Eligibility screening
The pass a funder makes before review to remove applications that fail a stated requirement — wrong applicant type, wrong geography, missing registration, late submission. It is mechanical, and it is where most rejections happen.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Eligibility check · Threshold review
In detail
It is not a judgement about quality and there is usually no appeal from it. An application removed at screening is never read on its merits, which is why the cheapest work in grant seeking is checking eligibility before writing anything.
The requirements screened against are the ones stated in the notice, which is exactly the material a structured record can carry.
Against the eligibility fields
Our eligibility columns — `elig_entity_types`, `elig_states`, `elig_industries`, `elig_demographics`, `elig_size_limit`, with `elig_note` for the rest — carry what a notice published. They are not a determination that you are eligible. A record can satisfy every filter you set and still fail a screen on a requirement stated in prose that no field captured, which is why the notice is linked on every record.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Eligibility values are the source’s own, mapped into our vocabulary only where a mapping is honest, and unmapped rather than forced where it is not.
- The matching wizard treats an unstated field as unknown rather than as satisfied, so a record never clears a filter on a field nobody confirmed.
Common questions
Does passing your filters mean I am eligible?
No. It means the fields we hold do not rule you out. The notice governs and every record links it.
Can I appeal a screening rejection?
Usually not. It is mechanical rather than a judgement.
What causes most screening failures?
Applicant type, geography, and missing registration, in roughly that order.