Verdict Engine Check Reference
How the catalogue of up to 175 checks decomposes across 15 categories. Each category has a specific evidence base, scoring weight, and lifecycle-stage applicability. This reference is the canonical guide for foundations planning their override policies and for grantees preparing their evidence packages.
Category map
Live read: the running engine executes 148 checks across 15 categories (Current catalog version: 2026.05.04-148). The published catalogue covers up to 175 checks; a check is counted here only once it runs in the engine. See coverage →
| Code | Category | Count | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOV | Governance | 14 | Board structure, conflicts, founding instruments, charter scope, governance rules |
| FIN | Financial | 14 | Audited financials, reserve adequacy, restricted-fund segregation, related-party transactions |
| SAN | Sanctions | 12 | OFAC SDN, EU consolidated, UK HM Treasury, UN Security Council, MAS, AUSTRAC, secondary-sanctions exposure |
| BEN | Beneficial Ownership | 8 | Natural-person identification, control chains, PEP screening, address and ID verification |
| PRG | Programmatic | 11 | Theory of change coherence, prior-outcome verification, beneficiary methodology, equivalency-determination evidence |
| COM | Compliance | 10 | 18 attestation types - charitable status, sanctions self-attest, AML, FATCA/CRS, anti-bribery, conflicts policy |
| OPS | Operational | 9 | Staff capacity, prior grant lifecycle, complaint history, organizational age, audit infrastructure |
| MIL | Milestone Evidence | 12 | Milestone definition quality, evidence pre-positioning, on-time submission rate, milestone-disbursement linkage |
| DIS | Disbursement | 9 | Bank-account verification, disbursement-trace auditability, no-co-signer divergence, multi-signature controls |
| PER | Personnel | 8 | Key-person continuity, criminal-record disclosure, regulatory bar history, board-of-directors current standing |
| RPT | Reporting | 7 | Outcome-report quality, tax-filing completeness, regulator-required submission cadence, narrative-financial reconciliation |
| EQU | Equivalency | 7 | IRC 4945 ED evidence, ER fallback adequacy, currency-conversion documentation, tax-treaty applicability |
| JUR | Jurisdictional | 9 | Charity Commission match, IRS Tax-Exempt status, ACRA, DIFC, RFB, ESA Stiftungsverzeichnis |
| NET | Network Effects | 9 | Inter-foundation grant-history overlap, beneficial-owner overlap, prior-incident registry match, related-entity flags |
| ANO | Anomaly Detection | 9 | Submission-pattern anomalies, rate-of-applications, document-metadata anomalies, suspected templating |
| Total | 15 categories | 148 | Full decomposition |
Scoring
Each check returns one of four outcomes:
- PASS- check passed against the available evidence
- FAIL - check did not pass; the failure reason and evidence are recorded
- CONDITIONAL- check passed with material caveats requiring foundation review
- NOT_APPLICABLE - check does not apply at this lifecycle stage or for this entity profile (with documented reason)
A category-level score is computed as the share of in-scope checks that returned PASS or CONDITIONAL. The overall score is the weighted average across categories, with weights set by the foundation's Override Policy. Default weights apply higher weight to SAN, BEN, FIN, and PRG.
Lifecycle-stage applicability
Not every check applies at every stage. The matrix below indicates which categories run at which lifecycle stages. Categories markedmonitorrun continuously throughout the grant lifecycle.
| Stage | Active categories |
|---|---|
| Pre-clearance (application) | GOV, FIN, SAN, BEN, PRG, COM, OPS, PER, EQU, JUR, NET, ANO |
| Approval | All pre-clearance categories plus override-policy review |
| Disbursement | SAN (re-screen), DIS, MIL evidence pre-position |
| Milestone (each) | MIL, DIS, PRG outcome verification, RPT |
| Closeout | RPT, FIN final reconciliation, MIL completeness |
| Continuous | SAN re-screen, NET registry-match monitor, ANO behavioral monitor |
Override rules
Each foundation has an Override Policy attached at onboarding. Override rules govern:
- Which categories trigger automatic decline (default: SAN positive match, Excluded-registry match)
- Which categories trigger council review (default: BEN PEP-positive on key principal)
- Which categories admit a foundation override with documented justification (default: PRG, FIN at thresholds set by the foundation)
- Whether the foundation accepts CONDITIONAL outcomes auto or requires manual approval
- Required documentation for any override (memo, secondary signoff, anchor in CourtChain)