By Kristen Griffin
Over the course of the semester, our class has been piecing together the components necessary to create a request for proposal, or RFP. The first component we created was our mission statement. Our mission is to foster life-changing nonprofit work by providing financial support to local student-selected organizations focused on creating equal opportunities. In the last few weeks, we have worked as a class to openly discuss how our mission should be worded. Each student openly expressed words that would accurately depict our feelings toward our cause: the opportunity divide.
Creating our RFP was a seamless process. Although we missed class due to a snow day, Professor Silver brought up the idea of having whoever could attend come to class an hour early to help finish the RFP. I was somewhat shocked when I walked into the class an hour early and found a large majority of our class had come. I have known since our early conversations that this is a unique class comprised of thoughtful individuals that share the same goal.
Our RFP includes aspects we found crucial when reading the sample proposals from previous nonprofit organizations that applied in years prior. Based on these, we prioritized the organization’s mission, how they will utilize funding, leadership experience, the vetting process, goals, partnerships, evidence of success, and organizational setbacks. We asked organizations to provide thoughtful and original responses to each of our questions in no more than 6 pages.
Over spring break, we will begin to receive grant proposals from the 25 organizations we selected to apply. It will be exciting to read through these proposals as a class and continue to collaborate as we begin to decide which organizations are most deserving of the funds, and which organizations we will go forth and visit as a class.
