In case your nonprofit has ever tried to revamp its website, purchase a grant, or put together for an audit, there are some roles for which your staff merely isn’t ready. It’s unusual for nonprofit organizations to have a complete skillset in-house.
For that reason, nonprofits usually search experience from exterior consultants and distributors. Whether or not you at the moment have a deal with in your mission-critical duties or have to outsource instantly, making a request for proposals (RFP) units the stage for locating the proper abilities on the proper worth.
An RFP is a proper doc that outlines your group’s wants, expectations, price range, and choice standards when hiring distributors or consultants for a job. Let’s assessment the perfect practices your nonprofit ought to implement to jot down an impressive RFP.
1. Outline Your Targets
A well-defined objective is a essential basis on your RFP, guiding your nonprofit’s questions and qualification standards. You could clearly articulate this objective to draw the proper distributors and keep away from unreliable responses, particularly for mission-critical duties. For instance, an RFP for nonprofit compliance consultants should recruit certified professionals to make sure your group stays in good standing and avoids extreme penalties, like 501(c)(3) status revocation.
By defining your targets from the beginning, your group can guarantee proposals align with not simply your undertaking but additionally your broader mission. Your objective ought to make clear the next:
- Your nonprofit’s downside or want
- The end result your group hopes to attain
- The scope of the work
- Your price range vary
- The anticipated timeline for completion of the undertaking
To place this into context, let’s say your nonprofit seeks skilled bookkeeping providers. You want skilled steering on financial management to attain correct and compliant monetary information, enhance monetary reporting, and tighten your price range.
To perform this, you need to search for a bookkeeper who will document all monetary transactions in your fund accounting system, put together month-to-month monetary reviews, and information budgetary choices. You could have $10,000 to spend on their providers and wish the bookkeeper to start out instantly, however the engagement will proceed on an ongoing foundation. This stage of specificity will assist your nonprofit entice essentially the most certified proposals.
2. Define Detailed Proposal Necessities
Together with attracting the eye of certified candidates, your RFP ought to make clear what is required from their bids. Present primary submission instructions, just like the format their response ought to take and the way they need to ship it to you. Additionally, checklist the required data respondents ought to embody, resembling:
- Related expertise: Description of previous tasks, testimonials and references from former shoppers, and samples of earlier work
- Proposed method: Step-by-step plan outlining the instruments and methodologies they’ll use to fulfill your nonprofit’s wants
- Funds breakdown: Detailed pricing construction, together with any further charges the seller would possibly require
This data permits your nonprofit to successfully evaluate proposals and discover the perfect candidate. For instance, a nonprofit on the lookout for a website designer would possibly obtain proposals from a number of candidates who can deal with the group’s wants inside the required price range and time-frame. Nonetheless, further data, just like the candidate’s portfolio and references, will help you discover the right match.
3. Be Clear About Choice Standards
When sorting by way of proposals, your staff should be on the identical web page about what constitutes a prime contender. Establishing clear standards forward of time ensures a good and goal choice course of, lowering confusion and potential biases from interfering. Offering these expectations within the RFP will help potential candidates self-assess whether it is value their time to submit a response.
There are two key assets you’ll have to successfully and constantly consider proposals:
- A listing of standards: Create a listing of must-haves, resembling an expertise stage, a particular method, adherence to your price range, or every other requirement that is smart on your undertaking.
- A scoring system: Develop a scoring rubric that assigns weight to the factors in your checklist. You would possibly price every criterion on a scale of 1 to 5, with one indicating the seller doesn’t meet your expectations and 5 indicating they absolutely meet your expectations. The seller with the very best rating is your finest candidate.
Additionally, present a transparent timeline on your decision-making course of in order that respondents know when to count on a response out of your group. This could embody a submission deadline, analysis interval, and determination announcement date. With a clear schedule, respondents aren’t left ready on your determination, and your open communication will begin the brand new partnership off on the proper foot.
4. Maintain It Concise and Accessible
A nonprofit RFP should be concise and well-organized to draw related responses that meet your standards. Respondents could develop into confused or abandon their response altogether when you present them with a prolonged and difficult-to-understand RFP.
Listed below are some basic ideas for preserving your RFP accessible:
- Restrict pointless jargon: Keep away from utilizing any purely inside jargon, abbreviations, or terminology, and search for respondents who also can talk with exact language freed from jargon.
- Use direct and simple language: Specificity is vital to attracting viable candidates. Be clear about what you’re on the lookout for, whether or not it’s a monetary skilled with a tried-and-true approach to bookkeeping for nonprofits or a fundraising advisor with contemporary concepts.
- Break up textual content the place potential: Use headings, bullet factors, quick paragraphs, and different components to make your RFP simply digestible. Whereas this doc received’t be as glamorous as your influence reviews or weekly newsletters, it ought to nonetheless be simple for distributors to scan.
Should you’re uncertain how your RFP would possibly come throughout to somebody with much less context about your nonprofit’s wants, ask a employees member or volunteer to assessment it and supply suggestions. For instance, ask your nonprofit’s bookkeeper to assessment your RFP for a web site designer.
5. Assessment Actual Examples, Keep away from Templates
Whereas there are lots of free RFP templates on-line created only for nonprofits, your request will finally rely on your group’s distinctive targets, operations, and wishes.
For instance, an RFP template would possibly advocate together with your group’s background data and undertaking targets. Nonetheless, a nonprofit on the lookout for knowledgeable advertising company probably wants to incorporate extra particular standards, like examples of deliverables and a proposed method based mostly on the group’s branding.
Whereas nonprofits ought to be cautious of over-relying on RFP templates, reviewing examples can provide you an concept of what works and what doesn’t. In case your nonprofit doesn’t have previous RFPs of its personal to assessment, think about asking board members or companions for examples from their earlier work.
As your nonprofit grows, so will its want for outsourced experience. Over time, you’ll have many alternatives to craft an impressive RFP and optimize your method to yield the perfect outcomes. As responses roll in, analyze your method to establish components that will have influenced the proposals and modify your RFP subsequent time as wanted.