RFPs: Asking for what you want

Guest Blogger, Caryn Capriccioso: Leaving budget out of a "Request for Proposal" diminishes value

From time to time, nonprofits rely on outside support to conduct work that they are unable to manage internally. As a consultant, I see more than my fair share of requests for proposals (RFPs) from nonprofits and have lots of ideas for how they could be improved or enhanced to help you get what it is you really want from a consultant.

One RFP item really stands out and, universally, I know that consultants are frustrated when it comes to this item, or lack thereof: The RFP Budget.

Why no budget? I’ve heard too many reasons to count, but among the top “reasons” (read: excuses), I hear: “We don’t have a budget for this project.” “We’re not sure what the market demands, so we’re going to collect RFPs and see what the range is.” Or “We’d prefer to wait and see rather than disclose what we have to spend.”

Here is what I know for sure about what will happen if you float an RFP without a budget. You WILL receive:

• Wildly disparate proposals that do not allow you to compare across options. Seriously think about how much better off you’ll be trying to compare a $2,000 proposal to a $20,000 proposal.
• Templated one-off proposals, i.e. not customized to you or your project.
• Extreme overbids from firms with very high overhead—“We don’t know what they want, so let’s just bid high and if we get it, it will be worth it.”

After many, many years of doing this work, I also know what it is you will NOT receive in response to a budget-less RFP:

• Meaningful, customized proposals from well-qualified consultants with expertise in the work you need done as well as an understanding of the issue area your nonprofit addresses. These consultants are too busy with client work and responding to fully-developed RFPs to spend their valuable time guessing about your budget and/or ability to pay.

Please, for the sake of all involved parties, share your budget. Take the responsibility for this important piece of the RFP process and your nonprofit will get what it needs/wants in return.

If you don’t know your budget, figure it out—ask other nonprofits, ask consultants, post on your local listserv, but decide. If you don’t have the money budgeted, this isn’t the right time to issue an RFP. Maybe you can find someone internally to do the work. But, be warned. They will expect to know how much they can expect to be paid and have a reasonable expectation that you have the money to pay them.

- Caryn Capriccioso, Co-Founder, InterSector Partners L3C