Project Name: General Support
RFP Issue Date: 12.5.2025
Response Due Date: 12.19.2025
Contract Start Date: 1.1.2026
Project Overview and Qualifications
The Democracy at Work Institute seeks a qualified partner to provide a wide range of general support services that are described below. Applicants must have demonstrated experience in areas of work outlined in the scope, strong relationships and credibility within the world of democratic workplaces and the ability to activate those workplaces to participate, and demonstrated ability to coordinate peer advisors from democratic workplaces.
About DAWI
The Democracy at Work Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit movement-based think-and-do tank that expands the promise of cooperative business ownership to communities most directly affected by economic, social, and racial inequality. We do research and advocacy; we develop tools and new models; we train worker-owners and developers; and we build cooperative development capacity to ensure that further growth in the worker cooperative movement reaches low-income people, people of color and recent immigrants. In all our work, as well as internal operations, we strive to embody our organizational values of Excellence, Equity, Entrepreneurialism, Collaboration, and Human-Centeredness.
Scope of Work
Anticipated project period: January 2026 - December 2026
Anticipated project budget: $20,000
The Democracy at Work Institute seeks a qualified partner to provide support on a wide range of initiatives. The project deliverables, milestones, and level of effort will be as outlined in this outline. Milestones and descriptions are preliminary, and we welcome extra detail in proposals.
Work Area: Research
Description:
- Supports research and gathers data and disseminates for SOTS and individual census
- Recruits and supports cooperatives to participate in data-gathering and surveys, including the national enterprise survey and individual worker survey
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverables:
- Attend planning meetings
- Individual Worker Census:
- Co-create a plan
- Outreach to partners and members
Work Area: Event production
Description:
- Co-produces cooperative field-facing events, recruiting coops to present, participate and attend
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Milestone: At least 50% worker cooperative participation in convenings and webinars.
Work Area: Support the field
Description:
- Foster leadership and participation within the cooperative field through TA, training, and the development of educational materials
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverable:
- List of educational events and participation
- Development of trainings/educational materials for the Learning Management System.
Work Area: Communications
Description:
- Collaborate on high-level messaging alignment and comms strategy.
- Participation in coordinating meetings
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverable: Meeting notes, creation of shared messaging and advocacy strategy
Work Area: Field building
Description:
- Build connections within the field and with other movements by attending major conferences to represent the worker cooperative sector (e.g. NCBA, others).
- Collaborate on event attendance with DAWI leadership.
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverable: List of events participated in.
Work Area: Policy support
Description:
- Co-develop shared priorities with DAWI to engage cooperatives on shared advocacy initiatives.
- Regular meeting of cooperative policy and advocacy member groups
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverable: Meeting schedule and notes.
Work Area: Programmatic coordination
Description:
- Participate in strategy and planning meetings with DAWI and join in key staff meetings and strategy calls as appropriate
Suggested Milestones/Deliverables:
- Deliverable: Meeting schedule and notes
Proposal Template (Clean Copy/Paste Outline)
The response should include the following sections:
- Statement of Work
- A description of how the applicant will undertake the scope of work, including key project milestones and/or deliverables
- Organizational qualifications
- An overview of why the applicant is qualified to do the work outlined in the scope
- Personnel
- Names and qualifications of the individuals that will execute this work
- Allocation and role of assigned staff
- Include a short bio and resumes of staff that will be allocated to the project
- Budget
- A standard line-item budget using the following categories:
- Personnel
- Fringe
- Contractors
- Travel
- Supplies
- Other [describe]
- A standard line-item budget using the following categories: