Consultant: Individual Giving Market & Digital Fundraising Ecosystem Assessment

Request for Proposal 1: US Individual Giving Market Scoping Assessment

ActionAid USA (AAUSA), part of the ActionAid International (AAI) Federation, is a U.S. based 501(c)3 organization working to advance women's rights, social justice, and human rights around the globe. In its 25+ year history, AAUSA has built a strong institutional funding base, a nascent but growing major gifts program, and a small but predictable regular giving program. However, it has not historically invested in building a significant individual giving program in the United States.

Therefore, AAUSA is seeking a U.S.- based consulting firm to assess the feasibility of entering and growing within the highly competitive and saturated U.S. individual giving market. The objective is to understand what organizational capabilities, investments, and strategies would be required to build a successful and sustainable individual giving program.

Purpose

The selected consultant will conduct a market scoping study that answers the following questions:

• • Is there viable opportunity for ActionAid USA to grow a meaningful individual giving program in the current U.S. fundraising landscape?
  • What would it take in regard to investment, staffing, marketing, and organizational readiness to successfully compete among similar peer organizations?
  • What are the most realistic pathways for market entry and long-term growth?

The engagement should provide practical and evidence-based recommendations to inform AAUSA's strategic investment decisions.

Scope of Work

The consultant should:

• • Assess the current U.S. individual giving landscape, including trends, donor behavior, and competitive dynamics.
  • Benchmark AAUSA against comparable organizations (of similar size, structure, and mission) with successful individual giving programs.
  • Evaluate AAUSA's current organizational readiness, including brand and market positioning, fundraising capacity, and digital presence.
  • Identify key opportunities, challenges, and risks associated with entering the market at this stage.
  • Recommend a phased approach for developing a competitive individual giving program.

The study should include a high-level financial model that outlines:

• • Estimated investment required over the first three years (at least).
  • Recommended staffing and operational costs.
  • Donor acquisition costs and growth assumptions.
  • Revenue projections under conservative, moderate, and ambitious scenarios.
  • Estimated timeline to sustainability or return on investment.

Deliverables

The consultant will provide:

• • A final report that includes:
  • Executive summary
  • Market assessment
  • Organizational readiness analysis
  • Competitive benchmarking
  • Financial modeling and investment scenarios
  • Key risks and success factors
  • Strategic recommendations and a phased roadmap for implementation
  • A project workplan and methodology
• A presentation of these findings to key AAUSA and AAI leadership and staff should be included.

Timeline

The project should begin upon contract award and be completed within one month.

Budget

The available budget for this engagement is USD $12,000–18,000, inclusive of all fees and expenses.

Proposal Requirements

Proposals should include:

• • Firm overview and relevant experience
  • Proposed methodology and workplan
  • Project team and roles
  • Examples of similar engagements
  • Proposed timeline
  • Budget and fee structure
  • Two to three client references

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be assessed based on:

• • Relevant experience conducting fundraising, market, or organizational assessments
  • Understanding of the U.S. individual giving landscape and philanthropic sector
  • Strength of the proposed methodology
  • Experience with financial modeling and strategic planning
  • Overall value for money

Submission

Please submit proposals in PDF format to: jobs.usa@actionaid.org with the subject line “Individual Giving Market Scoping Proposal.”

ActionAid USA reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to negotiate with the selected firm before finalizing the scope of work.

Request for Proposal 2: US Digital Fundraising Ecosystem Assessment

ActionAid USA (AAUSA), part of the ActionAid International (AAI) Federation, is a U.S. based 501(c)3 organization working to advance women's rights, social justice, and human rights around the globe. In its 25+ year history, AAUSA has built a strong institutional funding base, a nascent but growing major gifts program, and a small but predictable regular giving program. However, it has not historically invested in building a significant individual giving program in the United States.

Therefore, AAUSA is seeking a U.S.- based consulting firm to assess the effectiveness, maturity, scalability, and future readiness of its current digital fundraising ecosystem in supporting recruitment from organic and paid ads, conversion journey to regular giving, and retention of digital regular donors with the primary objective of increasing unrestricted income through sustainable growth in regular giving.

The assessment should evaluate whether the current tech platforms, data management, content operations, and overall digital donor experiences can effectively support both current fundraising performance and future growth ambitions.

Scope of Work

The successful consultant will assess the following core areas of ActionAid's digital fundraising ecosystem.

1. Digital Fundraising Platform Ecosystem

Access how effectively and efficiently AAUSA’s digital fundraising technology ecosystem supports regular giving growth. This includes evaluating whether current platforms are user-friendly, scalable, well integrated, and capable of supporting future fundraising needs.

The assessment should include, but not be limited to:

• • CRM capabilities, data structure, integrations, and scalability
  • Donation platform functionality and payment gateway performance
  • Website performance in supporting digital fundraising and donor acquisition
  • Email and marketing automation platforms, including website integrations
  • Overall system architecture and integration effectiveness across the fundraising ecosystem

Deliverables

The successful consultant should provide:

• • Current-state platform and technology architecture map
  • Assessment of system integrations and scalability
  • Identification of key technology gaps, risks, and opportunities
  • Prioritized recommendations to strengthen the fundraising technology ecosystem

2. Donor Data, Automation, and Insights

Evaluate how effectively data flows across systems to provide insights required to optimize fundraising performance?

The assessment should include:

• • Data management practices
  • Marketing automation and personalization capabilities
  • Reporting, analytics, and tracking capabilities

Deliverables

The successful consultant should provide:

• • Current-state capability assessment
  • Review of tracking, reporting, and analytics effectiveness
  • Identification of key risks and capability gaps
  • Prioritized recommendations for any opportunities to improve analytics and data segmentation

3. Digital Fundraising Content and Donor Experience

Evaluate whether ActionAid USA’s digital content, donor journeys, and conversion experiences effectively recruit, convert, and retain regular donors.

The assessment should include:

• • Website fundraising content and conversion journeys
  • Email fundraising content
  • Organic and paid social media fundraising content
  • Donation forms, payment methods, and checkout experiences
  • Content production processes and operational scalability

Deliverables

The successful consultant should provide:

• • Content effectiveness assessment
  • Donor journey and conversion analysis
  • Optimization opportunities and prioritized recommendations

Timeline

The project should begin upon contract award and be completed within one month.

Budget

The available budget for this engagement is USD $12,000–18,000, inclusive of all fees and expenses.

Proposal Requirements

Proposals should include:

• • Firm overview and relevant experience
  • Proposed methodology and workplan
  • Project team and roles
  • Examples of similar engagements
  • Proposed timeline
  • Budget and fee structure
  • Two to three client references

Evaluation Criteria

Proposals will be assessed based on:

• • Relevant experience with digital platforms and fundraising ecosystems
  • Understanding of the U.S. individual giving landscape and philanthropic sector
  • Strength of the proposed methodology
  • Experience with strategic planning
  • Overall value for money

Submission

Please submit proposals in PDF format to: jobs.usa@actionaid.org with the subject line “Digital Fundraising Assessment Proposal.”

ActionAid USA reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and to negotiate with the selected firm before finalizing the scope of work.

Our commitment to Protection from Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) and Safeguarding:

ActionAid USA is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behavior at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct. We are also committed to preventing and responding to any form of sexual harassment, exploitation and child abuse and abuse of adults at-risk, whether carried out by staff/representatives or resulting from our work. ActionAid USA expects all staff, consultants, interns and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.