RFI for Public Affairs, Strategic Communications and Trust-Building Campaigns Service

This Request for Information seeks vendors to provide comprehensive public affairs, strategic communications, and trust-building campaign services for land-grant universities. The desired partners should bring experience in higher education or demonstrate specialized expertise in campaign strategy, structure, budgeting, timelines, and feasibility for a large-scale national initiative.

The campaign will span owned, earned, social, and paid media channels, and will extend beyond traditional media execution to include strategic narrative development, engaging storytelling, and robust audience engagement. This initiative aims to create a modular, multi-institutional public affairs framework that highlights the unique public value of land-grant universities, including their roles in expanding opportunity, driving applied research, and fostering community partnerships.

Campaign activities should allow for state-level customization while strengthening a cohesive national narrative about the land-grant mission. Additionally, the framework must equip participating institutions to mobilize trusted stakeholders and community relationships as part of a broader trust-building approach, and be adaptable as further institutions participate or as the external environment changes.