Preparing for assessments

A good assessment meeting is one where:

• You understand where the assessor is coming from,
• There are confident, ready answers to their questions that make a good case against their criteria and you’ve got in your big points (even if they’re in the paperwork, it’s good for the assessor that they’re front of mind and clearly where the charity is actually coming from)
• You seem to be good, highly competent people, who value the funder and whom they can work with
• The assessor is moved and enthused, at least a bit

Getting there involves preparation, as well as good skills on the day. the following are some ideas

Speaking to the grants officer when the assessment is announced

What you want to know, as far as possible, is what’s coming up. It’s worth trying to engage them a bit – what were they looking or more answers about, what areas should we make sure we have people to answer on, is there anything they’re happy to say about how they see the project. If you ask to know their main questions in advance, some assessors will give you one.

It’s not a bad idea to ask them how to pitch it – are they more of a specialist assessor in that field, in which case you can give them all the precise jargon, or is it better to keep things in plain English with more explanations. Hopefully, you can find their background and role on LinkedIn, as well.

This is better done on the phone, unless that makes you very uncomfortable, as you’re trying to get things out of them. it’s clearly quicker for them to tell you that way, anyway. The assessor may not tell you anything (which is perfectly within their rights) so you haven’t “failed” if you get nowhere. You’re entitled to ask, though.

Who to involve

The manager who the project will sit under is the key person. As a rule of thumb, people shouldn’t be pitching to a funder for their own salaries, it’s the next level up you want there.

It’s as well to have on tap any other people that there’s a fair chance they’d want to hear from. For example, if the funder is very big on finance, then the relevant person.

Sometimes it can be good to bring in a service user, for at least a bit of the meeting. It can bring things to life and is potentially more interesting for the assessor than meeting a load of professionals. If so, you’ll have to decide whether Services have a good enough understanding of the process to brief them or if it’s better if you brief them. It can be a bit nerve wracking for the service user, so you’ll have to be prepared to support and reassure them beforehand. There’s a case for mentioning to the assessor that you may have someone like that there – they might either very much like it or not be keen if they’re very pushed for time.

Thinking about the potential issues in the application can also influence this. For example, if a potential weakness of the project is that substantial cooperation for this new initiative is required from people not sitting under the responsible manager (e.g., the relevant services team needs a great deal of cooperation from another team, such as Outreach or Communications) then I’d try and introduce the assessor on the way into or out of the meeting to the senior manager they have in common – the Departmental Director of CEO. Id’ want that senior person to enthuse about the project when they met and to say how important it was to them. So, the assessor can rely a bit more on the necessary “internal support” being there.

If it looks like a big team for the assessment meeting (more than four at very most, including yourself) then it’s common courtesy to ring the assessor to check they’re alright with that. (Some are fine, others don’t like it.)

There’s a case for introducing the assessor to bigwigs at the charity, if you think they’d do okay in that role. It may make them feel a bit more valued and sometimes trusts talk about the leadership of the charity mattering. Give them a top line on the project, the visiting trust and why you think they might be interested. It’s better that they’re generally enthusiastic about work than that they try and sell it or go into related issues of strategy, especially if there are specifics to get right in the application (e.g., a new model of work). If you can give the Director/CEO something to get into the conversation, they may like that. However, if not, those people are usually very skilled at such semi-formal social situations.

Pre-meeting meeting

The worst assessments I’ve been in have been when one of the key players has tried to “wing” it. Doing what you can to get everyone prepared is at the centre of a pre-meeting. (If you’re just sent some papers and barely spoken to a meeting participant, there can be a significant risk.) The following are some ideas that can help get people ready.

• You should bring to the pre-meeting the assessment meeting team and maybe anyone with really important detail that the people there may not know. If someone senior won’t do it for time, ten minutes with them on their own, that gets over the key points and makes them realise the need to prepare, should mean they’re significantly more ready.
• Tell everyone briefly in advance of the pre-meeting what the project is and send them the bid before the pre-meeting. They’ll be better prepared for the pre-meeting and if they’ve had to think about it a few times before the assessment, they’ll be on better form on the day.
• At the pre-meeting:
  • Start by running through the bid in a few minutes (which you may struggle to do with a rehearsal). The chances are plenty of attendees won’t have read the papers yet
  • Tell them briefly about the trust’s interests and who the assessor is
  • I’d tell them that a good result is if the assessor comes out of the meeting with a clear, rational grasp of the case, trusting the organisation and at least a little moved
  • Go through the key lines of argument to take (and to avoid). There are two reasons for this: (1) so the participants stay “on message” and (2) once they realize the subtleties of the process, they’re more likely to read the papers you’ve sent them!
  • Agree who’s responsible for what in the meeting.
  • If you foresee anything difficult to discuss on the day, you can agree what to say. Even if there isn’t much, it’s worth discussing one or two points, to make sure everyone’s head is in the right place and they appreciate the importance of understanding what’s going on.
  • It’s worth mentioning to less experienced meeting participants that any notes that they have might fall on the floor or be read upside down by the assessor should be fine for them to see.
  • If you trust the services manager(s) to get the basics right in the meeting, I’d ask them to try and drop in a few short (i.e., very most 2 minute) stories regarding service users that are directly relevant. The stories should bring to life what they’re discussing with the assessor, other benefits are that it’s interesting for the assessor and cuts through with people at a different level.
  • On the other hand, if the key person in the meeting is very inexperienced then it’s worth trying to get them to do a bit of mock assessment with you, to help them get their head around the process. The questions you ask very probably won’t come up, but it’s to get them into the process. Clearly, you’ll see things about their approach that need addressing, but I’d stick to a lot more praise and enthusiasm for them that minute examination. This is a nerve wracking process for them and they need building up. However, it may also help them to see what is actually coming up.
  • It’s essential that Services come away from the meeting recognizing that they need to own the project. There’s no reason in the meeting not to disclose that you’ve done some leg work in developing the project/bid, but it should be clear it was done under their leadership and that they own the project. Assessors can be wary that the project is chasing funding, rather than something the services team are behind. Also, they want to hear the charity knows what it’s doing (unless it clearly didn’t – in which case you might be a good fall guy, if you’re comfortable with that!)

Before the event

• People will expect you to ensure everything is ready
• Beware that it can take hours to print and collate everything for use in the meeting
• First impressions count. So, make sure everything is tidy, organised, the room is set up, etc. Make sure the receptionist is ready and is aware it’s an assessor (so they’ll want us to make a positive impression). Check first thing that everyone is in and if there are any last minute questions (as they may only have really got themselves ready the night before)
• Try and arrange for the key person to be opposite the assessor – the person opposite is who they’ll give most attention and weight to

In the event itself

• The trust wants to hear from the organ grinder (i.e., Services) not the monkey (i.e., you – sorry! I know you’ll have worked very hard up to this moment and if things go well, you’ll be a key reason why)
• Your roles are normally:
  • Anything to do with what was on paper – the request, what you meant when you wrote particular bits, maybe some of the budgeting
  • Most importantly, listening and troubleshooting. By this point, you’ve probably looked from many angles at how the assessor might see things. So, you need to be alive to the realities of the assessment and to be able to jump in if your team inadvertently put their foot in it.
  • The most dangerous questions can be the ones where you don’t really see where they are coming from. There can be a criticism you haven’t thought of or unwritten criteria you haven’t realized. So if you don’t know why they’re asking something, it’s worth checking why they’re asking. Assessors have generally told me.
  • It’s not mainly your meeting, but it could be slightly uncomfortable if you say absolutely nothing. So, try and drop in at least one or two comment during the meeting.
  • A behavioural scientist would say it’s good to get the assessor to behave a little like they trust you, because they’re more likely to go with their actions. So if you spot one opportunity to do that, all good. (I’ve never tried this, though!) As with all such ideas, they’ll  likely be aware they’re slightly committing themselves, so it should be natural and congruent.
  • Towards the end of the meeting, I ask if there are any issues where we haven’t given strong answers yet. It’s actually hard to tell what an assessor really thinks. As an assessor myself, I’ve had generally very positive, impressive assessment calls with people and put down the phone and rejected them, because half way through the call they said something that meant they were actually below standard on something important, or ineligible. Put on the spot like that, as an applicant I’ve had assessors want to give us a fair answer / a chance and I’ve then been able to unpick things and save the assessment.
  • At the end of the meeting, make sure the next steps are clear and SMART.
• As with proposals, a good note to end on is valuable. If I can’t think of anything better, I like to share my feelings as they’re walking out – which are often some variation on “the team have been making a huge difference for people/have a great opportunity to make this big difference for people, I’m so pleased that important funders like yourselves are showing an interest in helping take things further”.
• If you need a bit of breathing space, it’s not unreasonable to say you don’t have that bit of information to hand for the meeting but you can send it on afterwards. For projects where the assessor comes in, there’s often a lot of background work and it’s slicker not to sit there taking up everyone’s time while you comb through umpteen documents to find what you need.  Unless it’s clearly important, or your project is supposed to be very highly developed, it’s not unreasonable to say “We haven’t settled / fully worked through that issue yet [and maybe: though we have discussed it]. Can we get back to you with an answer in a few days?” Some honesty helps the assessor to feel they can trust and work with you.
• When you show them out at the end, it’s worth having something to discuss, just so you don’t finish a little awkwardly.

After the meeting

You should have an evaluation session straight after the meeting with the assessment meeting team. The key focuses are usually:

• Did they go away persuaded, are there any gaps there or remedial work we need to do? As well as troubleshooting, by this time, everyone’s usually super-engaged and up to speed and there can be good ideas for how to quickly send the assessor something to “wow” them.
• How do we get them anything they still need?
• If people in the team, especially the less experienced ones, were very good, it’s worth feeding that back. You want them to go through this with you again in the future, so you want them to go away with a good feeling about it and confident for the future, even if you don’t get the money eventually they’re positive going into the next one.
• Everyone will want to know from you when we’ll hear.

Assessors are normally under significant time pressure to wrap up the assessment. So, if there’s anything outstanding, it’s probably a priority for them to get it done.

As with job interviews, it’s good to send a nice email straight afterwards, that thanks them for their time and interest, underlines your one or two best points (especially anything that only came out in the meeting) and overs next steps.