Request For Proposal - Web Services RFP, Website Design and Development

INTRODUCTION
Credit Builders Alliance (CBA) is embarking on a web site redesign and development project as specified in this document. The intent of this Request for Proposal (RFP) process is to provide companies with the information and requirements necessary for the preparation of a professional and detailed proposal.

About CBA
CBA was founded in 2006 for and by nonprofit microenterprise and asset building organizations to fill a critical gap in the delivery of microloans and financial services – the ability to report loan payments to credit bureaus and build credit histories for the unbanked and under banked consumers and entrepreneurs.

Having a credit history and a good credit score often defines whether an individual has access to mainstream banking and financing services. Improved credit scores also give low-income borrowers access to more competitive interest rates, safer financial products, and less vulnerability to predatory lenders. People with good credit ratings will pay approximately $250,000 less in interest throughout their working lives.

In 2007 CBA launched a service and online tool – CBA Reporter – that allows lenders to report microloans through CBA. Through a special arrangement with leading credit bureaus, CBA provides the technical support and training that builds capacity with hundreds of small local organizations around the US that wouldn't otherwise be able to report.

Today , through CBA's empowerment of 125 nonprofits to report over 16,000 loans monthly and 250 nonprofits to access over 50,000 credit reports annually, CBA has an outsized impact on the financial lives of thousands of individuals and small businesses. Nonprofits now use credit reports as a financial resume for better underwriting, financial coaching and client outcome tracking. There are as yet many more untapped nonprofits that could benefit from being part of the CBA network and CBA's website should be targeting this group.

CBA provides extensive technical assistance to help nonprofit lenders become eligible for reporting to bureaus and to become credentialed with leading bureaus in less time and with less cost than is typically associated with establishing a reporting capability. CBA complements our services with powerful "Credit is an Asset" training to help nonprofits develop a culture around the concept of credit as an asset and to be able to implement innovative credit building tools and strategies with their clients.

Since its inception CBA has built knowledge and capacity among 1,000 nonprofits to leverage our "credit building is an asset" platform. Our technical assistance, training, special programs and thought leadership is widely trusted as we build greater capacity for individuals and small businesses to access mainstream financial services and build wealth. CBA's goal is to extend this knowledgeplex of content to the organization's website for greater online service.

PROJECT
CBA is looking for a website development partner to help us build a new flexible and easy to manage website that reflects our innovation in credit building and that will help position us for growth. CBA has done some internal foundational work for the website redesign and is looking for a partner to review and validate the work-to-date and help move us forward. The new CBA website will need to support the organization's mission and goals, both near- and long-term, providing unique tools and services that hundreds of nonprofit organizations would not otherwise have the capacity to access
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Objectives
This RFP has been developed following an internal review process, which has helped define CBA's current organizational and website goals. The guiding objectives for the website redevelopment are to:

Build a new website with a flexible foundation for future development and growth
Promote CBA's value proposition to prospective members, members, funders, partners and potential partners, as well as the broader asset building community
Increase the number of nonprofit lenders and nonprofit financial coaches signing up for CBA membership and other services available to members such as CBA Reporter, CBA Access and CBA Technical Assistance
Direct consumers to resources and to CBA members that can be helpful
Drive practitioners and organizations to register and access webinars and trainings online, and/or to request private CBA technical assistance
Enhance member/user experience through improved delivery of CBA credit building services, tools, resources and other member benefits
Create the "Go-to" community for credit building as an asset strategy by sharing member success stories, data, and outcomes/impact research as available

Audiences and Users

CBA General Members
CBA Reporter Members
CBA Access Members
CBA Partners
Staff
Funders
Potential CBA Members
Potential CBA Partners
Board Members
Credit Bureaus
Software Providers

Website Attributes
CBA consumers, staff, board members and partners were tapped for input and reflection on what a topnotch CBA website should provide. The research and its results are described in CBA's Website Strategy document (see CBA's Preparatory Work-to-Date below), however, the following are key features desired for the website and the third party tools that may be required for meeting the organization's objectives:

Updated Design. Progressive, sophisticated design that reflects the brand identity of CBA, promotes CBA, and improves usability. Sitting at the crossroads of social services and the mainstream financial sector, the CBA website should reflect CBA's innovative and entrepreneurial style as well as its audiences.

ØUser-friendly, intuitive, clean and modern website with templates and style sheets that are easy to maintain by CBA staff.

ØMarketing forward, visually compelling site that promotes CBA's value proposition, information and services to increase membership and the adoption of CBA's credit building services and education.

ØGraphical interface for searching and finding directory and profile information about CBA member organizations and services. Level of detail provided dependent upon permission. Profiles will be searchable, visually appealing, and include organization mission, services provided, area served, constituents served, location map, link to website and social media, as well as links to any detailed profiles or member contributions.

ØStronger calls to action on the website. Encouraging more nonprofits to report means making the message and the process simpler for visitors to the site. With supportive messages, visitors can be educated about Reporter or Access and guided through the initial steps of becoming engaged as a CBA member.
·New CMS Platform. Recommend and implement a new CMS that provides CBA the technology platform and resulting functionality to achieve the core objectives of:

ØFlexible system that will support the new IA while enabling CBA to expand and adapt the website as it continues evolve and grow.

ØEasy integration with 3^rd party systems. (Salesforce integration experience strongly preferred. Salesforce, already in use by CBA, is critical to serving its customers.)

ØOnline forms and ability to collect data via CBA applications, inquiries and evaluation tools.

ØAutomated username and password environment (site registration) for nonprofit lenders and credit building coaches (nonmember access to Tool Kit, Secure Credit Card, Outcome Tracking, Training/Webinars etc.).

ØMembers only environment that allows multiple contacts associated with a CBA Member Organization access to content and member benefits (i.e. free webinars, detailed member information and other as designated content).

ØContent-rich site with role- or permissions-based access for greater segmenting of content based on member/non-member status and services procured. Member organizations with CBA Reporter and CBA Access would designate organizational contacts that would have greater access to proprietary technical information and assistance through the CBA website that supports the CBA credentialing process, special Reporter use cases, client-side software questions, among other. Not all organizational contacts need all content.

ØMember Dashboard. Landing page that members see when they log into CBA with info determined by their member status. Contains information such as contact info, ability to reset password, status of their membership and invoices, where they are in the steps to becoming a CBA Reporter or Access report puller, and other content that CBA determines as appropriate. Content for this page is from the member record in Salesforce and/or content within the CMS.
ØIncrease user functionality that creates a more self-service member capability that in turn reduces the support work load for CBA staff.

ØFlexible website architecture and knowledgeplex with easy to manage permissions and navigation controls. That means CBA staff will be able to add new content, establish additional sections to accommodate new programmatic initiatives, and respond to the evolving needs of nonprofit clients.

·A variety of options that will help CBA prioritize core functionality and integration needs within the project budget for the short term and add new features as funding permits down the road. Examples of such "deferred" features could include increasing interactivity for members, including the ability to join listservs and groups within the CBA network, as well as the ability to collect and share outcome tracking or other data to demonstrate CBA and its members' economic impact. A strong foundation and flexibility for growth is thus essential for future expansion.

·Third Party Integrations. Based on the draft functional requirements, below is a list of integrations needed to make the website fully functional to the needs and objectives of CBA.
1)Salesforce
2)Email Tool
3)Payment Processor/Merchant Account
4)Google Analytics
5)Webinar (Registration) Tool
6)Blog Tool (possibly part of core CMS)
7)Content database
8)Site Search Tool
9)Forms ("tell me more", member and service applications – with Salesforce, evaluation tools)

CBA's Preparatory Work-to-Date
Below are steps that have been taken on this project to date. An internal review has been underway to understand the needs and wishes of CBA's audiences and what members currently value about CBA. The information gathered refined and focused CBA's current website goals. It also led to considerations of future work and how CBA services and value to members can be enhanced going forward. Again, CBA looks for a partner to review this work, to add value and help us finalize as needed to move forward with design and development.

ØWebsite Audit and Analysis. An analysis of the site was conducted, including review of the existing site architecture, navigation and/paths to content, calls to action, messaging and content on the top pages, graphics implementation, as well as the analytics quantifying the behavior of visitors to the site.

ØMember and Staff Interviews. One-to-one focus interviews were conducted with CBA staff and audiences to identify the primary reasons they visit the website, what they value about the CBA website, their challenges in accomplishing their goals on the site, what could be improved and what mattered most to users. The interviews revealed a few top website values and use cases for all audiences.

ØWebsite Strategy. A website analysis and strategy with a narrative overview of high-level website architecture and requirements has been drafted to help coalesce the organization's thinking and wishes for the site.

ØProposed Information Architecture. CBA has a working site map in progress and is seeking review by our partner, best practice recommendations to enhance the site map and define requirements accordingly.
ØDraft Functional Review. In addition to the website analysis and interviews, CBA also conducted an operational and functional review of CBA's processes for bringing in new members, providing them on-going support, and educating them and credit building nonprofits.

RFP REQUIREMENTS

Proposal
Your proposal should include all of the following:
·Description of how you would approach the CBA project building on the work completed and moving the project forward.
·Recommendations and/or functions not included in the RFP that could benefit the website project.
·General timeline and outline of steps for project completion.
·Estimated budget with components delineated and any stand-alone elements defined should the budget require a phased approach.
·Staff structure and individuals involved in managing and delivering on the project. Description should include background, skills and experience working together as a team.
·Three samples of similar projects you have completed for other clients with at least one member-driven organization represented and if available, a nonprofit sample.
·Three appropriate client references, including contact names, contact phone and email.

Timeline

·Proposal Due Date.Complete proposals are to be submitted to rfp@creditbuildersalliance.org by May 31, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. You may submit questions to CBA at anytime within the window and we will get responses within 2 business days.

·In-Person Presentations. CBA will notify contractors selected for a follow-up by June 8, 2013. Interviews will be conducted beginning the week of June 10, 2013. Key personnel should be present at this presentation.

·Selection. CBA will make its decision by June 22, 2013 and seek to have a contract in place by July 1, 2013.
CBA's decision will be based upon a variety of factors such as but not limited to the Contractor's:
1)Ability to communicate and define a process for how they would implement a website development plan to achieve the goals CBA defined work
2)Resources/capacity to perform the required work
3)Demonstrated ability to offer timely delivery within a defined budget
4)Thought leadership for how the CBA website could support future initiatives
5)Salesforce integration experience
6)Experience with nonprofits and/or member-based organizations
7)Quality of documents submitted
8)References
9)Costs

·Proposal Due Date.Complete proposals are to be submitted to rfp@creditbuildersalliance.org by May 31, 2013 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern. You may submit questions to CBA at anytime within the window and we will get responses within 2 business days.

·In-Person Presentations. CBA will notify contractors selected for a follow-up by June 8, 2013. Interviews will be conducted beginning the week of June 10, 2013. Key personnel should be present at this presentation.

·Selection. CBA will make its decision by June 22, 2013 and seek to have a contract in place by July 1, 2013.

CBA's decision will be based upon a variety of factors such as but not limited to the Contractor's:

1)Ability to communicate and define a process for how they would implement a website development plan to achieve the goals CBA defined work
2)Resources/capacity to perform the required work
3)Demonstrated ability to offer timely delivery within a defined budget
4)Thought leadership for how the CBA website could support future initiatives
5)Salesforce integration experience
6)Experience with nonprofits and/or member-based organizations
7)Quality of documents submitted
8)References
9)Costs

Source: http://www.idealist.org/view/job/32PDphkPs8h8d/

FUTUREWISE - Website Redesign and Development Request for Proposal

I. Submission Timeline and Format

Monday, April 29, 2013: RFP advertised.
Friday, May 24, 2013: Deadline for submitting proposals.
May 28-June 4, 2013: Interview Candidates
By Friday, June 7, 2013: Award contract

The RFP coordinator for this project is:
Angela Uhl | Associate Director
Futurewise
816 Second Ave. Suite 200
Seattle, WA 98104
Email: angela@futurewise.org

Submissions must be in the PDF format and may be delivered via e-mail to the RFP coordinator. All questions should be directed to the RFP coordinator. All submissions received after the due date will not be considered. Futurewise may request an interview with vendors with the highest rating.

For ease of reference, each firm receiving this RFP is referred to as a “firm” and the firm selected to provide services for Futurewise is referred to as the “selected firm.” This RFP states the instructions for submitting proposals, the procedure and criteria by which a firm may be selected.

III. Project Overview

Futurewise seeks an experienced firm to redesign www.futurewise.org and implement technologies to meet the objectives outlined in this document. This will be a concept to completion production, from scoping to information architecture, design, development, and deployment.

The audience of Futurewise’s website includes three distinct categories: (1) lifestyle urbanists and environmentalists, (2) smart growth activists, and (3) public officials, planning and design professionals. In addition to educating and mobilizing each of our audiences, Futurewise views each audience as a prospective member and donor. An additional important audience is foundations, corporations and major donors.

For more info about the RFP, Please visit http://futurewise.org/Futurewise%20Website%20RFP%204-29-13.pdf

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