Nonprofit RFPs: Full Beginner’s Guide & FREE Template

Imagine your nonprofit is facing fundraising challenges—tried and true strategies don’t seem to deliver the same results they once did, and you’re struggling to connect with and retain supporters.

You decide that it’s time to turn to an outside fundraising expert for assistance. But you’re unsure of the best way to start looking for a consultant and narrowing your options to the right partner.

This is where a nonprofit request for proposal (RFP) comes in handy. In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to create and use an RFP effectively:

• Understanding the Basics of Nonprofit RFPs
• The RFP Writing Process: 4 Key Steps
• Our FREE RFP Template
• Using Your RFP Effectively

Whether you’re seeking fundraising counsel or another type of service, using an RFP ensures that your organization has a structured process for selecting a partner that suits your goals and budget. An RFP also allows you to evaluate vendors’ approaches to your needs before making your final decision. Let’s dive in!

Understanding the Basics of Nonprofit RFPs

Before diving into the RFP writing process, let’s cover some fundamentals so you understand the purpose and benefits of using an RFP.

What is a nonprofit RFP?

A request for proposal (RFP) is a document a nonprofit uses to solicit proposals from service providers for a specific project or service. Typically, an RFP includes:

• An overview of the nonprofit
• Information about the project’s goals, timeframe, and budget
• Guidelines for submitting a proposal and criteria for proposal evaluations

After your organization sends RFPs to different vendors or service providers, you’ll receive proposals that allow you to evaluate potential partners’ approaches, experience, and skills. You can use this information to decide who would be the best fit to work with your team.

When do you need an RFP?

Once you’ve decided to work with a service provider, you’ll begin the hiring process by working with your organization’s leaders and board members. During this process, you’ll determine the project’s goals and guidelines.

Use this information to create an RFP. After researching and meeting with your top candidates, you can send your RFP to the providers you’re still interested in working with.

They’ll send you completed proposals, and you can make your final decision based on the information provided.

What are the benefits of creating an RFP?

Some nonprofit professionals feel that creating and sending out RFPs is an outdated or ineffective practice. However, there are several benefits to using RFPs. These include:

• Improved transparency and fairness: RFPs facilitate a more transparent and objective vendor hiring process, helping nonprofits avoid bias or favoritism. A standardized RFP provides all chosen service providers the same information and opportunity to submit a proposal.
• Better vendor comparison: With an RFP, comparing vendors doesn’t have to feel like comparing apples to oranges. Part of the RFP process is setting criteria to evaluate potential partners’ proposals, allowing nonprofits to compare vendors side by side easily.
• Competitive pricing: RFPs help create a competitive environment between vendors being considered. The resulting competitive pricing creates a better value for the nonprofit that needs external services.
• Better long-term outcomes: An RFP sets the tone for an engagement with a service provider or vendor, aligning expectations for roles, timelines, and responsibilities early on. This means the RFP process increases the likelihood of the nonprofit completing its project and reaching its goal.

What is the difference between an RFP, RFI, and RFQ?

There are two common alternatives to an RFP:

• Request for information (RFI): An RFI is typically a preliminary document created to gather general information about vendors’ services and expertise. It is used early on in the hiring process before an RFP or RFQ would be used.
• Request for quote (RFQ): An RFQ is a document that requests specific pricing and terms information from a vendor. Organizations usually use an RFQ when purchasing is more straightforward than with custom services.

There may be contexts where your organization would benefit from using an RFI or RFQ, but for fundraising counsel, an RFP is the way to go.

The RFP Writing Process: 4 Key Steps

Once you know your nonprofit would benefit from working with a vendor or service provider, it’s time to start the RFP writing process. Follow these key steps:

1. Involve key stakeholders.

Before writing your RFP, align with your organization’s stakeholders and ensure they will be involved in the hiring process. You’ll likely want to engage:

• Executive leadership
• Board members
• Individuals involved in the relevant programs or projects
• Your financial team

Connecting with these key players has the added benefit of getting everyone on board with your plan to hire a vendor or service provider, reducing pushback as you get deeper into the hiring process.

2. Establish your needs and the scope of your project.

Working with your stakeholders, determine exactly what you want to accomplish by working with an outside vendor or service provider.

For example, you might be outgrowing your organization’s facility and need to run a capital campaign to renovate the facility or build a new one. Or, you may want to work with a consultant to strengthen your annual fundraising strategy. In both of these cases, the next step would be determining the timeline for your campaign, a preliminary fundraising goal, and the role you would like a professional fundraising consultant to play.

From there, outline what you want the engagement with the service provider to look like—and now you’re ready to create your RFP document!

3. Include essential elements.

Your RFP must include a few things for it to be effective in communicating your nonprofit’s needs and laying the foundation for a thorough proposal from potential partners.

Specifically, you should include:

• Basic background information about your nonprofit. Provide information about your organization’s mission, history, and current situation. This is especially important for nonprofits, as you’ll want to hire someone who genuinely cares about seeing you succeed in furthering your cause.
• A description of the project. Write out what services you need or the project you need assistance with. Explain why the project matters to your organization and how it will help you get closer to accomplishing your mission.
• Goals. Let your potential partner know what you hope to achieve by working with them. Use the SMART model to ensure your goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. For example, you might say, “We want to improve our major giving program by growing our prospect list by 25% over the next three months.”
• Budget for working with the vendor or service provider. You don’t want to get far in the hiring process only to realize that the vendor or service provider will cost you more than you can afford. Be upfront about the budget you have to work with and request that the vendor provide information about their costs or fees in their proposal so that everyone is on the same page.
• Expectations and deadlines. Outline what you expect your vendor to provide, whether that’s fundraising counsel, prospect research support, strategic planning assistance, outsourced HR services, etc. If applicable, list the deliverables you expect and general deadlines for when certain milestones should be completed or deliverables should be turned in to your team.
• Questions. Even though you will have met with the candidates you send your RFP to, you’ll inevitably have more questions for them about their specific services, approach, or philosophy. Include these in your RFP to give them the chance to address them in their proposals.
• Any other additional information you feel would be useful. Depending on the project you want to complete or the services you’re seeking, add any additional information you feel would be useful for your vendor or services provider to know.
• Contact information. Include the phone number and email address of the person at your organization who is leading the hunt for external help.
• Proposal submission guidelines, evaluation criteria, and deadline. Provide clear information about what completed proposals should look like, how they should be turned in to your team, and how your team plans to evaluate proposals. Also, provide a clear deadline. Typically this will be a few weeks from the day you send your RFP.

Check out our free RFP template below to see how you might structure your own RFP around these core elements!

4. Refine your RFP draft.

Once you’ve written your initial RFP, take the time to edit and refine it. Ask your stakeholders for feedback to ensure that it accurately reflects your needs and expectations. Once it’s polished, hold onto it until you’re ready to send it to your top vendor choices.

Our FREE RFP Template

Use our template to begin your RFP writing process today!

Using Your RFP Effectively

Let’s go through the process of hiring a vendor or services provider so that you can see how to put your RFP to good use.

Use your network to find potential partners.

When you start looking for a vendor, you may have certain firms or individuals in mind to reach out.

However, if you’re starting from scratch, this step will require a lot of research. Begin by asking your nonprofit colleagues for recommendations. You can also browse online lists or directories to explore other options.

Meet with top candidates.

Narrow your list of potential partners down to those you’re most excited about working with and who you’d like to learn more about.

Reach out to set up a phone call or meeting with them to establish an initial connection. During this conversation, you can learn basic information about the service provider’s background and expertise. You can also judge whether they would fit your organization’s current working culture well.

Additionally, give your candidates time to ask questions about your organization and project.

Request proposals.

After initial meetings, whittle your shortlist down even more. Then, send out your RFP to your remaining candidates, giving them a clear deadline for sending completed proposals back to your organization.

Evaluate responses and check references.

When a consultant returns a completed proposal to you, get together with the organizational stakeholders involved in the hiring process and evaluate the proposal together.

Remember that if there is anything in the proposal that you would like to see adjusted, you can contact the potential partner and request that they make changes. This is a great way to see if a candidate is flexible and receptive to feedback.

This is also the stage where you check a candidate’s references to ensure they have a promising track record of helping their clients accomplish their goals.

Select a partner.

Once you feel that you have found a vendor or services provider who is the best fit for your organization and your needs, contact them to formalize the relationship.

Both parties will need to sign a contract that solidifies the engagement’s timeframe, the amount the vendor will be paid, and the expectations of both your organization and the vendor.

Once the engagement is official, you can begin working toward your goals together!

Nonprofit RFPs are important documents that help you connect with outside vendors and lay the foundation for a successful relationship. Use the information and template in this guide to create your own RFP the next time your nonprofit requires assistance from an outside expert!

Want to keep reading about the world of nonprofit operations and fundraising? Check out these additional resources from Averill Fundraising Solutions:

• 7 Steps to Encourage Church Donors During Your Annual Appeal
• Launching a Fundraising Feasibility Study: 7 Essential Steps
• Hiring a Fundraising Consultant: A Quick Guide to Success