What skills do grant assessors need?
- Jenn Fuller
- 10 hours ago
- 5 min read
Grant assessing is a niche career path often requiring a specific set of skills and experience to succeed. Whilst other grantmaking professions such as fundraisers and bid writers have more established support networks and clearer skills requirements, it's not always so black and white for grant assessors.
To help with this, I analysed some job specifications for freelance assessor roles, and along with my own experience, created a list of essential skills it's good to have when working as an assessor.
Qualifications
There is no set qualification you can do in grant assessing but sometimes funders look for people who are educated to degree level in areas such as social sciences, public policy or finance. It's often dependent on the level of the role; assessing for a research, science based grant programme can be quite different to reviewing projects for a place based funder and may require an in depth understanding of the subject matter.
However, one of the positives of assessing is the variety of funding programmes you can work on; and there is no one size fits all. Based on my own thoughts, I've learnt that having a degree is not always essential and the most important thing is to have relevant experience and an understanding of the charitable sector.
Analytic and Assessment Skills
One of the main skills a funder will look for is the ability to critique applications against criteria and make recommendations. It's having the ability to understand the funding priorities and to review the application against this, including areas of governance, finances, project, deliverability, legacy and more.
It's also about having strong critical thinking skills; assessors don't accept applications at face value, but go underneath the narrative, questioning statements, reviewing evidence, and connecting different areas to understand the fit with criteria. It's then having the ability to put all the pieces together to make a robust recommendation that aligns with your funders' needs.
Written communication
Assessments take different forms, but most involve a written element. Funders need to know that when hiring an assessor they can write clearly and succinctly. Ultimately, the assessments you write will be used by the decision making panel who are often time limited and pressured to make multiple funding decisions. Assessors need to be able to distil complex ideas simply and efficiently to aid this process, and to support applicants too.
Furthermore, assessors must convey their review of the application through their writing, rather than simply repeating key concepts found in the application. You need to have the ability to step back from the applicant's ideas, analyse the information, then present your interpretation of this through your assessment clearly. Making sure your assessments are consistent in style and well structured is also key.
Financial and due diligence skills
Have you ever looked at a charity's annual report in horror and not known where to start?! This has happened to me several times but having the knowledge of how to break this information down to inform your assessment is a key skill that funders want to see.
For those who have a qualification in accountancy this might seem easy but the reality is that most of us don't. Being able to interpret budgets and financial accounts, understand risk, value for money and know what to look for in due diligence checks are valuable skills.
My experience is that funders don't always explicitly ask for this when recruiting. However, when you find yourself hired and conducting your first assessment, you are suddenly faced with some very specific questions on finances, so having a foundational understanding of what you are looking for is important.
I have built my knowledge in this area over time but also found the Yorkshire Funders course in Understanding Applicants Finances very useful.
Organisation and workload management
Being organised and able to manage a competing workload are essential skills when grant assessing. Deadlines are often short so the ability to understand the funder's requirements quickly, get on with assessments, build in time for questions and submit them within the deadline needs a skilled ability to manage competing pressures. Funders often ask for examples of how you do this at interview stage, so it's good to have some examples prepared.
Communication skills
Funders often look for good verbal communication skills too. As well as being able to write clearly, they want to know you can communicate well with other stakeholders such as applicants, panel members, and other members of the grants team.
My experience is that I'm often required to speak to grant applicants over the phone or on a Teams call. This means I need to be good at questioning but also need to retain empathy and compassion and ensure they have a positive experience too. Again, having examples of this can be helpful to demonstrate your skills when securing an assessor role.
IT and data skills
Having experience or knowledge of different grant management systems is always a plus. Most interviews I have attended for freelance assessor roles ask me which systems I have experience in. Even if you don't have much, focus on one and talk about your experience of it shows you understand why they are important. Funders spend a lot of time ensuring they run smoothly so any confidence you can give them in your ability to use a system will be helpful.
Knowledge and experience
Funders want assurance you have knowledge and experience of the charity sector, especially that you understand the areas they operate in. To demonstrate this it might help to show you have awareness of the social, economic or community issues they tackle, or experience working or volunteering in charities, social enterprises or public sector organisations. There might also be lived experience you have that is relevant.
Additionally, funders often want to hire assessors who can hit the ground running. They are happy to give an assessor briefing but essentially, they need to know that once you are assessing for them that you can do the job without hand holding. Showing you have knowledge of governance, due diligence, funding processes, social issues, and the assessment process can all help grow the funder's confidence that you are the right person for the job.
Personal qualities
There are also softer skills that funders value. Being empathetic and compassionate to the different causes you are assessing go a long way to easing an applicant's experience of your funder. Also, being objective and impartial and having attention to detail are useful skills' in your toolkit, as is being flexible and having the ability to work under pressure.
Overall, grant assessing requires a niche set of skills and experience. Having strong analytical and writing skills, an understanding of the charity sector and experience reviewing projects will give you a head start in assessing.
But if this isn't possible and you're just beginning, spending time working in the sector, volunteering for a local funding panel or reading texts such as Modern Grantmaking by Tom Steinburg and Gemma Bull will all add to your knowledge base and help set you up for assessor roles to come.
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