Assessment
Practical writing for funders on assessment, governance, and running grant programmes with a defensible record.
Assessment articles
17 June 2026 · grant lifecycle
The grant lifecycle explained, stage by stage
A clear walk through the grant lifecycle for funders: programme setup, intake, due diligence, assessment, decision, award, payments, reporting and publishing.
Read it →17 June 2026 · scholarship management software
Scholarship and bursary management for funders
How to run scholarship and bursary programmes well: fair assessment, sensitive handling of applicant data, staged payments, and light-touch reporting.
Read it →17 June 2026 · grant assessment criteria
How to write grant assessment criteria
A practical guide to writing clear, weighted grant assessment criteria that applicants can address and assessors can score consistently.
Read it →16 June 2026 · grantee reporting
Writing grant reporting emails that actually get replies
Most overdue grantee reports are forgetfulness, not refusal. Here is how to write reminder emails that recover them, and why a human should still approve every one.
Read it →16 June 2026 · multi-year grants
Multi-year grant management: keeping long grants on track
How to manage multi-year grants well: staged payments tied to milestones, proportionate annual reporting, and a clear view of commitments across years.
Read it →16 June 2026 · grant impact measurement
Measuring grant impact and outcomes without drowning grantees
How funders can measure grant impact and outcomes proportionately: defining indicators, collecting evidence, and turning reports into learning rather than box-ticking.
Read it →16 June 2026 · conflict of interest
Managing conflicts of interest on grant panels
A practical approach to conflicts of interest in grantmaking: declaring, recording and managing them so decisions stay fair and defensible.
Read it →16 June 2026 · AI grant assessment
Human-in-the-loop AI in grant assessment: where the line belongs
AI can read and summarise applications usefully. It must not decide. Here is how to use AI in grant assessment while keeping decisions human and defensible.
Read it →16 June 2026 · grant payments
Grant payments and disbursement management
How to manage grant payments well: condition-gated tranches, payment schedules, reconciliation with finance, and a clear ledger from commitment to paid.
Read it →16 June 2026 · grant application scoring
Grant application scoring and assessment that holds up
How to score and assess grant applications fairly: published weighted criteria, evidence-grounded scoring, reviewer assignments, and decisions that stay with humans.
Read it →16 June 2026 · grant eligibility
Eligibility checks for grant applications: get them right
Why an eligibility pre-check saves time for funders and applicants alike, how to design fair eligibility rules, and where to place the check in your application flow.
Read it →11 June 2026 · grantee reporting
Proportionate grantee reporting that people actually complete
How to set reporting requirements that match the size of the grant, get higher completion rates, and turn reports into learning rather than box-ticking.
Read it →6 June 2026 · 360Giving
Publishing to 360Giving: a guide for funders
Why UK funders publish their grants as 360Giving open data, what the standard expects, and how to make publishing a by-product of your process rather than a project.
Read it →26 May 2026 · audit trail
Tamper-evident audit trails, explained
How a SHA-256 hash chain makes a grant audit trail tamper-evident, why it matters for funders, and how to verify one yourself.
Read it →19 May 2026 · audit-grade
What 'audit-grade' actually means in grant software
Audit-grade is more than a log file. Here is what funders should expect: tamper-evidence, human-owned rationale, tenant isolation, and proof you can hand to a board or regulator.
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