How many
judges do I need?
For awards, scholarships, grants and innovation challenges. Tell it how many submissions you expect, how many judges read each one, how long a review takes, and how long the window is open. It tells you how many judges the round needs, and whether the ones you have are enough.
Try a sample round:
Past the comfort line
You need about
You need about 17 judges.
With 12 available, you are 5 judges short.
Judge needed
Spread across your 12, each judge reviews about 8.3 hours in total over 3 weeks.
Load on each judge
2.8 hours a week
80 submissions × 3 reads × 25 min = 100 hours, shared across 12 judges.
Recruit 5 more judges, extend the window by 9 days, or drop from three reads to two, and every judge would sit at or under the comfort line.
What the number is counting
The number is how many judges it takes to keep each person inside two hours a week. Expected submissions, times the judges reading each one, times the minutes a review takes. Divide by sixty for the total hours, then by the hours a comfortable window allows. That is the panel size. The judges you already have are the comparison, and the buffer or the shortfall is the planning decision.
A program chair already knows the inputs. The submissions they expect, how many judges the rubric puts on each one, a rough sense of how long a review takes, the volunteers who said yes, and the dates on the calendar.
Minutes per review, by program type
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Awards entry
A nomination narrative plus supporting materials.
25 min
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Scholarship essay
A short essay scored against a few criteria.
20 min
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Competition entry
A concept, the impact, and the evidence behind it.
30 min
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Grant proposal
Narrative, budget, and the case for the request.
45 min
The comfort line
Two hours per judge per week is the line this page calls comfortable. It is a planning judgment, visible on the result, so a board can see the assumption under the number. A three-week window at that pace is about six hours in total. Past that line, the conversation is recruit more judges, extend the window, or drop a read. The essays on taking volunteer labor seriously and on what changes around 30 submissions are the longer version of the same point.
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Recruit more judges
Add people so the same work lands on a wider panel.
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Extend the window
Same hours, spread over more days, so each week is lighter.
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Drop a read
Two judges instead of three. The hours fall, and so does the number of opinions on each submission.
Questions this page answers
How many judges do I need for my awards program?
Divide total review hours by 2 hours per judge per week across the window. That is how many judges you need. Compare it with the judges you have. If you are short, recruit more judges, extend the review window, or drop a read.
How long does one review take?
Planning defaults on this page are 20 minutes for a scholarship essay, 25 for an awards entry, 30 for a competition entry, and 45 for a grant proposal. Use last cycle’s actual time when you have it.
How do I cut judge hours without recruiting?
Extending the review window lowers the weekly pace. Dropping from three reads to two lowers the hours each judge signs up for.
What is the comfort line?
Two hours per judge per week. It is a planning judgment of this page, not a measured limit. Past that line, recruit more judges, extend the window, or drop a read.
Is what I type stored?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent, and there is no account.
When the plan needs a system behind it
The calculator stops at the ask. New Empact Work is where the round actually runs: assignment, reminders, scoring, and a record of who reviewed what.