The table of contents is a proposal outline, so you should develop it when you receive the RFP. When the RFP specifies the materials that are to appear in the proposal volume and associated sections, the table of contents must satisfy these requirements. The organization of the proposal, reflected in the table of contents, must be straightforward and must correspond to the organization specified by the RFP.

A top level table of contents will be presented at the kickoff meeting. This draft table of contents outlines your technical response to the sample RFP. It includes page allocations for each section. Notice that it indicates there are 47 pages, which is less than the RFP limit of 50 pages. A reserve of three pages has been retained for use as the writing progresses. The "RFP Ref" column provides a cross-reference between the requirements of RFP Sections 1.0 and 2.0 and the proposal. This will help the proposal evaluator find the appropriate information in the proposal.

Exercise #1:

Using the Statement of Work in the sample RFP, take a few minutes and expand Section 2.0 of the Table of Contents. Note that this section corresponds to Sections 1.1.1 and 1.1.2 of the RFP, and that each of its subsections responds to the RFP Section 1.0 task activities. Include a breakdown of the page allocations for each of your subsections, as indicated in the exercise worksheet.

When you have finished, click here to view the expanded Section 2.0. Note that a fourth task has been added to describe the program management and administration of RFP Section 1.2. By adding this task, you can include the schedules and costs associated with running the project in the appropriate technical approach and cost discussions.