Frequently Asked Questions
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We have tons of RFPs from all over! Some of our RFPs are government, usually state, local, and municipal governments, which make up about 40% of the RFPs on the platform. Another 10% come from higher education or educational institutions.
Another 40% comes from nonprofit and grantmaking organizations. The remaining 10% are private companies and quasi-public/private organizations.
We periodically review accounts that haven't been automatically reviewed by our systems.
We can verify your account shortly if you fill out this brief form.
We automatically match our user's emails to an online database of over 20 million email records to verify their business and contact information, founding date, services offered, and more. Whenever we cannot match their information to this database, we request some additional information they fill in by hand that our team personally verifies.
If you want to verify your account, please fill out this form so our team can verify your profile.
There are no limits as to the number of RFPs you can view and respond to with your free account.
Pro users can invite as many users as they'd like to join their organization. Each new user seat costs $39/mo. If you'd like to inquire about more than 10 seats, please reach out to us here.
The primary difference between premium and free RFPs is budget. For almost all premium RFPs, we've been able to vet and confirm the budget.
In some cases, some RFPs are also marked as premium and are likely to attract a high degree of interest, but they are moved to premium to reduce competition.
We link to wherever the issuer prefers to receive proposals. The options include a URL, email, or direct message on Prosal.
For instance, if you select 'Respond to Prosal' and it opens in Gmail, it's because the issuer has chosen to receive it via email. There's likely an email in the RFP or one that opened in your Gmail that the issuer would like to receive, providing a clear and straightforward submission process.
We encourage you to review the RFP closely to find details about how to respond to an RFP.
We built Prosal for you. We welcome any and all feedback, suggested improvements, or whatever you think will help the site work better for you.
Please submit a ticket in the top right corner of this knowledge base, or use the chat window in the bottom right, and we'll surely take a look to see if we can implement it. You can also use the link below:
We understand that running your business is tough, especially when just starting. We have Prosal Pro Freelancer Pricing available starting at $39/mo which gives you the same access to Prosal Pro as our regular Pro account. To apply for access, simply fill out this form.
Premium RFPs have fully vetted budgets (the budget on the page is the budget available for the project) while free RFPs for the most part are estimates (though we do confirm their budgets sometimes).
Free RFP budget estimates are based on similar-sized projects and publicly available budget documents like 990s. We also share all our estimates with organizations for them to push back and have found we’re right about 80% of the time. Even though we’re often right, we always encourage you to check with issuers and offer the best proposal that makes the most sense.
RFPs with confirmed budgets have a gold C next to their number, while estimated budgets are denoted with a green E.
Not all RFPs are public. Many RFPs are exclusive to Prosal. We have three sources where we get RFPs:
- Organic posts from the organizations themselves
- Concierge experiences where we run the RFP on behalf of an organization
- Public RFPs that we find and ask for permission to post their RFP if they're willing to consider hiring someone new or that they don't know.
Make sure you fill out your Areas of Expertise and confirm you’re subscribed for Prosal Marketing Updates under the Email Settings section in your Settings. If it is unchecked, it will affect your ability to hear about opportunities in real-time.
Pro users can invite as many users as they'd like to join their organization. Each new user seat costs $39/mo. If you'd like to inquire about more than 10 seats, please reach out to us here.
Once a Respondent submits a response to a Prosal, the Issuer can review your response immediately. They may reach out with additional questions or ask for supporting documents. If a Respondent needs to update their submission or add additional documents, they can do so by clicking on the Edit Icon next to their submission confirmation page.
You will be automatically notified if your response is accepted or declined by an issuer. If your response is accepted, then a message stream will be created between you and the Issuer.
Issuers are always encouraged to review responses in a timely manner and provide regular updates about their decision timeline after the Prosal due date. If the due date is passed, and you have not been notified, you may message us or the Issuer to ask for a status update.
The header for respondents is customized for your usage.
1. Prosal Home: Clicking on the Prosal logo will take you to the marketplace, where you can view and filter all RFPs, explore your folders, and submit proposals.
2. Dashboard: In the dashboard, you can see important updates to your account, return to your onboarding, visit Slack, and explore new resources
3. Marketplace: This is where the magic happens! From the marketplace, you can see all the RFPs in the marketplace, filter across several different filters such as budget and submission deadline, and organize them based on your preferences and submissions.
4. Blog: Read and download all of our resources, including proposal templates, case study worksheets, example RFPs, and how to succeed on Prosal
You can use the top right icons for notifications and profiles to trigger a dropdown to access the following
5. Organization: Manage your organization and its users on Prosal, including inviting users and updating credentials.
6. Profile: Fill out your profile's key details, including your areas of expertise, client parameters, and project preferences, so we can match you with the right RFPs.
7. Settings: Manage your account settings, email permissions, and existing plan.
8. Sign Out: Sign out of your existing account
Our Pro account starts at $69/mo for a semi-annual plan.
This gives you access to the premium RFPs we've been able to vet and confirm the budget, so there's no guesswork in finding the available funds for the project. It also gives you access to additional information on the issuing organization, enhanced filtering for better matching of opportunities, access to winning proposals and evaluation materials, a spotlight profile on our blog page (after one month of using Premium), and first access to any new tools we roll out
Of course! All issuers can create a free account and take full advantage of our resources and platform tools. Reach out to us via chat or email to ask about our RFP concierge service where we'll run an RFP for you.
In the interest of keeping all interacting parties in the loop, Prosal automatically notifies the respondent that they have not been selected for your project when you select Decline on the View Responses page. They will not be able to submit a second response to that Prosal after you have declined their response.
It looks the same as you see when in the View Prosal page, except instead of Edit Prosal, they have a Submit Response button.
A Prosal becomes inactive when it is past its submission deadline. This means that the Prosal does not display on the marketplace and it cannot receive new responses.
A Prosal can be made active again by changing the submission deadline.
To do so, visit the Inactive Prosals tab in the Dashboard and click on the Prosal you would like to set to Active. Then click Edit Prosal and edit the submission deadline to be past the current date. The Prosal will become inactive again once it's past the updated submission deadline.
The new deadline and edit will be recorded in the Public Questions section of your View Prosal page.
The easiest way to upload your RFP is to click the Post a Prosal button in your header. Once your RFP is uploaded to prosal.io, we call it a "Prosal."
Join the Slack! Check the welcome email you received when you signed up or check out our most recent monthly newsletter.
Comments are located at the very bottom of any Prosal's View Prosal page.
Any respondent that is logged in to their account can ask a question or post a comment on the page. The Prosal's issuer can then choose to reply to your questions in the same section of the page.
You will receive a notification if the issuer replies to a question you asked.
Related Prosals which are displayed at the bottom of a full Prosal page are choden based on a selection of keywords, hashtags and categories that are similar to the Prosal you are viewing.
Yes! This is one of the things we think makes Prosal great.
Just head to the View Prosal page and click edit Prosal.
One update will update all potential respondents who have a link to your Prosal
A Prosal Card is the small summary "card" element that is displayed on the home page. It acts as a summary of the Prosal it links to and is the main element on the Prosal website
A Prosal Card is the short summary "card" displayed on the homepage marketplace. It contains important information about Prosal, summarizes the Prosal it links to, and is the main element for interacting with the marketplace.
Simply put, a Prosal is an RFP that is hosted on prosal.io
When uploaded to our site, your RFP transforms into a Prosal!
Prosal is both the name of the marketplace and the RFP once it is uploaded onto the marketplace. Prosals are standardized, easy-to-read RFPs, with summary cards that contain key details about the project, including how to submit a response.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
Simply put, an issuer is an organization hiring for a project.
A Prosal is our take on the RFP - a standardized, predictable document optimized for readability and responses.
A respondent is any organization that submits a response to a Prosal. That can be an agency, consultant, or freelancer.
Simply put, a respondent is any organization looking for work.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
An issuer is an organization that publishes Prosals (RFPs) and solicits responses from respondent organizations.
