SVP's Grant Evaluation Criteria

Each letter of inquiry and proposal is reviewed by a New Grant Committee Member. The New Grant Committee consists of 10–12 Partners who have committed to a five- to six-month term. During this time, committee members learn about the issue area, review letters of inquiry and proposals, conduct site visits, and select finalists.

In order to objectively evaluate each applicant, the grant committee uses SVP’s grant evaluation criteria. While very few nonprofit organizations will meet all of our criteria, it provides a useful tool to evaluate our applicants. 

• A strong leader with the authority and autonomy to ensure the success of the SVP relationship. This leader, typically the Executive Director, has the experience necessary to fulfill their vision and goals.
• An organization with a clear vision and strategy. The organization demonstrates a positive trajectory of organizational development over the next three to five years.
• The organization understands the importance of building their internal organizational capacity in order to be more effective. The organization can prioritize their capacity-building needs/goals and can integrate them into their organizational vision. 
• The organization embraces the SVP capacity-building partnership, which includes intensive self-assessment and working with volunteer and paid consultants. SVP can effectively engage and have an impact with the organization, even if the program is a small piece of a larger organization.
• The program has a clear vision and implementation strategy, suggests a method of evaluation and/or is supported by research or preliminary outcomes data.