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that were not well thought-out, confusing, too detailed or asked for wrong, or inappropriate information. To make matters worse, these RFP's are received with more than their fair share of cynicism. Only one in four agencies said they thought the RFP's were fair "most of the time" - none said they were "always fair."

So what's the rub?

"There seem to be three big issues that bother the agencies who receive these," reports Agencyfinder's Mr. Meyst. "Most of these agencies consider themselves to be pretty savvy and feel there's always an 'inside track' - so, in many cases, these RFP's are seen as a big CYA maneuver on the part of the non-profit or foundation, leaving no chance for the agency to even get the business. You only have to get burned once this way before you start to think every RFP from a non-profit or foundation is a waste of time."

"The second issue is one that is common to RFP's written for both non-profit and for-profit clients: Too many times, these documents are written for the primary purpose of collecting information on prospective agencies which the client will use to filter their large list down to that handful of agencies best suited for the assignment. As a result, a good bit of the information requested in the RFP is often

inappropriate and, many times, not even considered if the responding agency is disqualified from the search based on a previous answer.

Finally, the study showed that decision-making deadlines are rarely met by the non-profit making the requests for information. "This practice of "hurry up and wait" is really tough to take in these instances," says Mr. Meyst. "While you might put up with that for a multi-million dollar account, it's tough to rationalize expending the effort for something you're going to do for a much smaller budget."

"It doesn't matter what kind of account is looking," Mr. Meyst continued. "Whether it's a local, non-profit agency or a large, multi-national corporation, the search process works best when it is broken down into four main steps: qualification, information gathering, site visits/chemistry tests and then the pitch/proposal. And it's key to make sure the proposal isn't just a laundry list of price quotes. Non-profits and foundations are no different than for-profit and private sector businesses in this regard - they're trying to hire agencies that think creatively and strategically, so the process needs to give agencies a chance to demonstrate that ability."