How to Write a Nonprofit Website RFP That Actually Gets Great Proposals
Every year, ArcStone reviews hundreds of requests for proposals from nonprofits seeking website development partners. Some of those RFPs result in strong, competitive proposal pools. Others come back with four wildly different proposals that are impossible to compare, agencies declining to respond, or bids so far outside budget that the whole procurement has to restart.
After 28 years on the vendor side of this process, we know exactly what separates a well-constructed nonprofit website RFP from one that works against the organization before a single proposal is submitted.
This guide covers what to do before you write the RFP, what to include in it, and how to evaluate what comes back. It is written from the perspective of a web development agency that has responded to hundreds of nonprofit procurements and seen what works and what does not.
Before You Write a Word: The Internal Work That Makes Everything Easier
The most common reason nonprofit website RFPs generate disappointing proposals is not a writing problem. It is an alignment problem. The RFP goes out before the organization’s leadership team has agreed on what the new website actually needs to accomplish.
This shows up in proposals as wildly divergent approaches. One agency scopes a 30-page informational site. Another prices a custom membership portal. A third proposes a full brand refresh on top of the web project. None of them are wrong. Your RFP simply did not give them enough direction to scope the same thing.
Spend time answering these questions as an organization before the RFP is written. Getting consensus here is the investment that pays the most dividends.
Who is the primary audience for this website? Not “everyone.” If your mission serves multiple audiences, which one are you most failing right now? Program participants who cannot find services? Donors who leave the site without giving? Funders who cannot find your impact data? Name the primary audience and design the project around serving them better.
What specific outcomes do you want the new website to produce? “Better user experience” is not an outcome. “A 20 percent increase in online donations within 12 months” is an outcome. “Staff spending half as many hours on manual content updates” is an outcome. Concrete success metrics help vendors scope appropriately and give you a basis for evaluating proposals.
What is your internal capacity to support this project? Website projects are demanding on the client side. Discovery requires staff time. Content development can require significant writing and editing work. Review cycles take time away from other responsibilities. If your team is at capacity, that is critical information for potential vendors and may argue for a phased approach or a vendor with strong project management support.
What is your actual budget? More on this shortly, but the answer needs to exist before the RFP goes out.
Once these questions have real answers, the RFP almost writes itself.
What Every Nonprofit Website RFP Should Include
The goal of your RFP is to give qualified vendors enough information to write an accurate, specific proposal. Not a 40-page document. Not a vague wishlist. Enough information to scope, price, and propose a real approach.
Organization and Project Context
Describe your organization concisely: your mission, the populations you serve, your approximate annual budget, your team size, and your current digital situation. Vendors who specialize in nonprofit work will know what these signals mean. A community health center with a $3 million budget and a two-person communications team has fundamentally different constraints than a national advocacy organization with 50 staff and a $25 million budget.
Describe your current website: the platform it runs on, when it was last rebuilt, approximately how many pages it contains, your monthly traffic volume, and what integrations it currently runs (donation platforms, email marketing, CRM, event registration). This tells vendors what they are starting from.
Describe the problem you are trying to solve. Not as a laundry list of desired features, but as a narrative of what is not working and why it matters. Vendors who understand your actual problem can propose better solutions than vendors who are responding to a feature checklist.
Scope of Work
Be as specific as you can about what you need while leaving room for vendors to propose their approach. A useful scope description includes:
- Whether this is a full redesign or a significant update to an existing site
- The approximate number of pages or content sections involved
- Any specific functionality you know you need (a member portal, a searchable resource library, a donation integration, an event calendar with registration)
- Any platform requirements (some nonprofits are committed to WordPress; others are open to the vendor’s recommendation)
- Accessibility requirements (WCAG compliance, if mandated by funders or organizational policy)
- Content migration needs (are you bringing existing content forward or starting fresh?)
- Training and documentation expectations for staff
Budget Range
Share your budget. We will explain why this is the right move.
When nonprofits withhold budget, every vendor makes a different assumption about scope. One prices a $30,000 informational site. Another prices a $75,000 platform with custom integrations. A third comes in at $120,000 for a comprehensive digital strategy engagement. None of those proposals are comparable, and none of them can be evaluated fairly against each other.
More importantly: if your budget is $45,000 and the project you have described cannot be responsibly built for less than $85,000, you need to know that immediately. Not after two months of procurement.
Sharing a range does not eliminate negotiation. “Our budget is in the range of $50,000 to $70,000 and we are open to phased approaches if that creates better long-term outcomes” is a clear signal that invites honest scoping without locking you into a ceiling. A reputable vendor will tell you what is achievable at that number. A vendor who simply prices to your ceiling is showing you something about how they operate.
For reference: a mid-complexity nonprofit website redesign with proper accessibility compliance, content migration, and staff training typically ranges from $40,000 to $75,000. Simple informational sites can come in lower. Sites with member portals, complex integrations, multilingual support, or large content libraries cost more.
Evaluation Criteria and Their Weight
Tell vendors how you will evaluate their proposals and how much each criterion counts. If cost is the primary factor, say so. If accessibility expertise is non-negotiable because a funder requires it, say so. If cultural competency and lived experience with your population matters, say so.
Vague evaluation criteria produce proposals written for a process that does not exist. Clear, weighted criteria produce proposals written for the actual decision you are making.
Timeline and Process
Tell vendors when proposals are due, when decisions will be made, when you expect to start, and when the project needs to be complete. If there is a hard external deadline (a grant period, an anniversary, a major event), name it. If the timeline is flexible, say that too. Vendors who have a realistic picture of your process can plan their capacity accordingly and will engage more seriously.
Tell vendors who will be involved in the decision: your communications director, your ED, your board technology committee, or some combination. This signals the level of consensus your selection will require and helps vendors understand the decision landscape.
What You Are Asking Vendors to Submit
Keep your requirements proportional to scope. For a $50,000 project, a 40-page proposal is excessive. Ask for:
- A brief organizational overview and statement of relevant experience
- Two or three case studies from comparable organizations
- A preliminary approach to your specific scope
- Team members who would work on your project with relevant credentials
- A preliminary investment range
- Three professional references
Detailed project plans, wire frames, and final pricing belong in finalist conversations, not first-round submissions.
Running the Q&A Period Well
Most nonprofit RFPs include a Q&A period. Most organizations treat it as an administrative formality. That is a missed opportunity.
The questions vendors ask during Q&A reveal exactly how they are thinking about your project. An agency that asks about your current content management workflow, your board’s involvement in decision-making, and your post-launch staff capacity is planning carefully. An agency that asks only about deadline extensions and disqualification criteria is not.
Publish all questions and answers to all respondents simultaneously. Answer honestly even when the answer is “we have not decided yet.” Organizations that give thoughtful, candid Q&A responses attract more serious proposals.
Evaluating What Comes Back
Once proposals arrive, the evaluation traps to avoid are predictable.
Evaluating on price alone. A proposal priced 40 percent below the field either reflects a misunderstood scope or a business model built on change orders. When you see a bid that seems too good, ask detailed questions about what is and is not included before you get excited.
Being swayed by impressive visual presentations. A beautiful proposal PDF is a marketing artifact. It tells you something about the agency’s design skills, but nothing about how they manage projects, communicate problems, or perform after contract signing. The substance matters more than the packaging.
Ignoring the team section. Some agencies sell on the strength of their founders or principals and deliver through junior staff or overseas contractors. Ask directly who will be on your project. Request the specific names of your project manager, designer, and developer. Get it in writing.
Skipping reference calls. References are where you learn what clients actually experienced. When you call, ask specific questions: How did the agency handle problems when they came up? Did the team they presented during the proposal process actually do the work? Was the project delivered on time and on budget? Would you hire them again?
Not weighing accessibility expertise appropriately. WCAG 2.2 AA compliance is not a bonus feature. It is the standard for accessible public-facing websites, and for many nonprofit funders, it is an explicit requirement. Ask every finalist exactly how they address accessibility: at what stage, with what tools, how compliance is verified at launch, and how it is monitored after.
When You Should Not Run a Formal RFP
Not every nonprofit website project requires a full formal RFP. Consider whether a simpler process serves you better.
If you have a trusted vendor relationship, a defined scope, and a fair budget, a direct negotiation or a simplified competitive process may produce a better outcome than a formal procurement with all of its overhead. The time your communications director spends running an RFP is time not spent on mission work.
If you are not sure what you need, issuing an RFP before you have clarity often generates confusing, incomparable proposals. Consider engaging a vendor for a paid discovery or strategy engagement first. This clarifies scope, surfaces requirements you had not anticipated, and gives you a much better foundation for whatever procurement follows.
If you are satisfied with a current vendor’s performance and their pricing is fair, the institutional knowledge and relationship continuity they bring has real value. Rebuilding that from scratch has a cost that rarely appears on a budget line.
Frequently Asked Questions: Nonprofit Website RFPs
ArcStone has responded to and won nonprofit website RFPs for 28 years. If you are preparing to issue an RFP and want a candid conversation about scope, budget, or what to include before the document goes out, we are happy to help.
