RFP Evaluation Criteria Examples for Services, Technology and Nonprofit Programs

When an evaluator asks what a 4 means

A committee chair at a small county is two days from the first scoring meeting when an evaluator sends a short email. The RFP lists "technical approach" and "relevant experience" as criteria, and she wants to know what separates a 4 from a 3. The chair realizes the answer exists only in his own head. Two other evaluators have already begun reading proposals, and each may be carrying a different private definition of a strong response.

The gap is easy to miss because criterion names read as if they explain themselves. A name tells evaluators what to look at. Only the rating definitions tell them how good a response must be to earn each score. When a monitor, an auditor or a disappointed offeror later asks why one proposal outscored another, those definitions are what let the file answer.

This article offers illustrative criteria for services, technology and nonprofit-program RFPs, each with sample rating anchors. After reading it, you will be able to draft criteria and anchors for your own solicitation and show what each score meant.

What the federal rules ask the criteria to do

Under 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(i), as revised effective October 1, 2024, a request for proposals must identify all evaluation factors and their relative importance. Under 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(ii), an entity using the proposals method must also have written procedures for conducting technical evaluations and making selections. Together these mean the factors and their importance are fixed in the solicitation before any proposal is read.

Under 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(iii), contracts must be awarded to:

"the responsible offeror whose proposal is most advantageous to the recipient or subrecipient considering price and other factors"

Separately, 2 CFR 200.318(i) requires records detailed enough to show the history of each procurement. They must include the rationale for the method, the contract type selection, the contractor selection or rejection, and the basis for the contract price. Rating anchors help with the third element, because they let the file show what each proposal offered against each defined level.

State and local rules may be stricter than the federal text, and when both apply the stricter rule governs. Confirm how any of this applies to your award with the awarding agency or pass-through entity. This article recommends no weights. Relative importance is your organization's decision, and the solicitation must state it.

How to read these RFP evaluation criteria examples

Each example below gives a criterion, what it looks at, and sample anchors on an illustrative 0–4 scale. To save space, the anchors shown are for 4, 2 and 0. In your file, every rating point, including 3 and 1, should be defined before the round opens. The scoring scale and rating definitions guide covers how to build the full ladder.

Good anchors describe evidence a reader can find in the proposal. They use verbs such as names, describes, attaches and explains. Words such as "excellent" or "strong" belong in a score label at most, because they invite each evaluator to supply a private meaning.

These RFP evaluation criteria examples are drafting aids. They are not a statement of what any agency uses or should use, and the numbers inside anchors are placeholders. For help deciding which criteria belong in a solicitation at all, see the guide to RFP evaluation criteria.

Services RFP criteria examples

Services solicitations often turn on experience, people and method. The three examples below fit many professional-services procurements, such as consulting, evaluation or training.

Relevant experience

• 4: Describes several completed engagements of similar scope, names a client contact for each, and explains how specific lessons apply to our requirements.
• 2: Describes engagements of related but different scope. States that they are relevant but does not explain how.
• 0: Describes no comparable engagement, or provides no references.

Staffing and key personnel

• 4: Names the project lead and each key staff member, states each person's role and time commitment, and attaches résumés showing the qualifications the RFP requires.
• 2: Names the lead but leaves other roles "to be determined," or omits time commitments.
• 0: Identifies no staff.

Understanding of the service area

• 4: Describes specific conditions, constraints or populations in our service area and explains how the approach responds to each.
• 2: Describes the service area in general terms without tying them to the approach.
• 0: Shows no understanding beyond restating the RFP.

Notice that the third example scores understanding, not physical presence. The geographic-preference prohibition that 2 CFR 200.319 carried before the 2024 revision is not in the current text, but 200.319(a) still requires full and open competition, and program statutes, award terms or state law may restrict local preferences. Check any local-knowledge criterion with your awarding agency or counsel before publishing it.

Technology RFP criteria examples

Technology RFPs add questions about fit, delivery and data. The anchors below ask for documents a committee can cite, so the file shows where each score came from.

Functional fit to stated requirements

• 4: Addresses every mandatory requirement in the response matrix, states for each whether it is met out of the box, configured or custom, and explains any gap.
• 2: Addresses most mandatory requirements. Leaves some unanswered or marks them "available" without saying how.
• 0: Leaves mandatory requirements unaddressed or does not use the matrix.

Implementation and support plan

• 4: Provides a dated implementation schedule with named responsibilities on both sides, a training approach, and a described support process with stated response targets.
• 2: Provides a schedule without responsibilities, or describes support without response targets.
• 0: Provides no plan beyond a statement of intent.

Data handling and security practices

• 4: Describes where data is stored, who can access it, how it is returned or deleted at contract end, and attaches the supporting documentation the RFP requested.
• 2: Describes some practices, but omits end-of-contract handling or leaves requested documentation out.
• 0: Provides no description of data handling.

A scored demonstration can be its own criterion. If you use one, write anchors against the scripted tasks, so every evaluator watches for the same things.

Nonprofit program, school district and price criteria

For a nonprofit RFP evaluation, such as a grant-funded organization buying outreach or training services, the criteria usually reflect the program's purpose. Two examples follow.

Approach to serving the target population

• 4: Names the population as defined in the RFP, describes how participants will be reached and retained, and explains how the approach addresses barriers the RFP identifies.
• 2: Describes a general approach without addressing the stated barriers.
• 0: Does not address the defined population.

Outcome measurement and reporting

• 4: Identifies what will be measured, how and how often, and attaches a sample report matching the funder's reporting needs.
• 2: Names outcomes but not the method or schedule.
• 0: Offers no measurement plan.

For a school district RFP evaluation involving E-Rate supported services, 47 CFR 54.503 requires that bids be "carefully considered, with price being the primary factor." Your criteria and their stated importance must reflect that, and the district still follows its state and local rules too. The E-Rate competitive bidding overview walks through the process.

Qualifications-based selection works differently. Under 2 CFR 200.320(b)(2)(iv), the method where price is not a selection factor can only be used to procure architectural and engineering professional services. Price comes later, in negotiation. The qualifications-based selection article explains the sequence.

When price is scored, one common formula is lowest evaluated price ÷ this offer's evaluated price × maximum price points. As a worked example with round inputs, three offers at $80,000, $100,000 and $125,000 and a placeholder maximum of 10 points earn 10, 8 and 6.4. The maximum is not a recommendation, and alternates and options should stay out of the evaluated price. The weighted scoring guide shows how point totals combine across criteria.

Turning the examples into a file you can reconstruct

Use the RFP evaluation criteria examples above as a drafting aid, then work through the steps that make a scoring file readable later.

1. Choose criteria that match what the solicitation actually asks offerors to provide.
2. Define every rating point in observable terms before any proposal is opened.
3. Publish the factors and their relative importance in the RFP, and confirm that weights total 100.
4. Have each evaluator sign a conflict-of-interest statement. Under 2 CFR 200.318(c), no person with a real or apparent conflict may take part in selection or award.
5. Collect scores independently, then hold the consensus meeting and write down the rationale for each final score.

For a county RFP evaluation committee, step 5 is where the file most often goes quiet. The record should show why the committee landed where it did, not only the final number.

Keep the file for the retention period that applies. Under 2 CFR 200.334 it is three years from the date the final financial report is submitted, longer if litigation, a claim or an audit starts before then, and local public-records rules may require longer. For E-Rate, 47 CFR 54.516(a)(1) requires documents to be kept for at least 10 years. Confirm both with your awarding agency, pass-through entity or USAC.

The RFP Evaluation Criteria Builder workbook is designed to hold criteria, weights and anchored rating definitions in one place. It is available in the store now. To hear when the evaluation workspace opens, join the waitlist. You can also read about the workbook on its store page.

RFPManagement records and computes. It does not give legal or procurement advice. The award decision stays with your organization.