Further Reading — Chapter 2: Thinking Like a Funder

Sources are real and verifiable unless noted. Funder processes change; confirm current details at the source.

How Review Actually Works (Primary Sources)

  • NIH Center for Scientific Review (CSR), "How Scientific Review Works" (csr.nih.gov). The agency's own description of study sections, reviewer assignment, scoring, and the order of business in a review meeting. The single best way to see the "room" from the inside. Pair with Chapter 16.
  • NIH, "Scoring System and Procedure" and the five review criteria. Official guidance on the 1–9 impact score and the Significance/Investigators/Innovation/Approach/Environment criteria referenced in Section 2.3.
  • NSF, "Merit Review Process" and the Proposal & Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) (nsf.gov). NSF's official explanation of panels and the two review criteria — Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts. Read the Broader Impacts material now; it surprises people later.

Getting Inside the Reviewer's Head

  • Browning, Beverly A. Grant Writing for Dummies (latest edition), chapters on funders and reviewers. Accessible and practical on reading funders and anticipating reviewer reactions; a useful plain-language companion.
  • Reif-Lehrer, Liane. Grant Application Writer's Handbook. Detailed on the psychology and mechanics of federal review; strong on writing for the assigned reviewer.
  • Articles and blogs from current and former program officers (e.g., NIH's "Open Mike" blog by the NIH Office of Extramural Research). Reading program officers describe their own world, in their own words, is the fastest way to internalize "thinking like a funder." (Tier 2: blog content is opinion/guidance, not formal policy — verify specifics.)

On Funder Relationships and Cultivation

  • Klein, Kim. Fundraising for Social Change (latest edition). Though broader than grants, its treatment of donor and funder relationships — cultivation, stewardship, the long game — directly supports Section 2.6's argument that relationships matter as much as the document.
  • Candid Learning (learning.candid.org). Free and low-cost courses and articles on researching funders and approaching program officers. A practical bridge from this chapter to the research methods of Chapter 3.

For Perspective

  • Form 990-PF, for any private foundation (via Candid or ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer). Not a "reading" so much as an exercise: pull the tax filing of a foundation you might approach and read its list of actual grants. Comparing what a funder says to what it funds is the most clarifying thing you can do after this chapter.