Evaluate a grant proposal in the Grants Management Grants Proposal Playbook

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated March 18, 2026
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Evaluate a grant proposal in the Grants Management Grants Proposal Playbook

    This playbook guides ServiceNow customers through the Evaluation stage of managing grant proposals using the Grants Management application. The Evaluation stage focuses on conducting merit reviews, allocating budgets, and proposing funding decisions under the oversight of the grants program manager. Completion of this stage progresses proposals to the Decision stage.

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    Key Features

    • Conduct Merit Review(s): The grants program manager selects reviewer groups, creates merit review tasks for each reviewer, and monitors the review progress, including state, scores, and deadlines. If a reviewer declines, the manager can reassign or cancel reviews.
    • Build Funding Proposal (renamed Funding Allocation in version 1.31): After merit reviews are complete and proposals are scored and ranked, the manager updates funding information, compares proposals, and allocates budgets accordingly. Proposals can then be submitted for further approval or declined with reasons.
    • Grant Program Director Actions: The director reviews submitted funding proposals, can approve or reject them, and their decisions update the proposal status and notify applicants.
    • Task and Workflow Management: The grants program manager can create, edit, assign, release, reset, and track merit review tasks from the CSM Configurable Workspace, ensuring efficient management of reviews and funding allocations.
    • Notifications and Status Tracking: Reviewers receive notifications via the Reviewer Service Portal when tasks are assigned. Proposal status updates are communicated to applicants post-decision.

    Practical Steps for ServiceNow Customers

    • Access the Evaluation stage via the CSM Configurable Workspace and navigate to your grant proposals.
    • Create and assign merit review tasks by selecting reviewer groups and managing reviewer assignments before releasing tasks.
    • Monitor review progress and handle declined reviews by reassigning or canceling tasks as needed.
    • Once merit reviews conclude, proceed to funding allocation to update budgets, rank proposals, and either submit for approval or decline proposals.
    • As a grants program director, review funding proposals, approve or reject funding, and finalize the evaluation stage to move proposals forward.

    Why This Matters

    This structured evaluation process ensures transparent, accountable, and efficient grant proposal reviews and funding decisions within ServiceNow. Automating task creation, progress tracking, and status updates streamlines collaboration between grants program managers, reviewers, and directors, leading to timely funding allocations and clear communication with applicants.

    Create and assign merit review tasks and allocate budgets and propose funding.

    The Evaluation stage of the grants proposal playbook consists of two tasks: Conduct merit review(s) and Build funding proposal.
    Note:
    From Grants management version 1.31, the Build funding proposal activity is renamed to Funding allocation.
    In the evaluation stage, the grants program manager oversees, tracks, and manages the reviews across the proposal.

    In the Conduct merit review(s) activity, the grants program manager selects a reviewer group and reviewers and creates merit review tasks for each person in the group. The grants program manager then tracks the reviews across the proposal, monitoring the state, score flag, and the time remaining to complete the review task. When the merit review is complete and the grants proposal is scored and ranked, the merit review activity auto-completes and advances to the Build funding proposal activity.

    In the Build funding proposal activity, the funding information is updated based on the inputs and submissions by the merit reviewers. Grant proposals are compared and budgets are allocated. The grants program manager then either submits funding proposals to the grants program director for further approval or declines the proposal with reasons. The status of the proposals is updated to reflect the grants program director's decisions and the applicants are notified about the outcome.

    Procedure:
    1. Navigate to All > > CSM Configurable Workspace.
    2. Navigate to Lists > > Grant Proposals and select My grant proposals.
    3. Select the grant proposal and navigate to Evaluation.
    4. In the Conduct merit review(s) task, select the reviewer group from the drop-down and select Create Tasks.

      A review task is created for each of the reviewers from the selected review group. The reviewer groups are created by the grants program manager during the grant setup stage.

    5. Review or edit the reviewers and select Update Review Tasks.The grants program manager can edit the reviewer group at any time before any one review task is complete.
    6. Assign the review tasks and notify the selected reviewers by selecting the review tasks and selectRelease Tasks.

      The state of the selected review tasks is now In progress and the reviewers receive notifications on the Reviewer Service Portal.

    7. Review and manage the merit review tasks across the grant proposals by selecting View all reviewers for this program and switch to the workspace view by selecting the Record Details icon Record details icon..
    8. Move all the selected review tasks back to Draft state by selecting Reset State.

      If a reviewer declines, the grants program manager is notified. The grants program manager can cancel that review and move the task to the next stage, or assign a new review group to restart the review process.

      When all the review tasks are complete, the playbook automatically advances to the Build funding recommendation task.

      The grants program manager can track the progress of the funding status and view requested budget, allocated budget, and the rank based on the merit review scoring.

    9. In the Build funding proposal task, review and manage the funding proposals by selecting View funding proposal.

      All the scored proposals appear in the Funding proposal tab along with the ranks and budget details.

      Note:
      From Grants management version 1.31, the Build funding proposal activity is renamed to Funding allocation to support the Rolling grant approvals feature. To allocate budget for the proposals in a rolling grants approval workflow, see Mark proposals.
    10. From the list of scored proposals, select one or more proposals to perform either of these actions:
      • Decline funding and provide a reason by selecting Propose Decline.
      • View the funding proposal page from where you can allocate budget, submit the proposals, and notify the grant program director for further approval by selecting Add to Proposal.
    11. As the grants program director, view the funding proposals in the CSM Configurable Workspace by navigating to List > My approvals.
    12. From the list of available funding proposals, as the grants program director, select one or more proposals to perform either of these actions.
      • Decline funding and provide a reason by selecting Reject.
      • Award the grant by selecting Approve.
    When the grants program director approves the funding proposal, the evaluation stage is complete and the grant proposal advances to the Decision stage.