RFPs and bidding
Community work gets competitive bids through two connected surfaces:
| Surface | Address | Who |
|---|---|---|
| CivicPort admin console | civicport.io | Community admins writing and awarding RFPs |
| RFP Portal | tcrfp.com | Contractors finding work and submitting proposals |
Community admins can work from either. Signing in to CivicPort and opening the portal carries your session across, so there is no second password.
The shape of a bid
- A community writes an RFP with a scope, a deadline, required submissions and scoring criteria.
- Contractors find it: on the portal, or on the community's public website, or by invitation.
- Contractors ask questions. Answers are usually published to every bidder.
- Contractors submit proposals with line items or a lump sum, plus the required documents.
- Evaluators score each proposal against the criteria.
- The community awards one, and the RFP closes.
- The resulting expense is linked to the awarded proposal in financial reports.
Public and indexed on purpose
RFP detail pages and contractor showcase profiles on the portal are public and search-indexed deliberately. A solicitation nobody can find gets fewer bids, and a contractor profile that ranks is worth more to the contractor than a login-only page.
That means an RFP's scope, budget range and deadline are readable by anyone. Write them knowing that.
Read next
- For communities: running a bid well.
- For contractors: finding work and bidding.