Request for Proposal (RfP)
Umbrella Agreement for audits of grant-funded
projects
C40 Cities Climate Leadership
44 Featherstone Street,
London, EC1Y 8RN
United Kingdom
AUGUST 2026
Contents
1. C40 Cities Climate Leadership 1
1. Summary, purpose and background of the project 1
2. Proposal guidelines 2
3. RfP and project timeline 4
4. Proposal evaluation criteria 5
5. Project budget 5
6. C40 policies 5
7. Submissions 6
1. C40 Cities Climate Leadership
C40 is a network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities working to deliver the urgent action
needed right now to confront the climate crisis and create a future where everyone, everywhere, can thrive.
Mayors of C40 cities are committed to using a science-based and people-focused approach to limit global
heating in line with the Paris Agreement and build healthy, equitable and resilient communities. We work
alongside a broad coalition of representatives from labour, business, the youth climate movement and civil
society to support mayors to halve emissions by 2030 and help phase out fossil use while increasing urban
climate resilience and equity.
To learn more about the work of C40 and our cities, please visit our website or follow us on X, Instagram,
Facebook and LinkedIn.
1. Summary, purpose and background of the project
C40 is seeking a qualified Audit Firm to enter into a long-term Umbrella Agreement (Framework Contract)
for grant auditing and compliance services. Our portfolio consists of diverse funding streams, each with
unique regulatory requirements and reporting cycles.
The successful bidder will serve as a strategic partner, providing high-level assurance and advisory services
across our global operations. This Umbrella Agreement aims to move beyond transactional auditing by
establishing a standardized, scalable approach to compliance. By centralizing our audit needs under one
partner, we intend to improve reporting consistency, reduce administrative burden, and ensure that C40
remains a low-risk, highly transparent partner for our donors.
The expected volume of audits required is between three and six annually.
The Agreement is expected to run for a period of 4 years with an option to extend for an additional 5th
year. C40 expects the pricing of the winning proposal to remain unchanged for the duration of the
engagement.
Request for Proposals: Umbrella Agreement for audits of grant-funded projects 1
2. Proposal guidelines
This Request for Proposal represents the requirements for an open and competitive process. Proposals will
be accepted until 1 October. Any proposals received after this date and time will not be accepted. All
proposals should include clear timetables, how you will work with C40, clear costs and detail on experience
in this area.
The proposal should give C40 evaluators all the information they need to assess your bid. Please clearly
indicate where applicable:
● How your proposal is responsive to the Evaluation Criteria;
● The assumptions you are making about the project;
● Risks you have identified and appropriate mitigation measures;
● All costs must be itemized to include an explanation of all fees and costs. You must include
adequate information about how your costs were calculated to enable evaluation of cost
reasonableness.
● Any additional support that you need to make the project a success, including any inputs you will
need from third parties or C40 staff;
● Proposed working partnership with C40, including governance and management, resumes of key
personnel, key roles and responsibilities, and escalation procedure for issues.
● Organisation history and credentials to undertake grant audits
● Explanations of audit processes and methodologies, how a grant audit would typically be run;
● List of systems and technologies used during the audit, specifically how the audit firm uses AI tools
to complete and validate its assurance processes.
● Information on Data Protection: C40 is subject to the European Union and United Kingdom data
protection regulations and the winning proposal must ensure its continued compliance.
● Proposed contract terms including, but not limited to, data sharing agreement.
Any AI-supported tools used must be clearly outlined and justified in the methodology section.
Furthermore, the methodology must explicitly detail how results will be validated and verified using a
combination of independent human oversight and cross-referencing with trusted databases/sources. Any
data C40 shares is strictly confidential and any of this data that is uploaded, shared or processed by AI
tools must remain strictly confidential.
Request for Proposals: Umbrella Agreement for audits of grant-funded projects 2
Project scope
The Umbrella Agreement shall govern the way that the firm and C40 shall work together, however the
contractual conditions pertaining to each individual assurance engagement will be shared with the firm
ahead of each audit, along with the financial report and transaction list. The work can be carri
