Nonprofit consultant-selection guide
Guide 4: Evaluate proposals consistently
Use the same criteria, evidence rules, and conflict process for every candidate.
Set criteria before reading
Choose criteria tied to the approved need: understanding of the operating problem, relevant delivery evidence, approach, staffing, risk management, adoption, handoff, cost clarity, and organizational fit. Define what strong, adequate, weak, and missing evidence mean for each criterion.
Weight only what should change the decision. If every category is critical, the scorecard will not help the team make tradeoffs.
Score evidence before discussion
Have evaluators disclose conflicts, review the same materials, cite proposal evidence, and score independently before group discussion. Record assumptions and questions separately from scores. A lower score caused by missing information can become a focused clarification question.
Use discussion to understand major differences, not pressure everyone into identical impressions. Preserve the decision record required by the nonprofit's policy.
Treat price as a complete operating question
Compare the same cost boundary: professional services, licenses, migration, integrations, travel, training, internal staff time, ongoing support, required third parties, and likely change. A low implementation fee can still produce an expensive operating model.
Do not invent precision. Where quantities or dependencies are unknown, record the assumption and the mechanism for learning or controlling the cost.