Strategy Consultant

Discovery findings synthesis; scenarios and strategic options; themes shared back with staff; internal consultation complete; interim "stop doing" list and near-term capability investments; institutional-specificity checkpoint. External scan; revenue trends and financial model with indirect cost analysis; staffing analysis; PESTLE/SWOT; internal scan; operating model assessment; programmatic portfolio and sunset analysis; open-door inventory.

Request for Proposals: 

Strategy Consultant for the FAS FY28 Strategic Plan

Proposals due Friday, October 9, 2026, 5:00 PM ET

Washington, DC

At a glance

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1.Background and Strategic Foundations

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is seeking a lead strategic consultant or firm to guide our five-year strategic planning process. FAS is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) that has around 60 FTEs, a network of Senior Fellows and consultants, and is supported largely by philanthropy.  

Our central driver for this plan is sustainability. Growth is a tool for building the financial, organizational and programmatic foundation that lets FAS pursue its mission with durability and integrity over the long term, not an end in itself. Part of the work is to develop a shared definition of organizational sustainability: what kind of organization is still thriving 10 to 20 years from now despite politics, technology and societal change.

This process will determine what FAS does, at what scale, and with what resources, alongside delivering a policy-entrepreneurship-aligned operating model.

Six commitments are meant to be traceable in both the process and the resulting plan:

• Sustainability. Growth serves durability, not the reverse.
• Mission impact and integrity. The plan must guard against mission drift with a clear framework for what FAS will and will not pursue.
• Evidence-based decisions. Revenue trends, staffing analysis, internal and external scans, not opinion or assumption.
• Focus and discipline. The plan must say what FAS will stop doing, and success is a defensible, resourced set of choices.
• Care for people. Staff are FAS's primary asset. The plan must address purpose, direction, ownership, retention and autonomy.
• Decide and move. Wide inputs, narrow authorship. Many voices inform the plan and a small, accountable group writes it.

2. What we are asking you to do

FAS is seeking an embedded strategy consultant or firm to lead Discovery, structure Analysis and Synthesis, and co-author a time-bound, 5 year strategic plan for FY28+ alongside executive leadership. The plan must provide clear data-backed answer to six (6) core questions:

1. What do we do? 
2. How do we do it? 
3. Who does it? 
4. How do we pay for it?
5. What do we stop doing?
6. What do we invest in next to reach the next level of organizational sophistication?

The plan must also define sustainability in concrete terms, including the conditions under which FAS grows, holds or reduces, and it must treat the 2029 presidential election as a defined hinge point.

The three FAS leaders driving this process are seeking external support. But the plan must read as distinctly FAS's own, reflecting institutional strategic thinking that already exists in the organization rather than a generic template a consultant could have produced for any peer organization. The internal leads develop the strategic logic first. The consultant structures, pressure-tests and sharpens it, and is embedded in the process from Discovery onward rather than arriving at Drafting. Proposals will be evaluated heavily on how well they fit this model.

3. Scope of work

3.1 Discovery (late October – December 2026)

Discovery runs as two parallel workstreams led by the consultant, each informed by an internal lead.

• External Scan: Assess the political landscape, peer positioning, funder trends and future risks/opportunities (PESTLE/SWOT)
• Internal Diagnostics: Conduct revenue diversification modeling, indirect cost recovery analysis, workforce capacity reviews, and operating model assessments
• Stakeholder input. Refine and co-facilitiate engagement instruments (surveys, listening sessions, 1-on1 interviews) covering all FAS staff, board members, funders, partners and alumni

3.2 Analysis and synthesis (January – April 2027)

Synthesize Discovery findings into strategic options and scenarios

• Develop strategic options, revenue scenarios, and an interim list of capability investments and sunset activities (“stop doing list”)
• Share emerging themes back with staff and facilitate leadership alignment sessions to narrow options.
• Conduct an explicit “institutional-specificity” check to ensure recommendations reflect FAS’s unique policy-enterpreneurship model rather than generic best practices.

3.3 Drafting (March – May 2027)

Co-author the full FY28+ strategic plan withFAS executive leads, incorporating one or two rounds of board staff feedback.

• Support the CEO and Project team in presenting the final plan for Board approval in early June 2027.
• Provide input on internal rollout and communication framing.

4. How we will work together

• Embedded consultant. The consultant would work alongside the internal FAS leads who own the core strategic logic.
• Pressure-Test and Challenge. The consultant structures, sharpens, and provides candor when evidence points somewhere leadership may hesitate to go.
• Live project management. FAS provides a designated project manager to manage logistics, data access and scheduling. This person is your day-to-day counterpart.

5. Deliverables and Timeline

 

Respondents should show how they will deliver Discovery in the roughly nine weeks between kickoff and the end of December, and identify anything FAS should do now to save time.

6. Budget

FAS has a not-to-exceed budget of $100,000 for this engagement, inclusive of professional fees, travel and expenses, subcontractors, and survey or analysis tools. FAS anticipates a fixed-fee arrangement with payments tied to phase gates.

Bidders should detail what can be delivered in full within this budget , or suggest scope trade-offs where FAS staff can take on more operational tasks.

7. Proposal requirements

Submit a single PDF (max 10 pages, excluding team bios and appendices by October 9, 2026, 5:00 PM ET, containing:

1. Cover letter signed by an authorized representative, naming the proposed lead.
2. Understanding and approach. How you would approach the six questions in Section 2 for an organization like FAS, and how you would deliver a plan that is distinctly ours rather than generic. Explain how your approach builds on FAS's strategic foundations in Section 1.
3. Embedded working model and workplan. How you would work alongside the internal FAS leads and how you would divide authorship. Activities, milestones and dependencies by phase, and how you would handle the compressed Discovery window. Note, we are open to stages overlapping.
4. Team and relevant experience. Named individuals and their roles by phase. Include three applicable client case studies and three client references we may contact.
5. Budget. Fixed fee by phase, hours and rates.
6. Disclosures. Any current or recent work for organizations that compete with or closely overlap FAS, and any other potential conflicts of interest.

8. Evaluation criteria

 

FAS may invite finalists to a 60 to 90 minute interview with the CEO, the Chief of Finance and Operations and the Chief of Staff.

9. RFP schedule

 

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