Welcome back! Last issue covered Award Agreements and Dynamic Variables, the terms an applicant accepts before an award goes out. → Read issue 3 here.

This time we are looking at something new: the Applicant Insight Form. It rolled out in May to fix a problem many teams face: no good place to put the stuff that matters, but isn’t part of the application.

Applicant Insight Forms give you clear context—so you don't have to read between the lines. We all may learn to do so in our personal relationships, but it should never be the expectation with your grant applicants. Watch how the Applicant Insight Form gives your team a real record instead of a guessing game.

📌 Don't see it under Organization Settings? It's free. It just needs to be turned on. Contact Support and we'll flip the switch.

What It Is

Every organization ends up with a collection of data about each applicant: a call summary, a site visit writeup, a flag about last year's award, something a board member mentioned once in the hallway. Right now that lives in an inbox—or even more likely, in someone's head. The Applicant Insight Form gives it a real home, easily compiled and referenced, and attached to the applicant.

Two things make it different from every other form in Submittable Next:

1. It's private. Only Org Owners can edit it. Program Admins see it read-only, in Intake and Review. Reviewers and applicants never see it at all.
2. It follows the applicant, not the application. Fill it out once, and it's there on every application they submit, in any program, from then on. A participant that's applied to three of your programs over two years has one Applicant Insight Form. Not three.

Most teams don't fill in every section. Some keep it open-ended. Others rename it entirely and dedicate it to one thing — Site Visit Notes, say — and ignore the rest of this guide. Both are correct.

How It Works

There are two steps to using Applicant Insight Forms.

1. Build the form like any other form in the platform
2. Fill it out per participant

Let’s dig deeper into each step.

Setting One Up, Quickly

Build it the way you'd build any form in Next: Settings → Applicant Insight Form → Add fields → Publish. It's not locked once it's live, either. Edit and republish any time, and changes apply retroactively to every applicant's form already on file. This means that as you realize more fields you need to add over time, you’ll never be stuck.

To fill it out: Participant Network → Click an applicant → Open the form from the left-hand menu → Edit → Save. Come back and update it whenever something changes.

Rename It: The form doesn't have to be called "Applicant Insight Form." Click the name at the top, type a new one, and save — it updates everywhere the form shows up, including the Participant Network and the application view for Program Admins.

To view it: Program Admins reviewing an application will find it at the bottom, or via the section link at the top if you want to jump straight there.

Full click-by-click walkthrough → Creating & Using Applicant Insight Forms

How to Get the Most out of Applicant Insight Forms

The blank version of this form is not the interesting part. Here's where it earns its place, and how much ground it can actually cover.

• Site visit and interview notes. The conversation that happened off the application: what you saw on-site, what came up on a call. Because this form sits right alongside the application, those notes won't get missed. You can always add team notes on an application, but it's easy to overlook those.
• Desk Review. The read-through that happens before anything moves to reviewers: checking documentation, confirming details against the application, catching what needs a second look. Note what you found here instead of trying to remember it next cycle.
• Upload documents. Add a file field and attach anything relevant that isn't part of the formal submission: proof of insurance, a photo from a site visit, internal correspondence worth keeping. Any document you might need on file for this applicant has a place to live.
• An internal summary. Distill a long or complicated application into three sentences your team can read at a glance, instead of re-reading the whole thing every time it comes up. If you are using Smart Summary, you can skip this tip!
• Conflict-of-interest flags. If a board member has a connection to an applicant, or there's a relationship your review process needs to route around, note it here. Remember, this form is designed to be private and is not visible to your reviewers.
• Applicant vetting and eligibility exceptions. When you've made a judgment call — waived a requirement, made an exception for a first-time applicant — write down why. The next admin who opens this application won't have to guess or ask around.
• Relationship notes for repeat applicants. For CSR programs and foundations working with the same organizations year over year: key contacts, past communication, what mattered to them last time. Especially useful when the person managing the relationship next year isn't the person managing it now.
• A status flag for internal triage. A dropdown for things like "board referral," "priority for renewal," or "needs finance sign-off" gives your team a shared read on an applicant without changing anything reviewers see.
• Award history, in one place. What this applicant received last year, and the year before, across every program, instead of something someone has to dig up from old spreadsheets.

None of this needs to happen for every applicant. Add a note here, a document there, only when it's useful. Over a year or two, it turns into the kind of institutional memory that previously might have walked out the door as your team changes over time.

New! Pull These Fields Into the Award Agreement

You can now add Applicant Insight Form fields directly into the Award Agreement using Dynamic Variables. Some ideas that you could start including in your Award Agreement now that you can add directly into the Applicant Insight Form.

• Award Number — drop it straight into the agreement terms.
• Grant manager — surface who the awardee should contact, pulled straight from the form.
• Eligibility exception notes — carry the waiver language straight into the agreement instead of retyping it.
• Match or co-funding requirement — if a repeat applicant has a standing match arrangement on file, pull it directly into their agreement.

Worth Knowing

• Free, but it has to be turned on first. Ping Support.
• Only Org Owners can create and edit; Program Admins get read-only access.
• A few field types on other forms aren't available here.
• If you have not filled out an Applicant Insight form for an applicant Program Admins will see "not completed yet."
• If you need your reviewers to see information on the applicant, you could use hidden fields on the Profile Form and include the information there by editing the profile. At this time, hidden fields are not available as Dynamic Variables in award agreements.

Questions? Reach out to our team!

Related Resources

• Creating & Using Applicant Insight Forms →
• Add a Form Field →
• Configure Form Fields →