Risk assessment
The check a funder makes on an applicant’s financial stability, past performance and audit history before awarding, and the parallel check a pass-through makes on a subrecipient. It can add conditions to an award rather than block it.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Applicant risk review · Pre-award risk assessment
In detail
Federal agencies are required to consider a prospective recipient’s integrity and past performance before making an award, drawing on public reporting systems as well as on what the application says.
The usual outcome of an elevated assessment is not refusal but specific conditions: more frequent reporting, reimbursement instead of advance payment, or a hold on part of the funds.
Against eligibility
Eligibility is a rule about what class of organisation may apply, published in the notice and stored in `elig_entity_types`. A risk assessment is a judgement about a specific applicant, made privately after the application arrives. An organisation can be fully eligible and still receive an award with conditions on it.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `elig_entity_types` and the other eligibility columns carry the notice’s published rule, which is the part that is knowable before applying.
- We publish nothing about applicants and make no assessment of any organisation. There is no scoring of readiness here, because we hold no evidence that would support one.
Common questions
Will a risk assessment stop our award?
More often it attaches conditions. Refusal is possible and less common.
Can we see our assessment?
Ask the awarding office. It is not public and it is not here.
Does an old audit finding matter?
It can be considered. Resolution history matters as much as the finding.