Request for Proposal: Compensation Benchmarking & Recommendations

Request for Proposal

Opportunity: Compensation Benchmarking & Framework Recommendations

Time Frame: May - September 2025

Budget: up $40,000 CAD (before tax)

Deadline for Applications: 27 April 2025, 11:59 PM EDT

Any questions can be directed to the People, Equity & Culture team: people@equalityfund.ca

Introduction to the Equality Fund

The Equality Fund is transforming the way that resources—and power—flow into the hands of women, girls and gender expansive people worldwide. Designed by feminists for feminists, it is a model for sustainably resourcing feminist movements everywhere, through global grantmaking, gender-lens investing, policy advocacy, and feminist philanthropy. Launched in 2019, the Equality Fund has activated $100 million to date flowing to more than 1,000 women’s rights organizations working across 100 countries.

Context and Opportunity

The Equality Fund has a staff of over 50, about 85% located across Canada and the other 15% around the globe. Cutting across sectors, our staff work in global feminist grantmaking, philanthropy, policy advocacy, investment, operations, and more. We work with core competencies under our four key organizational values: anti-racism, anti-oppression, and inclusion; feminist leadership; radical love; and accountability. In a global context defined by complexity, rapid change, and disruption, we’re reviewing our compensation framework this year such that it is not only equitable and transparent, but also adaptive and resilient—ready to meet future shifts in funding, talent needs, and structural evolution.

Our last compensation review happened in 2022 and supported the organization to establish a job evaluation tool/system, complete a job leveling review by using the new tool, conduct a compensation review, and provide market data on the broader total rewards programs and make related recommendations. We attempt to review our compensation framework every three years, and this year, we intend to continue the work of refining, defining, and aligning our compensation framework as it relates to elements such as total rewards, benefits design, and placement and movement within and between pay bands. The People, Equity, and Culture team has recently closed a comprehensive employee engagement survey, collecting data across a range of factors for compensation & benefits and job satisfaction - which is to say, we have lots of data.

We’re seeking an experienced, collaborative, and values-aware partner to support us in this Compensation Framework review. Specifically, we’re looking to an external partner to benchmark our compensation and benefits for our global, cross-sector organization and act as a thought partner for improvements to our policies and practices related to total rewards.

Additional information about our context is available upon request.

Scope of Work & Deliverables

1. 1. Initial Assessment Review of 2022 compensation review documents, relevant policies, and data related to the 2024 employee engagement survey, and any other relevant data to understand our context and the starting point for this body of work.
   2. Collaborate with EF staff where needed to ensure full understanding of issues, gaps, etc.
   3. Benchmarking Undertake benchmarking of Equality Fund total rewards across our pay grid, considering the unique nature of the work, the diversity of locations of employees, and the cross-sector realities of EF’s work.
   4. Produce a comprehensive benchmarking report for salaries & benefits across the organization.
   5. Compensation Policy & Practice Recommendations Provide recommendations for updating and improving our compensation policy, practices, and tools, particularly for salary adjustments, salary banding, and job evaluations.
   6. Support the articulation of Equality Fund values in a comprehensive Compensation Philosophy, to be updated and shared with all staff.
   7. Partner with the PEC team to identify implementation pathways for new practices.
   8. Clarify how initial placement and progression are reflected in salary bands and tiers, including career development pathways, non-promotional growth opportunities, and transparent criteria for salary adjustments.
   9. Make recommendations on future improvements to the compensation framework.
   10. Future-Readiness & Change ResilienceProvide recommendations for maintaining the relevance and equity of the compensation framework over time, including strategies for future adaptation and staff engagement.

Who We Are Looking For

The nature of our workplace is rooted in multiple realities and spaces - there is no single industry that directly reflects what it is we do. We’re looking for a thought partner who has a strong technical background in this work and gets what it means to be values-oriented in our policies and practices, understanding why we reimagine our human resources team to be about People, Equity, and Culture (PEC).

We’re looking for a consultant who brings with them a wide range of experiences in compensation framework within multi-sectoral organizations, with experience in Canada and global nonprofits and grantmaking, who understands nuance, and who is excited by values and adaptive contexts. You will be working closely with a dynamic group from our PEC & Finance teams, and will need to be able to accommodate the rich breadth of feedback we receive from our highly engaged team.

Specifically, we need a consultant who understands that intersectional feminism, anti-racism, anti-oppression, equity, and inclusion are central to all of our decisions - and to be able to articulate the ‘why’ behind our process & policy choices that reflect these values. We need you and/or your organization to feel confident handling complex, Canadian and global employment realities - and to bring best practices and tangible recommendations for the future of our compensation strategy.

Budget & Timeline

Our budget for this project is up to $40,000 CAD.

The Equality Fund team you’ll be working with is based in Canada, working primarily in UTC/GMT-4 (Eastern Time). Applicants should be willing and able to collaborate on synchronous work during our standard work day.

The timeline we predict for this work will be commencing in May 2025 and we expect to complete it by September 2025, to account for our office closures and pace of work in the summer.

Selection Criteria

• • Compensation & benefits benchmarking experience in cross-sectoral nonprofit & Canadian organizations with employees globallyIdeally within the feminist fund landscape, and in global funds, grantmaking and/or philanthropy
• Competence with values-alignment and articulation in policies and practices
• Understanding of the unique nature of the cross-sector roles at Equality Fund
• Willingness to listen and collaborate with the voices of staff and stakeholders at Equality Fund
• Ability to balance the technical & compliance aspects of compensation strategy with the human-centred, feminist, and values-driven nature of our organization

Response Requirements

Company Summary & Qualifications

• Please include details of the team members who would be working on this project, as well as why you are interested in working with us on this project.

Proposed Approach & Work Plan

• • Please provide the breakdown of activities, including your approach to incorporating best practices with values, feedback, and collaboration, and deliverables for each aspect of the project. We welcome you to shape and challenge the process with your own frameworks or insights.
  • Please include how your team approaches compensation design and what frameworks or methodologies you draw on. We welcome approaches that surface insights beyond benchmarking, including reinvention or unlearning methods, equity-centered design, or adaptive organizational strategy.

Timeline

• We expect this work to take place between May 2025 - September 2025, with regular touchpoints to ensure alignment and milestones to reach; actual dates to be finalized at time of contract negotiation.

Cost Breakdown & Budget

• Please include the breakdown of activities, including payment schedule, for the expected deliverables.

References

• Please provide at least 2 client references for clients with a similar scope, values, or sector location as the Equality Fund. We would ask these references to speak to your past scope of work, company culture, feminist values, and success with projects comparable to this one.