Request For Proposals: Internal Communications Digital Tools Assessment and Future-State Channel Strategy

Summary Information

RA Department: Corporate Communications & Advocacy

Location(s): Europe, UK, North America, South America or Africa

Desired start date and duration: September - October 2026

Under direction of: Senior Manager, Internal Communications

About the Rainforest Alliance

The Rainforest Alliance (RA) is an international nonprofit organization working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to make responsible business the new normal. We are building an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. We envision a world where people and nature thrive in harmony.

The Rainforest Alliance is creating a more sustainable world by using social and market forces to protect nature and improve the lives of farmers and forest communities.

For more information, please visit http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/about.

Overview

The Rainforest Alliance is seeking an experienced internal communications and digital workplace consultant (or consultancy firm) to assess our current digital tools for internal communications and develop recommendations for a future-state communication ecosystem that supports organizational effectiveness, strategy execution, and employee engagement.

As a global organization with 700 employees operating across regions, functions, and time zones, the Rainforest Alliance currently uses a variety of communication channels, including an intranet, knowledge management platforms, email, Microsoft Teams, and virtual events. While these channels provide multiple opportunities for connection and information sharing, they have evolved over time into a fragmented user experience, creating challenges for engagement and content discoverability.

The new Rainforest Alliance internal communications strategy has identified the need to provide connected employee experience, so that people know where to go for news, information, and collaboration. To do this, we will need to transition from fragmented channels to an integrated channel ecosystem, where every channel has a clear purpose, strong governance, and is used effectively. The organization seeks an independent expert to scope this transformation and provide a practical roadmap for implementation, leaning on their experience designing and implementing effective internal communications channel strategies.

Consultancy Scope of Work

Main Objectives

The consultant will:

• Review existing documentation, strategies, channel analytics, governance materials, and employee feedback data.
• Conduct a comprehensive assessment of RAs current digital internal communications channels (Confluence, Microsoft Teams, Sharepoint, Knowledge Hub website - internal-only sections).
• Analyze channel effectiveness, employee experience, governance, content architecture, and technology landscape.
• Benchmark RAs approach against relevant industry best practices.
• Define a future-state integrated communications ecosystem.
• Provide strategic recommendations on how to optimize, evolve and integrate the Rainforest Alliance employee communication tools.
• Develop a practical implementation roadmap and

Activities

The consultant is expected to undertake the following activities:

Discovery and Assessment

• Review existing documentation, strategies, channel analytics, governance materials, and employee feedback data.
• Conduct stakeholder interviews with representatives from:
• Executive Leadership Team
• Senior Management Team
• Internal Communications
• Technology
• People/HR
• Regional Communications
• Other key functions
• Facilitate employee workshops, focus groups, and/or surveys.
• Assess existing communication channels (with a focus on digital tools), including:
• Confluence
• Knowledge Hub
• Microsoft Teams
• SharePoint
• All-staff emails
• Town Halls
• Monday Morning Cafés
• Webinars
• Newsletters
• Assess current governance, ownership, publishing processes, and content management practices.

Analysis and Strategy Development

• Assess strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities across the digital communication ecosystem.
• Identify employee communication needs and pain points.
• Conduct external benchmarking against comparable global organizations.
• Evaluate future-state options for intranet and channel architecture.
• Identify opportunities for AI-enabled communications, personalization, automation, and analytics where appropriate.

Future-State Planning

• Recommend channel purposes, governance structures, ownership models, and user journeys.
• Develop an integrated internal communications ecosystem model.
• Define content management and information architecture principles.
• Develop channel measurement framework and KPIs.
• Create a phased implementation roadmap and project proposal, including:
• Quick wins
• Medium-term improvements
• Long-term investments

Deliverables

Deliverable

Estimated submission date

Project workplan and methodology

Within 2 weeks of project kickoff

Current-state assessment report including stakeholder insights, channel audit, governance review, user experience findings, and benchmarking

September 2026

Future-state internal communications ecosystem strategy, including intranet vision, channel architecture, governance model, and recommendations

October 2026

Phased implementation roadmap with priorities, dependencies, indicative resourcing requirements, risks, and success measures

October 2026

Executive presentation and recommendations workshop for project sponsors and leadership stakeholders

October 2026

Final project proposal/business case for implementation phase

October 2026

General Terms and Conditions for Request for Proposal

• Applicants must provide all requisite information under this RFP and clearly and concisely respond to all points set out in this RFP. Any proposal, which does not fully and comprehensively address this RFP, may be rejected.
• Proposals and/or any additional information received after the submission time and date are subject to rejection by RA.
• Incomplete proposals may be rejected by RA at its discretion.
• RA reserves the right to request additional information at any time during the procurement process.
• RA is at liberty to make multiple or no selections as part of the proposal process. RA also reserves the right to cancel the procurement.
• All proposal costs shall be borne by the applicant and will not be reimbursed by RA.
• It is the responsibility of every bidder to identify any information of a confidential or proprietary nature contained in its proposal so that it may be handled accordingly. However, RA cannot guarantee confidentiality.

Selection Criteria and qualifications

The consultant or consultancy firm should demonstrate:

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years of experience in internal communications, employee engagement, digital workplace, intranet, or employee experience consulting.
• Demonstrated experience conducting communication channel assessments and intranet/digital workplace strategy projects.
• Experience designing governance models and integrated communication ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of digital collaboration and communication platforms, particularly Microsoft 365 environments and Confluence.
• Experience working with complex, geographically dispersed organizations.
• Excellent facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and strategic planning capabilities.
• Experience in nonprofit, international development, mission-driven, or global matrix organizations preferred.

Selection of the consultant or consultant firm is based on the following criteria:

Criteria

Weight (%)

Technical proposal and understanding of assignment

30%

Proposed methodology and approach

25%

Team composition and relevant experience

25%

References

5%

Financial proposal

15%

Proposal Process and Format

Interested consultants or consultant firms should submit their proposal including the following:

1. Statutory Requirements: Upon request, the consultant should supply all required legal documents as may be required by RA and/or local law, e.g. work permit, bank details, registration details, tax documents etc. When opportunity is restricted to a specific location, only candidates authorized to work in the location will be considered.

2. Technical proposal requirements:

• Understanding of the assignment.
• Proposed methodology and approach.
• Proposed workplan and timeline.
• Relevant project experience and case studies.
• Profiles/CVs of proposed team members.
• At least three client references, including email and phone contact information.

3. Financial proposal requirements:

• Daily or hourly rates.
• Estimated number of consulting days.
• Breakdown of costs by phase and deliverable.
• Any anticipated expenses.
• A basis for costing (i.e. previous rates).
• State currency.

Contact person for questions

dkoreniushkina@ra.org; jmiari@ra.org

Deadline for submission of proposals

August 9th, 2026

All proposals must be submitted through this platform as an integrated PDF document (only one file). If you experience problems loading information on the platform, try opening it with different browsers. Proposals received after the deadline stated above will not be evaluated.

Finalists will be notified of their selection by August, 31.

Thank you for your interest in working with the Rainforest Alliance