Who’s Interested In An RFP Resource Site?

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I need your help today. Specifically, I’m looking for some feedback on an idea a colleague and I have about creating an online Request For Proposal (RFP) portal that nonprofit arts and culture orgs could use, free of charge, to post RFPs and solicit bids.

Adaptistration People 082Here’s an overview:

  • The site would accept listings for all the things organizations solicit bids for: IT, web, CRM/Ticketing, grant writing, marketing, data analysis, etc.
  • Submitting listings would be free.
  • In order to maintain a necessary degree of confidentiality, listings would remain behind a paid subscription wall.
  • Providers would pay a small fee, via subscription model, to access full listings and submission info.

This quartet of features is what I think qualifies as a minimum viable service launch threshold, but I’m curious to know what you think.

For those who don’t deal with RFPs, it’s worth knowing that the motivating factors here coalesce around the pain that is compiling the specs, finding quality providers, then evaluating whatever comes in. The more we can centralize this process, the softer these pain points become.

If you’re an arts and culture sector admin or provider, thank you in advance for completing this brief survey. And please feel free to leave a comment or send along your thoughts via direct message.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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