Release date: August 5, 2026

Organizational Overview

Potomac Conservancy believes that the foundation of healthy, sustainable, and vibrant communities starts with clean water. For 30-years, we have served as the region’s leading clean water advocate, combining grassroots power of over 42,000 supporters with conservation and policy initiatives to restore the Potomac River to full health. Through land protection, clean water advocacy, and community engagement, we advance water quality from West Virginia to Washington, DC.

 

Project Overview

Using existing strategic framework as a launching point, Potomac Conservancy seeks a qualified contractor to support the development of a 5-year strategic roadmap(2028-2032) and a 3-year implementation plan. This effort will align organizational priorities with stacking stressors – including climate impacts, development pressures, data center impacts, and aging infrastructure – while strengthening internal coordination and long-term effectiveness.

 

Project Objectives

  • Evaluate and modify existing strategic framework goals to match organizational capacity
  • Develop a clear, actionable 5-year strategic roadmap
  • Evaluate current staffing structure and identify opportunities to better align roles, responsibilities, and capacity with strategic goals
  • Strengthen organizational alignment across staff, board, and partners
  • Facilitate structured input across teams
  • Support readiness for emerging issues and contingency plans for evolving conditions

 

Scope of Work

The contractor will serve as a facilitator, strategist, and coordinator, working closely with staff teams and an ad hoc committee of the board.

 

Key activities include:

  • Project initiation and planning
  • Background discovery and staffing assessment
  • Facilitated staff and board engagement
  • Recommendations for staff led partner engagement
  • Strategic priority development
  • Implementation planning with staffing alignment recommendations
  • Board coordination and alignment
  • Final deliverable development

Project Timeline

October 2026-September 2027

 

Key milestones include board meetings in December, March, a two-day retreat at the end of May, and final approval in September of 2027

 

Deliverables

  • Project workplan
  • Discovery findings summary
  • Strategic roadmap
  • Implementation plan
  • Staffing alignment recommendations
  • Board presentation materials

Desired Qualifications

  • Experience in nonprofit strategic planning
  • Strong facilitation skills
  • Experience working with boards and leadership teams
  • Ability to align strategy with organizational structures
  • Familiarity with Potomac Watershed a plus

Proposal Requirements

  • Approach and methodology
    • Proposed planning methodology and facilitation approach
    • Recommended engagement process for staff, board, and partners
  • Relevant experience
    • Examples of similar projects with samples if available
  • Project team
  • Timeline with in the timeframe listed above
  • Budget with justification
    • Proposed fee structure
    • Estimated project costs
  • References

Evaluation criteria

  • Experience and expertise
  • Approach strength
  • Familiarity with program areas
  • Budget clarity, cost and value
  • Facilitation capacity
  • Overall fit

Submission Instructions

Submit proposals to Katie Blackman at blackman@potomac.org by September 5, 2026 with the subject line: Strategic Planning RFP Submission