Where to Find $50K+ Website Design Projects

If you're a web design agency looking for high-budget projects, there are really only a few approaches that work consistently. I've been running Folyo, a lead generation service for agencies, since 2013—so I've seen what actually delivers results and what wastes time.

Here's the honest breakdown.

The Problem With Most Lead Sources

Most "lead generation" for agencies falls into one of two buckets:

Cold outreach — Buying scraped lists and blasting emails to people who aren't looking for help. Low conversion, damages your brand, and takes forever.

Waiting for inbound — SEO, content marketing, referrals. Great long-term, but doesn't help if you need projects this month.

If you want $50K+ projects specifically, you need to find organizations that are already in buying mode and have real budgets. That means warm leads.

What Makes a Good $50K+ Lead

After a decade of reviewing thousands of RFPs, here's what separates high-quality leads from time-wasters:

Realistic budget stated upfront. If they haven't mentioned a budget above $20K minimum, they're probably not a $50K client.

Actively looking to hire. They've posted an RFP or are requesting proposals—not just "thinking about a redesign someday."

Reputable organization. A legit company with an established online presence. Scammy-looking businesses don't pay $50K for websites.

Reasonable scope and timeline. If they want an Amazon clone in 3 weeks for $10K, walk away.

Where to Actually Find These Projects

1. LinkedIn Search (Free, Manual)

LinkedIn is where many organizations post when they're looking to hire an agency. The trick is searching for posts, not people.

Search terms like:

• "web design agency needed"

• "website redesign RFP"

• "seeking web development agency"

• "requesting proposals website"

Click "Posts" instead of "People," then sort by "Latest." You'll find organizations actively asking their network for agency referrals.

The downside: it takes 5-10 hours per month to do this consistently, and most results won't meet the $50K threshold.

2. RFP Aggregator Sites

Sites like RFPMART and FindRFP collect RFPs from various sources. The volume is high, but you'll spend hours sorting through construction bids, janitorial contracts, and $5K "we need a quick website" projects to find anything worthwhile.

Budget quality varies wildly, and you're competing with everyone else who subscribes.

3. Government RFP Portals

BidNet and similar government portals have legitimate high-budget projects. The catch: long sales cycles, complex requirements, and often strict vendor qualifications.

Good if you're set up for government work. Not practical for most small agencies.

4. Curated Lead Services

This is what I built Folyo to do. We manually review hundreds of RFPs each week and only send the ones that meet strict criteria: $20K+ minimum budget (average is $76K), US-based organizations, realistic timelines, and vetted companies.

The advantage is time savings—you skip the sorting and get straight to pitching. The disadvantage is cost ($190/month), though if your hourly rate is $100+, the math usually works out.

Check out Folyo's Done-For-You plan

5. Referrals and Word of Mouth

Still the best source of high-quality projects. Clients who come through referrals already trust you, close faster, and pay more.

The problem: you can't scale it on demand. It happens when it happens.

What Doesn't Work

Upwork and Fiverr — Occasionally there's a real project, but the platform dynamics push prices down. Not where $50K clients shop.

Buying scraped lead lists — These are cold contacts who aren't looking for help. You'll burn hours on outreach for almost no return.

LinkedIn automation and mass DMs — Gets you marked as spam and damages your reputation. Don't do it.

The Bottom Line

If you want $50K+ website projects consistently, you need to focus on warm leads—organizations that are actively looking to hire and have stated budgets.

You can do this yourself by searching LinkedIn and RFP sites manually (5-10 hours/month), or you can pay for a curated service to do the filtering for you.

Either way, stop chasing cold leads. It doesn't work at this budget level.

Ready to skip the search and start pitching?

Folyo sends you pre-qualified $50K+ website RFPs every week. All leads are hand-reviewed for budget, timeline, and company quality.

Get your first lead free →