviews it, and the money stays in escrow until it's settled.
• Endorse great builders. Your judges can endorse the winners they judged, which appears on those builders' Proof-of-Work profiles.
• See what happened next. About three months later, every team is asked whether their project is still a demo, in production, pivoted or set aside.

10. Your Trust Score

Every organization starts with a trust score of 100, shown on each hackathon you host alongside how many hackathons you've run and how much prize money you've escrowed.

• A missed 48-hour media deadline takes away 10 points, unless an appeal is granted.
• The HackVillage team can adjust a score, always with a recorded reason.
• The score never drops below 0 and tops out at 150.

Read The 48 Hour Media Standard, Explained for how to hit the media deadline every time.

11. Frequently Asked Questions

12. Ready To Host?

Create your organizer account to get started, or read How To Run A Hackathon Builders Trust for a practical checklist. Questions? Email info@hackvillage.xyz.