Our RFP Ethos

At The Woke Coach, we move our clients From Ally to Accomplice® by helping them become the best, most understanding and empathetic version of themselves around issues of racism, bias, allyship, and injustice. 

We love the work that we do and we appreciate the opportunity to engage with potential partners. 

Based on our experience, we generally do not submit proposals in response to RFP requests. 

 

Here’s why: 

  1. We are a small, Black women-owned business with limited resources to commit to proposal writing.

  2. Everyone knows that great diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism, and accessibility (DEIAA) practitioners are busy. Oftentimes, the deadlines and turn around times do not support this reality. We have found that companies don’t offer the appropriate amount of time to complete the proposals. That sometimes translates into an “our emergency should be your emergency” attitude— and because we are good at our work (and we are) then we know that the process takes time.

  3. Businesses and organizations tend to ask for too much information. Asking potential partners to part with their intellectual property in order to show a draft or outline of a plan during the proposal process is not appropriate. We have also seen businesses or organizations steal ideas and concepts from submitted proposals and assign them to their selected vendor. That stings!

  4. Businesses and organizations can be uncertain about what their "DEI" and antiracism needs are. Because there is not a clear understanding of the subject matter and all of its intricacies, it is difficult for businesses and organizations to know what their specific needs are. This can lead to requests that are unclear. For example, it is probably much easier to hire a lawyer or an accountant because there is a general understanding of their work. You probably know exactly which questions to ask and what information you need to retain them.

  5. In this country, we have a history of pitting historically underrepresented groups against each other to compete for resources. Asking members of these groups to compete for your benefit and offering no compensation during that process is one of the many reasons that white supremacy culture persists. 

 

So while we don’t participate in the traditional RFP process, we are always willing to meet with potential partners to discuss our manner of work and their specific outcomes to see if there is alignment. After meeting with you and having a clear understanding of what your needs are and ensuring that there is a perfect fit, we will supply potential partners with a proposal. We feel like this is a better use of our time and allows for an engagement and understanding that can’t necessarily be found in words on a page from strangers.

Take a moment to engage with this short video to learn more about how we partner with clients. 

We also invite you to speak with our current partners. They can offer great insight about our approach and our effectiveness. 

 

Thank you!