Applicants are often curious about how what happens to their grant applications after they hit submit. Read on for a general overview of the process from submission to notification!
Step 1: Staff Confirm Eligibility
After an application closes, our program staff spend about six weeks inspecting applications to ensure that they are eligible under the grant rules. Examples of eligibility aspects that staff confirm include location in the seven-county metro, dollar amount request not exceeding the limit for the grant, and other aspects.
Staff may reach out to applicants during this time for more information or additions to the application.
This stage does not include any evaluation of the feasibility or potential success of the grant application.
Step 2: Application Review Period
Once eligibility is confirmed, applications move into the peer review period. Application reviewers attend a two-hour training sessions, where they learn about the grant program they are evaluating and the specific scoring criteria they are going to use during their reviews.
We always provide the scoring criteria to applicants when grant rounds open. We strongly encourage applicants to review these criteria as they are writing their applications. These can be found in the Additional Resources section of each grant webpage.
Although criteria are different for each grant program, they generally include scoring categories that evaluate proposal design (do you clearly explain the proposal and the steps to achieving it? Do your plans connect to your stated goals), arts access (are you providing arts access or an arts-related service to Minnesotans?), and proposal feasibility (do your proposed expenses and their costs seem reasonable? Are you well-positioned to complete the proposal successfully?).
For each criteria, reviewers give the application a score of 1–6 or 1–5 (it varies based on the grant program). They are also asked to leave a constructive comment noting where the applicant did well in their explanation or where there could be more improvement or clarity.
Step 3: Application Ranking and Board Approval
Once all the reviewers have submitted their evaluations, our staff compile the scores. Multiple reviewers score each application, and the average of all those scores is calculated to give the application its final score. Applications are then ranked highest to lowest. Grant award decisions are made by the MRAC Board of Directors based on these rankings and MRAC Board–approved budget allocations.