What Is a FOIA Request?

Quick Answer

A FOIA request (Freedom of Information Act request) is a formal ask for public records from a government entity: signed contracts, pricing, purchase orders, and vendor proposals. Pursuit submits these on your behalf and delivers the results to your account. Because it pulls the actual contract or proposal, not just the fact that a deal happened, it's the fastest way to see what a competitor charged and what they delivered for it.

What This Is

Most competitive intelligence stops at "who won." A FOIA request gets you the rest: the price, the terms, the termination clauses, and in some cases the full proposal and scoring sheet behind the win. Pursuit handles the request end to end, from drafting the language to tracking it through the entity's response process, so you get the documents without learning your state's public records law.

How It Works

You can request documents two ways:

An existing contract. This returns pricing, terms, termination clauses, and line items for a contract that's already in place.

A post-award request. Submitted after a contract is executed, this returns the losing and winning proposals and the scoring sheet, showing you exactly how the entity evaluated each vendor.

Best Practices

The more detail you include, the faster and richer the result. A vendor name alone works, but a contract number or solicitation number narrows the request and speeds up processing. If you already have purchase order data, pull the contract number from it before you submit.

Describe the timeframe as "utilized in [date range]" rather than "signed." This captures amendments, extensions, and renewals instead of only the original signing date, and it avoids missing older contracts that are still active.

What It Doesn't Do

A FOIA request doesn't return documents instantly. Even with strong detail, you're waiting on the entity's own records process, which varies by state and by how backed up that office is.

Next Step

Submit a request from the entity page: click Submit FOIA in the top right corner. Each request gets a trackable link, and documents are downloadable and queryable in the app once they're delivered.

FAQ

How do I submit a FOIA request in Pursuit?
Go to the entity's page and click Submit FOIA in the top right corner. Include the vendor name and, if you have them, the contract or solicitation number.

Will the entity know I submitted the request?
No. Every request is fully anonymized. The entity never learns that you or Pursuit submitted it.

How long does a request take?
It depends on the state. More detail in your request generally means a faster turnaround.

What's the difference between an existing contract request and a post-award request?
An existing contract request returns pricing, terms, and line items for a contract already in place. A post-award request, submitted after a contract is executed, returns the proposals and scoring sheet from the competitive process.

Does a follow-up request to the same entity count against my allotment?
Yes, if it's on a different subject. Each submission counts as one request toward your allotment, even if it's a second request to an entity you've already submitted to.

How is FOIA pricing structured?
Beyond any requests included in your plan, options include pay-per-request for occasional use, a bulk purchase (for example, 100 to 200 requests, rolling over year to year) for regular use, and large-scale project pricing for high-volume campaigns across many entities.

Where do the documents show up once they're delivered?
Through the same trackable link generated at submission, and in the app once ingested, where they're downloadable and queryable.