How to Score Your Grant Proposal Before You Submit (Using Google Sheets or Excel)

Why You Should Score Your Proposal Before a Reviewer Does

Every competitive grant gets scored. A reviewer reads your proposal with a scoring sheet next to it, assigns points to each criterion, and writes comments that justify those points. If you wait for that sheet to find your weak spots, it is already too late. The better move is to score yourself first, using the same criteria and point values the reviewer will use, and then fix the sections that lose the most points.

A simple rubric in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel, plus the writing checks already built into Microsoft Word and Google Docs, will get you most of the way. This guide walks through both, and shows where the free GrantCraft Proposal Builder fits into the process.

Start With the Funder's Review Criteria

Your rubric is only useful if it mirrors how the funder actually scores. For federal grants, reviewers score applications against the review criteria published in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The NOFO usually lists each criterion (for example, need, approach, evaluation, organizational capacity, and budget) along with the maximum points or relative weight for each one.

Foundations and state agencies often publish something similar: a scoring rubric, a list of evaluation questions, or a statement of priorities. Copy that language word for word into your rubric, and do not invent categories the funder does not use. If the NOFO gives the approach section 35 points and the budget 10, your rubric should carry the same weights, because that is where the points really are.

For more on how reviewers read and score, see grant narrative strategy and reviewer psychology and our list of common federal grant writing mistakes.

Build a Reviewer-Style Rubric in Google Sheets or Excel

Open a new spreadsheet and create five columns: criterion, max points, your self-score, evidence or notes, and fix needed. Put one review criterion on each row. Here is an example based on a typical 100-point federal scoring structure:

Criterion	Max Points	Self-Score	Evidence / Notes	Fix Needed
Statement of Need	20	16	Local data cited; no comparison to state or national rates	Add one comparison statistic and a source
Project Approach	35	24	Activities listed, but no timeline or staff assigned	Add a timeline table and name the lead for each activity
Evaluation Plan	20	12	Outcomes named but not measurable	Rewrite objectives with targets and dates
Organizational Capacity	15	13	Strong past performance; key staff resumes attached	Minor: mention audit results
Budget and Justification	10	8	Costs align with activities; fringe rate unexplained	Add one line explaining the fringe rate
Total	100	73		73%

The Formulas

Assume your criteria sit in rows 2 through 6, with max points in column B and self-scores in column C. In row 7, add these formulas:

Total possible points: =SUM(B2:B6)
Your total score: =SUM(C2:C6)
Percentage: =C7/B7, then format the cell as a percentage.

The SUM function works the same way in both programs. See the official help pages for SUM in Google Sheets and the SUM function in Excel. If you want to see where the biggest gaps are, add a sixth column with =B2-C2 and copy it down. Sort by that column and you have a prioritized revision list: the criterion losing the most points goes first.

How to Score Honestly

Self-scoring only works if you are strict. A few rules help:

Require evidence for every point. If you cannot point to a specific sentence, table, or attachment that earns the points, do not award them.
Score as an outsider. Reviewers do not know your organization. If a claim depends on context they do not have, it will not earn full credit.
Get a second scorer. Ask a colleague who did not write the proposal to fill in the same rubric. Differences between your scores show you where the writing is unclear.

A weak evaluation score almost always traces back to vague objectives. Our guide to SMART objectives and specific aims covers how to fix that.

Run the Built-In Writing Checks

Once the content is in good shape, check the writing itself. Both major word processors have tools that catch errors and flag hard-to-read passages.

Microsoft Word: Editor

In Word for Microsoft 365, select Home and then Editor. Editor flags spelling and grammar issues, and with a Microsoft 365 subscription it also offers refinements such as clarity, conciseness, formality, and vocabulary suggestions. You can step through one category at a time, which is useful for grant writing: run a conciseness pass on a narrative that is over the page limit, then a clarity pass on your methods section. Microsoft describes these features on its Microsoft Editor help page.

Microsoft Word: Readability Statistics

Word can also report readability scores. In Word for Windows, go to File > Options > Proofing, make sure Check grammar with spelling is selected, and select Show readability statistics. After you run a spelling and grammar check, Word displays two scores:

Flesch Reading Ease: a 100-point scale where a higher score means easier reading. Microsoft suggests aiming for roughly 60 to 70 for most standard documents.
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: the U.S. school grade level needed to understand the text. Microsoft suggests about 7.0 to 8.0 for most documents.

Technical proposals often run harder than that, which is fine for a scientific audience. But if your need statement reads at a graduate-school level, a tired reviewer at proposal number twelve will struggle. Details are on the readability statistics help page.

Google Docs: Spelling, Grammar, and Word Count

In Google Docs, click the Spelling and grammar check icon near the top left, or open Tools > Spelling and grammar. Suggestions appear in a box where you can choose Change or Ignore. Add your program names and acronyms to your personal dictionary so they stop getting flagged. See Google's spelling and grammar help page.

For length limits, open Tools > Word count. Select a single section first to count only that text, which is handy when each narrative section has its own limit. You can also turn on Display word count while typing to keep a running count on screen. Google notes that the count excludes headers, footers, and footnotes, so check the funder's rules on what counts toward the limit (word count help page).

Where the GrantCraft Proposal Builder Fits

The GrantCraft Proposal Builder is a free drafting tool, not a scoring tool. It does not grade your proposal. What it does is help you get every required section written so there is something complete to score. It includes:

Eight guided steps: Project Information, Need Statement, Goals & Objectives, Methods & Activities, Evaluation Plan, Budget Overview, Organizational Capacity, and Review & Export.
Plain text fields for each part of the proposal.
Writing tips and guide links on every step, so you can check what reviewers look for while you draft.
A fields-completed counter showing how many fields you have filled in. This is a completeness check, not a quality score. A proposal can be 100 percent complete and still score poorly.
Autosave in your own browser, so your draft stays on your device between sessions.
PDF export at the Review & Export step.

A practical workflow: draft in the Proposal Builder until the counter shows every field filled, export the PDF, then score that draft against your spreadsheet rubric. Revise the lowest-scoring sections, move the text into Word or Google Docs for formatting, and run the writing checks. Our walkthrough of Step 8: Review and Revise covers the final pass in more detail.

If you are not sure your organization is ready to apply at all, start with the free Grant Readiness Checklist. It scores organizational readiness (things like financial systems, governance, and capacity), not the quality of a specific proposal, so use it before you commit to an application and use your rubric once you have a draft.

Final Checklist Before You Submit

Copy the funder's criteria and point values into a spreadsheet rubric.
Score every criterion with evidence, and have a second person score it too.
Sort by points lost and revise the biggest gaps first.
Run Word's Editor or the Google Docs spelling and grammar check.
Check readability statistics and trim sections that read harder than they need to.
Confirm every section is within its word or page limit.

Scoring yourself will not guarantee an award, but it moves your proposal closer to what reviewers are told to reward. And if you do not get funded the first time, the same rubric becomes the tool for reading reviewer comments and planning a stronger resubmission, as covered in our guide to peer review and resubmission strategy.

Learn more about grant writing strategies at Subthesis.

Ready to build a complete grant writing skill set? The Complete Grant Architect course covers everything from needs assessment to budget construction to post-award management.