Who This Page Is For
You lead proposals, fundraising or business development at a nonprofit. A call for proposals or a tender has landed on your desk, and you have to decide what to do: bid alone, bid with partners, or decline. This page gives you a short, repeatable way to make that call and write it down.
The Short Answer
Bid when fit, capacity, competitiveness, cash flow and compliance all hold up and no red flag is left unresolved.
A borderline score means not yet. Clarify the solicitation or bring in a partner to fill the gap, and if that cannot happen in time, decline. Score together, in one sitting, with the people who would run the grant. Then write the decision and the reason down so nobody reopens it next week.
The whole decision can be made in about 45 minutes. Block the time, score every criterion, make a short committee call of go, borderline or no-bid, and record the decision and the rationale before you leave the room.
How They Differ
| Bid alone | Bid in a consortium or as a partner | No-bid or not yet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it means | You are the applicant and hold the contract. | Every member is a bidder and enters the contract with the buyer. | You decline or defer. |
| When it fits | Strong fit and the capacity to deliver. | A partner fills a capacity or geography gap. | A veto red flag, a hard-stop compliance gap, or no time. |
| Main risk | Bid cost and cash flow. | A partner with missing financial information, or unclear terms. | A lost opportunity, softened by telling the issuer. |
| What must be true first | An owner is named and a cash reserve exists. | A written partner agreement is in place. | The reason is recorded. |
The difference that matters most is whether your gaps can be closed before the deadline. Bidding alone fits when you already have the capacity to deliver. A consortium can rescue a borderline score, but only with a written agreement on money flow, reporting and exit before you submit. A consortium is also different from subcontracting. In subcontracting one supplier bids and delivers part of the work through a contracted third party. In a consortium, every member is a bidder.
How to Decide
Run these tests in order. If one hits a veto, stop.
- Veto and red flags. Look for punitive contract clauses, unlimited liability, unfunded cost-share requirements and unvetted mandatory partners. A gap in a mandatory qualification is usually an automatic no-bid. Compliance readiness is a hard stop, not a judgment call: a lapsed registration or an audit not done cannot be fixed by good writing.
- Fit and mission. Describe the program you would build without naming the funder. If it already sounds like your strategic plan, fit is strong. Also ask whether you have already talked with the funder and were encouraged to apply.
- Capacity and time. Name the person who will manage the deliverables, not the one who will write the proposal. A grant with no owner becomes everyone's second job. Check that enough time and the right people are available to produce a careful application and budget before the deadline.
- Competitiveness. Weigh how many others are likely to compete and how strong they are. Is there an incumbent, and does it hold a performance advantage on a re-compete?
- Money. Count the true cost of bidding, including translation, travel, subcontracting, legal review and team fatigue. Check cash flow if the funder pays in arrears, and ask whether the reporting is achievable. Run the indirect cost test: multiply direct costs by your true indirect rate, then subtract what the grant allows. The remainder is unrestricted money the grant will eat.
- Score and read the result. Score together with the development lead, program lead and finance owner. If two people disagree by two points, the disagreement is the finding. There are two ways to score, and you only need one. The first is a seven-question scorecard scored 0 to 2, explained below the list. The second is a weighted matrix scored as a percent. One weighted matrix counts strategic alignment 25%, technical capacity 20%, financial viability 20%, compliance and reputation 15%, competitive intelligence 10% and proposal capacity and timing 10%. Above 70% is a go, 50 to 70% is borderline, below 50% is a no-bid. Red flags and operational risks act as vetoes whatever the total.
- Handle a borderline score. Pick a lever: clarify the solicitation, build a consortium, or document mitigations. Do it well before the deadline, then record the decision and rationale.
For the 0 to 2 scorecard, use plain anchors so everyone means the same thing by a number. A 2 means yes today, with evidence you could show a funder in five minutes. A 1 means mostly, or fixable before the deadline. A 0 means no, or nobody knows. One published scorecard has seven questions scored 0 to 2 together by the people who would run the grant: 11 or more is a go, 7 to 10 is a conditional go, and 6 or under is not yet.
A simpler screen asks five questions: big-picture fit, capability and deadline, profitability, history (reusable content) and competition. Treat any answer that starts with "yes, but" or "yes, if" as a warning sign that the opportunity may not fit. A published grant checklist works the same way. If every factor is a GO, go ahead with confidence. One or two NO-GO answers mean going ahead carefully. With three or more NO-GO answers, look at the next opportunity instead.
A not-yet score is a plan, not a verdict. Each 0 is something specific to build, and most take one quarter rather than one year: a compliance folder, a reserve target, a measured true indirect rate.
Worked Example
A local nonprofit looks at a new tender and uses the weighted matrix, not the 0 to 2 scorecard. Each criterion is scored out of 5. It scores 4 on strategic alignment, but only 2 on technical capacity, 1 on compliance readiness and 2 on financial viability. The other two criteria, competitive intelligence and proposal capacity and timing (10% each), are scored too. The total comes to 42%, well under the line, and the team makes a no-bid. The team used the time to win a better-aligned tender.
Common Mistakes
Bidding out of habit or fear of missing out. The key to good bid decisions is discarding the opportunities you are likely to lose, not picking the ones you might win.
Counting only writing time as the cost. A losing bid can consume 150 to 300 hours of skilled staff time. One estimate puts it at $8,000 to $16,000 at $55 per fully loaded hour, and that is before opportunity cost.
Ignoring cash flow and unrecovered indirect costs. Many private foundation grants pay up front. Government grants and contracts often pay in arrears, after you have invoiced for work already done. A reserve or credit line covering at least 90 days of monthly cost scores best. If a 60-day delay would mean missed payroll, that scores zero.
Leaving borderline fixes until the last days. Discovering options five days before the deadline is too late.
Joining a consortium without written terms. Without agreed priorities, consortia tend to bid haphazardly on things that overstretch them. Missing financial standing information on a member is a risk too, because the buyer cannot know whether it can hold that member to its liabilities. Agree a bidding strategy, including what is not worth going for.
Not recording or communicating a no-bid. An unrecorded decision gets reopened. And if you decline, tell the issuer. A decline letter lets them know what to expect and may draw out insight before the opportunity closes.
Before You Decide
- Red flags reviewed: no unresolved punitive clauses, unlimited liability, unfunded cost-share, unvetted mandatory partners or qualification gaps.
- Owner named: one person will manage the deliverables, not only write the proposal.
- Time and people confirmed for a careful application and budget.
- Cash flow checked: a reserve for payment in arrears.
- Indirect cost gap checked: the unrestricted money the grant will consume.
- Partner terms in writing: deliverables, money flow, reporting, data ownership and exit.
- Decision and reason recorded, and the issuer told if you are declining.