Strategic Communications & Marketing Consultant
Issued by: Audubon South Carolina
Point of Contact: Tim Boatright, timothy.boatright@audubon.org
Deadline for Submission: April 2, 2025, 5 p.m. ET
I. Project Introduction and Overview
Audubon South Carolina is seeking proposals from a qualified consultant or agency to lead a comprehensive communications and marketing assessment, planning, and implementation support process designed to:
- Improve coordination, consistency, efficiency, and performance of strategic communications and marketing activities across platforms, programs, and departments.
- Identify communications and marketing strategies and tactics that effectively advance Audubon's conservation and operational objectives and prioritize resource allocation accordingly.
- Build communications and marketing capabilities of existing staff, clearly identifying roles, skills, and expertise the organization needs to hire on a full-time, part-time, or contract basis to achieve communications goals and position itself for growth.
- Maximize and optimize existing organizational communications resources and assets before recommending new investments.
- Identify immediate, actionable improvements and provide guidance on measuring and evaluating communications effectiveness over time.
The anticipated budget for this engagement is approximately $45,000. All work must be completed and invoiced by July 1, 2025.
You can find a list of Q&A related to the RFP here. We encourage applicants to check this page frequently for updates.
II. About Audubon
The National Audubon Society is a leading nonprofit conservation organization with 120 years of science-based, community-driven impact, dedicated to protecting birds and the places they need, today and tomorrow. Birds are powerful indicators of our planet's health, acting as sentinels that warn us of environmental change and inspire action.
Audubon works across the Western Hemisphere, driven by the understanding that what is good for birds is good for the planet. Through a collaborative, bipartisan approach across habitats, borders, and the political spectrum, Audubon drives meaningful and lasting conservation outcomes. With 800 staff and over 1.9 million supporters, Audubon is a dynamic and ever-growing force committed to ensuring a better planet for both birds and people for generations to come.
Audubon South Carolina is one of 15 state and regional offices within Audubon’s hemispheric network, which comprises 31 states, 12 countries, 31 nature centers, 29 sanctuaries, and hundreds of local and campus-based chapters. We represent a vibrant community of nearly 30,000 members and supporters across the Palmetto State, including hundreds of trained Shorebird Stewards, dedicated sanctuary volunteers, and nine affiliated Audubon chapters and bird club partners.
We also own or manage more than 30,000 acres of critical bird habitat statewide, including our two signature properties: the 3,400-acre Silver Bluff Sanctuary in Jackson and the 18,000-acre Beidler Forest Center and Sanctuary in Harleyville. These locations serve as bird-friendly land management demonstrations for other landowners and foresters, provide ecological benefits and recreational and educational opportunities for neighboring communities, and are home to some of the state’s most significant cultural and natural heritage resources.
Beyond our own lands, we actively work to conserve and steward vital habitat for migratory shorebirds, seabirds, and marsh birds along the South Carolina coast, create bird-friendly spaces in urban and suburban areas, advance scientific research on migratory bird populations, and advocate for natural climate solutions and responsible renewable energy development to address climate change impacts on birds, people, and the planet.
III. Project Context & Need
Audubon's Flight Plan outlines the organization’s strategy to halt and reverse dramatic bird population declines across the Americas. To successfully “bend the bird curve,” we must act urgently, efficiently, and collaboratively, coordinating conservation efforts across habitats, borders, and communities. Strategic communications and marketing are essential to this effort, enabling us to mobilize support, influence public policy, attract funding, and amplify the reach of our conservation initiatives.
As it stands, Audubon South Carolina lacks dedicated communications support, relying instead on program and operational staff to manage these responsibilities alongside their primary duties. This dispersed approach is inefficient, resulting in missed opportunities to amplify our work, inconsistent messaging, and suboptimal use of limited resources.
We seek the support of a qualified consultant or agency to evaluate our communications capacity, assets, and needs; establish focused communications priorities aligned with our conservation and operational goals; and develop actionable strategies and frameworks to achieve them.
This strategic assessment comes at a critical time, as it will position our team to effectively implement the forthcoming update to Audubon’s national brand guidelines expected in summer 2025, while maximizing the visibility and impact of our organization and conservation work across the state.
IV. Scope of Work
1. Comprehensive Audit & Assessment
- Review existing communications and marketing activities, including channels, products, workflows, staff responsibilities, and stated goals and priorities.
- Identify gaps and opportunities to improve brand consistency, message alignment, internal coordination, and efficiency across departments, programs, and audience segments.
- Assess staff roles, capacity, and capabilities, including their awareness and use of existing resources, tools, and guidelines.
- Recommend methods to enhance internal communications capabilities, optimize resource allocation and efficiency, and position the organization for growth.
- Identify specific activities to continue, refine, expand, discontinue, or add to maximize impact toward conservation and operational goals.
2. Strategic Communications & Marketing Roadmap
- Articulate clear short-term (6 months), medium-term (1 year), and long-term (2-3 years) communications and marketing goals aligned with Audubon's Flight Plan and anticipated updated national brand guidelines (summer 2025).
- Provide channel-specific recommendations for digital communications (website, email, social media), media relations, printed materials, and events.
- Recommend strategies to engage and expand key audiences, including chapters, policymakers, donors, advocates, and community supporters.
- Develop a practical 12-month communications calendar with key internal and external milestones, dates, themes, and tactics, which will serve as a model and framework for future planning.
3. Implementation Support & Resource Development
- Recommend protocols, guidelines, resources, and methods for effectively managing, sharing, and optimizing communications planning, assets, and workflows—including content planning, creation, review, and distribution.
- Recommend a phased staffing and support model, clearly defining recommended updates to existing roles, identifying any new positions needed (full-time, part-time, or contract-based), and specifying communications functions to handle internally versus externally.
- Develop a practical measurement and analytics framework to evaluate ROI and optimize the performance of communications and marketing strategies and tactics over time.
- Provide targeted recommendations to optimize existing staff resources, build internal capabilities, and position the organization for sustainable growth.
- Identify immediate, actionable improvements and "quick wins" to facilitate iterative progress and improvements throughout the evaluation and planning process.
V. Key Deliverables
1. Comprehensive Audit & Assessment
- Written report outlining current gaps, opportunities, and specific recommendations for optimizing staff roles, collaboration, resource allocation, and communications alignment across programs, departments and channels.
2. Strategic Communications & Marketing Plan
- Strategic roadmap including short-, medium-, and long-term goals; channel-specific recommendations; audience engagement strategies; and a practical, achievable 12-month communications calendar.
3. Implementation Support & Resource Development
- Identification of immediate improvements.
- Practical measurement and analytics framework.
- Content management and resource utilization protocols.
- Phased staffing and support model recommendations.
VI. Qualifications
The ideal consultant or agency should have:
- Minimum of 5 years' experience developing and implementing strategic communications and marketing plans (conservation/nonprofit experience preferred).
- Expertise in media relations, digital strategy, content development, advocacy messaging, and audience engagement.
- Understanding of brand management in distributed organizations.
- Strong project management skills, including deadline management and cross-departmental coordination.
- Experience assessing communications capacity, designing operational workflows, analytics frameworks, and staffing models.
- Prior work with mission-driven organizations strongly preferred.
VII. Proposal Requirements
Proposals should include the following elements:
- Company name and mailing address
- Name, phone number, and email address of the primary point of contact
- Statement of interest
- Company background and overview of relevant expertise and personnel, including project team roles and bios
- Proposed approach, methodology, timeline, and milestones
- Detailed budget with breakdown of professional fees and expenses
- References from three past or current clients for similar work
- Samples, case studies, or examples of relevant work
VIII. Evaluation Criteria
- Background, Skills & Expertise (25%)
- Approach & Understanding of Needs (25%)
- Demonstrated Experience (20%)
- Budget & Value (15%)
- Work Plan & Timeline Feasibility (15%)
IX. Key Dates & Deadlines
- RFP Released: March 17, 2025
- Proposals Due: April 2, 2025, 5 p.m. ET
- Finalists Notified: April 4, 2025
- Virtual Interviews Conducted: April 7 - 8, 2025
- Consultant Selected: April 9, 2025
- Contract Finalized: April 10, 2025
- Initial Materials Provided to Consultant for Review: April 11, 2025
- Project Kickoff: April 22, 2025
X. Submission Instructions
Please submit proposals to Tim Boatright (timothy.boatright@audubon.org) with the subject line "ASC Communication Proposal [Questions or Submission]." Proposals must be submitted electronically by April 2, 2025, 5 p.m. ET.
XI. Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
Protecting and conserving nature and the environment transcends political, cultural, and social boundaries. Audubon is committed to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environmental movement, and seeks to engage consultants and vendors who share our values. We are committed to equal opportunity and actively encourage a diverse pool of candidates to participate in the RFP process. For more information, visit audubon.org/about/edi.
XII. Additional Information
- Consultant will primarily work virtually, with potential in-person meetings or site visits in South Carolina. Please include anticipated travel in your proposed project plan and budget.
- Consultants may propose slight modifications to the scope, deliverables, timeline, or budget, but must clearly indicate how all key objectives will be addressed within the required timeframe.
- A copy of Audubon's standard independent contract agreement is available upon request.
- Audubon reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive any informality or irregularity in any proposal, and to accept the proposal that best serves the interest of the organization.
- This RFP does not commit Audubon to award a contract or to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of a proposal