Grant assessment criteria explained: how funders actually score you

Most applicants write about what they find interesting. Assessors score against what the guidelines told them to look for. When those two things do not match, good projects lose to well-targeted ones.

Every competitive grant is marked against published assessment criteria, usually with a weighting that tells you how much each one is worth. Reading those weightings is the single highest-value thing you can do before you write.

Weightings tell you where to spend your effort

If a round weights its criteria like this, then roughly 40 percent of your writing effort belongs on community benefit, not on describing your organisation:

A brilliant paragraph about your organisation's history earns you at most a slice of that 10 percent. The same effort spent evidencing community need earns from the 40 percent. Same words, very different score.

Answer the criterion that was asked

Each criterion is a question. Answer that question directly, in language that echoes the criterion.

• If the criterion is community benefit and need, lead with evidence: local data, service numbers, community feedback. Show the need is real, not asserted.
• If it is project design and deliverability, show a clear plan: activities, timeline, who does what, and why it will actually happen.
• If it is value for money, connect the spend to the reach and outcomes.
• If it is organisational capacity, show you can deliver: past projects, partnerships, the people involved.

Evidence beats adjectives

"This project will make a huge difference to our community" scores poorly, because it cannot be verified. "One in four young people in our area reported feeling isolated in the last council survey, and this project reaches 120 of them across three schools" scores well, because an assessor can see the need and the response.

Wherever you can, replace an adjective with a fact: a number, a source, a name, a date. If a fact is not yet confirmed, write it as the project's plan ("we will partner with three schools"), never as an accomplished fact. Assessors trust applications that are honest about what is locked in.

Self-check before you submit

• I found the assessment criteria and their weightings in the guidelines
• Each criterion has a clear, direct answer somewhere in my application
• My longest, best-evidenced answers are on the highest-weighted criteria
• Claims are backed by data, sources, or named partners
• Unconfirmed things are written as plans, not as facts
• I stayed within every word limit

Questions about scoring

Grantzo maps every answer it drafts to the funder's actual assessment criteria, and scores how well each section addresses them, so you can see where you are strong and where you are thin before you submit. Start your first draft and write to the scorecard.