The National Endowment for the Arts goes through a rigorous, multi-step process when it awards grants. From the submission of an application through notification of a grant, the NEA and its panels of experts review applications for both quality of the work and impact of the project.
That’s pretty much what we do here at RISCA as well. In fact, if you play the excellent video from the NEA (click above) and in your mind just substitute the words “Rhode Island State Council on the Arts” whenever you hear “National Endowment for the Arts”, then you get what we do as well.