When I first started doing client work, I responded to a lot of Requests for Proposals (RFPs), spending hours a day on the process (or on the weekends when I was working a 9-to-5.)

At some point, I asked myself, “Is this really what I’ll have to do to get clients?”

More importantly, “Is this a good use of my time?”

I’ve already written about how I feel about the RFP process. In fact, I’ve slowed down on responding to RFPs altogether as a time management tactic and to prioritize current work.

Fortunately, I’m at a point where responding to RFPs is optional. Plus, I see more colleagues choosing not to participate in this process.. One reason being that the majority of my colleagues (and myself) get more work via referrals and networking than RFPs.

I’ll admit I initially didn’t like the RFP process because I grew weary of spending hours putting together what I thought was a good proposal only to not even get a “thanks, but no thanks” back.

However, whether my proposal was selected or not, I still walked away believing that there’s a better way to go about finding people to lead projects.

While I don’t respond to as many RFPs, I still do look at them, and I’ve notice something interesting.

Organizations are becoming increasingly better at recognizing what I’ll refer to as data collection fatigue, being mindful of inundating program participants, grantee partners, and other stakeholders with requests for completing surveys, being in focus groups, etc., while also ensuring that data collection activities aren’t time consuming.

Organizations recognize this now because their stakeholders are complaining about it.

Does this mean that consultants aren’t complaining? We are, yet organizations aren’t shifting towards creating RFP processes that are transparent, less time consuming, and collaborative.

The RFP process may be a standard way to seek out consultants to work with, but it’s not an equitable process. Before your organization sends out the RFP for its next project, evaluate your RFP based on consultant complaints:

Why are we creating an RFP when we know who we want to work with?

I was recently sent an RFP from an organization I’m familiar with. Due to timing, I didn’t submit a proposal. The next day, the person who sent the RFP reached out to me, expressing disappointment that I didn’t submit a proposal and that I came highly recommended by staff. I asked, “Why not just request a conversation to see if I would have been a good fit for the project?”

Everyone’s time was wasted. Time was wasted putting together the RFP, time was wasted in the hopes that a specific person would respond, and time was wasted by others creating and submitting proposals.

Organizations release RFPs in the hopes that it travels far and attracts an array of individuals, yet most know who they want to work with. Whether through observation or referrals, if there’s someone you think is a good fit for a future project, request time to speak with them. Get to know them, the projects they like working on, and discover if you’re mission aligned. The best time to look for a consultant is before you need them.

Why are we not disclosing the budget for this project?

It doesn’t matter if you’re avoiding competition from other organizations or if you believe no one will respond if they consider it “low”. An equitable RFP process discloses the budget. Most job applicants will contact the employer to ask for the annual salary range if it’s missing from the job announcement, so include the project’s budget.

Independent consultants and consulting companies have annual revenue goals, and knowing the budget helps determine if this project moves them towards their goals. As equally important, knowing the project’s budget aids in developing a proposal and activities that organizations can afford.

Are we sending our RFP to companies AND independent consultants, and are we accessing their capacity equally?

There’s this perception that consulting companies with staff means more resources and more time to devote to a project. This may be true in some cases, but many of my colleagues working in consulting companies assign maybe 1-2 staff to a project, regardless of project scope. Don’t state in your RFP that you want proposals from individuals and companies when you prefer to work with a larger team.

Also, independent consultants partner together all the time, and most independent consultants are mindful of their capacity.

Think outside the box and encourage proposals from companies and independent consultants. Don’t assume that small companies and independents don’t have the resources and capacity. Evaluate proposals based on how they can lead the project, not how many people you think will be needed. You may think your project requires heavy lifting, but chances are, it probably doesn’t.

Why are we asking for a work scope when we know it’ll change?

I sit on a board of directors, and last summer, I worked with the executive director and staff to develop a RFP process for selecting an evaluator for two programs.

After getting clear on the type of evaluator they wanted to work with (mission aligned, ideally person(s) of color, ideally someone with a strong background in Black mental health or at least in evaluating mental health projects, and ideally teaches staff about the evaluation process as they lead it), we created the RFP. The RFP asked for the following documents:

  • A cover letter
  • A CV or resume of everyone listed in the cover letter
  • A product from an evaluation the person or team has led (evaluation report, executive summary, infographic, academic journal article, video, etc.)

We received around 45 submissions. While some submissions actually created a proposed work scope, we didn’t look at it as we knew the work scope would change once the projects started.

Outside of not discussing the budget, I believe most RFPs go unanswered because of the request to develop a proposed work scope and multiple documents. We get why organizations ask for a work scope in the proposal. However while most consultants develop work scopes based on current or previous work, this doesn’t capture the uniqueness of your organization and project. As I mentioned in a RFP interview I participated in earlier this year, creating a proposed work scope is akin to peering into a crystal ball to decipher what you think the organization wants to hear. Yes, you can contact the organization for clarity, but nothing beats working together to develop the work scope.

Reduce the barrier of entry for everyone that decides to submit a proposal.

By the way: The executive director ended up choosing two evaluators, given each a project to evaluate off the strength of him liking the personalties of the evaluators and them being mission aligned. Plus, it’s been a joy to watch the executive director be excited about the data coming from these evaluations.

Why are there multiple steps to this RFP?

Creating a proposal, getting documents together, submitting them, going through 1-2 interviews, sometimes being asked to update the work scope and budget plan based on new information given in the interviews (I was asked to do this once), and doing a final interview. This is a lot, and many consultants are pushing back against it.

Do you even have time for your own RFP process?

Also, while seeing sample documents of what a consultant has done make sense, are you honestly reading these reports? Are you really contacting their references to ask about their experience of working with the consultant?

For example, the contents of most research to evaluation reports are similar, yet they don’t get to the heart of the matter. You’re most likely asking for reports to not only confirm the consultant’s work, but to “see” your project through the eyes of a report developed for another organization. That organization’s outcomes and circumstances are unique to them.

The RFP may have outlined all of these steps and consultants were aware before they submitted their proposal, yes. However, organizations should challenge themselves to determine how these steps can be condensed. What would be the best use of the consultant’s (and your) time?

Are we “strongly encouraging” BIPOC candidates to submit proposals because we value their work, or are we checking off diversity boxes?

In response to someone questioning the sincerity of soliciting for consultants driven by ethnicity, a member in a Facebook group I’m in commented, “I keep getting asked to submit RFP [responses] for consulting work, but these people don’t actually want to work with me. They want to check a box that says they recruited consultants of color so they can justify their ultimate choice of a white consultant…If someone wants to build an authentic relationship with me, really values my insights, cool…But my time and energy is too valuable to waste on box checkers.”

While I prioritize working with organizations led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color, I do work with mission-aligned white-led organizations. Like many Black companies in the past year, I was inundated with requests from white-led organizations.

BIPOC-led organizations seeking out BIPOC consultants doesn’t elicit the same waving of red flags as white-led organizations seeking out BIPOC consultants, even when it’s BIPOC staff tasked to seeking consultants.

Focusing on hiring more diverse consultants feels more like a business decision and not a genuine interest in the expertise of BIPOC candidates.

Do we ask hired and non-hired consultants for their ideas on making our RFP process more equitable?

If organizations can recognize data collection fatigue from stakeholders based on their feedback, asking hired and non-hired consultants for their feedback on a RFP process is crucial to understanding what organizations can do to make the process more equitable.

Take their feedback into consideration, and apply it.

Key takeaway

While I’d love for the RFP process to disappear, organizations can develop a more equitable process of securing quality talent to lead their projects through their RFP process. The questions above can serve as a starting point in evaluating your RFP process.

Raise Your Voice: How can your organization’s Request for Proposals process be more equitable? Share below in the comments section.