Yes, Peer Review is required for applicants whose application was deemed valid (e.g., eligible) during Administrative Review. Organizations with a valid application are required to complete their first five assigned peer reviews no later than Monday, April 26 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

If you do not complete your reviews by the deadline, you will not move forward in the Challenge. In order to remain eligible, you may also be asked to complete additional required reviews. Final peer reviews will be due Thursday, April 29 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If you are responsible for additional required reviews, we will inform you and provide additional information on Tuesday, April 27.

Before you begin your reviews, we require all applicants to watch an instructional video on bias when reviewing applications.

Peer Review is a unique feature of this Challenge that aligns with a broader goal of ensuring that the process of participating in Racial Equity 2030 has value to all and is inclusive of input from those closest to the work. It allows all participants, including those who do not move to the next phase of the Challenge, to receive feedback on their ideas from diverse perspectives that are working toward a similar vision. It also exposes each participant to five other organizations who are working to achieve the same goal. Feedback from applicants suggests that reviews of each other’s projects appear to stimulate an interest in collaboration. It also allows for more participatory grantmaking – many perspectives are taken into account instead of one program officer reviewing proposals.

Peer Review will be accessed and completed using the same online platform, with the same email address and password used to submit your application. If needed, these login credentials may be shared with the team member you have selected to be responsible for peer review.  We recommend using Google Chrome.

We recommend selecting one team member who has deep understanding of and experience with your proposed solution, who can lend an on-the-ground perspective in providing feedback.  Depending on your team’s situation, it may not be feasible for one person to complete all the reviews, or you may prefer to review them as a team. That is acceptable, but you will need to coordinate, as the system will not allow multiple logins in the same registration simultaneously.

The key things to keep in mind are that the person or people completing the reviews should have an understanding of your own proposed solution, an interest in learning about ideas put forth by others, and the capacity to complete the reviews thoroughly. As a reminder, as with the application, these reviews must be completed in English.

Organizations will be required to review and provide feedback on at least five applications from fellow applicant teams using the scoring rubric. While only the first five assigned application reviews are required by the April 26 deadline, you will see additional applications pop up in your queue after you complete the first five. You are welcome to complete as many of these optional additional reviews as time permits before April 26, as this will help cut down on the number of applications that need to be reassigned on April 27. Any applications that are reassigned will be required and will be due Thursday, April 29 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Please note that we attempt to limit the number of required reassignments to no more than a handful during the April 27-29 time period. Completing optional reviews before April 26 assists us in this.

You should expect to allocate between 4 and 5 hours total during the Peer Review period. On average, each review takes between 45 minutes and 1 hour to complete. You will have five required reviews due April 26 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, and you may be assigned a few additional on Tuesday, April 27.

We recognize you might not be a specialist on the specific area of each application you’ve been assigned. Please remember this was an open Challenge, meaning applications differ greatly in geography, types of organizations, approaches, and mindsets for thinking about the work.

As a reminder, while the term “racial equity” has specific connotations within the United States, in a global context, this challenge seeks to advance equity within hierarchies, structures, policies, systems and practices of dehumanization that perpetuate disparities for racial/ethnic groups in a local context.  Also, through the examination of historical impacts of colonialism in perpetuating structural racism, we can understand racism as a global issue and seek anti-racism strategies to decolonize systems through this challenge. We believe a racially equitable society is one in which neither race nor ethnicity determines opportunity and life outcomes. It is a society where all groups have the ability to participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Depending on local conditions, barriers to that vision may be rooted in perceived racial difference, and/or in oppression tied to ethnicity, caste or economic injustice.

For each scoring criteria, we encourage you to assess the application in its entirety. In other words, there is not one question or section of the application that perfectly aligns to one of the four scoring criteria.

Please keep in mind that some applications may contain images or descriptions that some may consider graphic or otherwise challenging.

A conflict of interest means that you or your team member(s) have an association with the proposed solution, or there are pre-existing relationships that render you unable to evaluate the proposal objectively. If you have a conflict of interest, please email us with the applicant name, organization and number, and we will replace the conflict with a new application to review. Please let us know as soon as possible if you have a conflict of interest with one of your assigned applications.

Each proposal is reviewed by at least five other applicants. All scores will be normalized for fairness and to account for easier and tougher reviewers. Please see A Level Playing Field for more details on our normalization process. We know from surveying participants of past Challenges that peer feedback is very helpful. Applicants say that fellow participants overwhelmingly provide thorough and constructive feedback. Therefore, we encourage all applicants to continue this trend and take care in providing thoughtful reviews and comments.

The overall impression is based on your general impression of the application. This score is only used in the unlikely event of the need for a tiebreaker between two applications, and this score is reflected in the thousandths place of the total score.

While only the first five assigned applications are required for the first phase of peer review, it is very helpful to complete as many of the optional additional reviews as time permits. Completing these optional reviews ahead of the deadline helps to minimize the number of remaining applications that may need to be reassigned. On Tuesday, April 27, you will be notified by email if you have additional required reviews to complete. The deadline for these additional required reviews is 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, April 29.

Neither peer nor expert reviewers are bound by a nondisclosure or confidentiality agreement in this process. As the information in your application will move through several rounds of review, we advised during the application process that you not put any information in the application that you would not feel comfortable sharing in that manner.

Above all, please budget adequate time to complete your assigned reviews with care. We recommend using Google Chrome, as it is the browser that works best with our platform. There is no need to click on any links, contact the applicant, or visit the applicant’s website. Deadlines will not be extended to ensure fairness for all our applicants. Our team is available to provide any technical support you may need ahead of the deadline – please email us with any questions.