Wednesday, July 16, 2008

How much evidence is enough?

We sometimes get questions about how many pages of evidence an application should include. Your final page number will depend on
  • the total number of activities you submit (remember a single activity may be used up to 4 times) and
  • the different types of activities your application includes (a letter with a description and verification of volunteer service may be 1 page, whereas evidence for program evaluation may be 3 pages).

Reviewers really don’t want to see every little thing you’ve ever done (especially if it’s not relevant to the application at hand), and they don’t want to have to dig through a tomb to get to the heart of your application. Neither do they want to be left with questions because something is missing.

Applications with 35 pages of evidence have been approved, and applications with 200 pages of evidence have been approved.

To date, the average number of pages of evidence submitted with an application is 68.

Remember when you’re putting your evidence together to “communicate” with the reviewer by highlighting relevant information with arrows, circles, or actual highlighter. Including the indicator number(s) on each page is not required, but is always a welcome help.

Keep up the good work!

Maria Elena E. Louch, Professional Development Program Manager

1 comment:

seholmOT said...

Great summary! And thanks for putting the info about highlighting the relevant info! That piece is essential to facilitating the reviewer's job!