Where associations post requests for proposals

For anyone who sells to associations · Published 2026-11-03

Vendors who sell to associations spend a lot of time looking for requests for proposals, and most of them find the same few. That is the trouble with an RFP as a lead: by the time it is public, the association has decided what it wants, often with a consultant, and every competitor has the same document and the same deadline. This guide says where requests are posted, and what an association shows before it writes one.

Where requests are posted

On the association's own website. A page called "RFP", "Requests for proposals", "Bids" or "Opportunities", or a news post announcing the request, usually with a PDF and a due date. State and regional associations that are also public bodies, or that take public money, post them most often. In our reading, a public request on an association's own site is rare.
Sent to a short list. Most associations ask three to six vendors directly, chosen from members' recommendations, a consultant's list, or the vendors who exhibited at their last conference. These requests are never posted anywhere.
Through a consultant. Larger associations choosing a membership system or a management company often hire a selection consultant, who runs the process and invites the bidders.
Through the association community. Allied societies of association executives and their newsletters and forums carry some requests, especially for meeting venues and event services.

So the public RFP is the tail of the process. The question for a vendor is how to be on the short list before it is written.

What a request covers

The requests associations issue most often, roughly in the order a vendor sees them:

Meeting and event services: a venue, a destination, registration, audio-visual, an event management firm. Issued every year or two for the annual conference.
A website, or a website and membership system together. Often written as one project.
Membership software (an AMS) on its own. Usually led by a new executive director or a technology committee.
Association management. A volunteer board looking for its first management company, or an association replacing its firm when the contract ends.
Audit, insurance, investment management, lobbying. Professional services the board reviews on a cycle.

What comes before a request

A request for proposals is the end of a decision that started months earlier, and the start of it is usually written somewhere public.

A stated plan. "The board approved a new website for 2027." "We will be moving to online membership renewals next year." It appears in a president's letter, a news post or the annual report, months before the request.
A new executive director. A new chief executive reviews the contracts in the first year. See why a new executive director is a buying window.
A committee formed. A technology task force, a website committee, a search committee for a management company.
A difficulty, in their own words. "Our website is out of date." "Renewals were harder than they should be this year." An association that says it in public has already decided to fix it.
A contract coming to an end. A management company or a platform adopted three to five years ago is due for its renewal.

A vendor that is in touch when the plan is written is often the one who helps write the request.

Reading a request

When a request does appear, read it for what it does not say: the budget (often left out, but sometimes stated in the board minutes), the decision date, whether a consultant is named, and whether a website and a membership system are bought together or apart. A request whose deadline has been extended is the same request, not a new one, and a request that was posted last year and never taken down is not a lead.

How AIP watches for this

AIP reads the public websites of U.S. associations about once a week, including their request, bid and news pages. A request for proposals in new text is a change in the week it is read, filed by what it is for (software, a website, payments, management), with the sentence quoted and the page linked. So are the signals before it: a stated plan to launch a new website or membership system, a difficulty the association describes in its own words, a role being recruited and a new chief executive's dated announcement. A request whose deadline moved is the same request, and an undated one is graded low, since a page that dates nothing may hold last year's.