Website Redesign RFP

Project Description
We are aiming to redesign our current website with a more modern look that provides visitors with streamlined access to information about the Foundation’s various projects and funding opportunities.

Our goal is to restructure the website to reduce the number of pages and offer a simple and modern look that prioritizes text or infographics over photographs of nature scenes. We would like website visitors to be able to easily identify the Foundation’s purpose, history, current priorities, resources, and grantee funding history. We would also like to prominently display Foundation funding opportunities and provide prospective applicants with a full list of our offerings and straightforward instructions on how to apply.

We believe that our website needs to not only provide grantseekers and community stakeholders with information about the Foundation, but also be dynamic and serve as a tool for communicating what we’re learning.

We are also specifically seeking to adhere to the 7 Principles of Universal Design from the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, particularly as it applies to Equitable Use.

We are seeking full assistance with:

• Information architecture – development of a framework and page structure
• Copy and content creation, including image procurements
• Implementation – Buildout of all templates and pages
• Testing – Full testing for usability, accessibility, content, and copy
• Migration of content – As needed
• Training – Training and documentation of procedures for two end users and a third-party vendor to update and maintain the site

About The Foundation
We are a family foundation with less than 10 staff, and offices in Annapolis and San Francisco providing $18m in grants annually to nearly 200 organizations.

The Chesapeake office in Annapolis has two primary initiatives, Agriculture and Civic Engagement, with a focus on the Delmarva Peninsula and Lancaster County in Pennsylvania.

The Pacific office in San Francisco focuses on a variety of threats to water quality and water availability in California and seeks to fund partnerships that improve ecological balance in regional watersheds.

Background
The Foundation’s existing website was designed and executed in 2014. It looks outdated and lacks modern features, such as being mobile-friendly. The website has too much extraneous text, images, and content. We wish to greatly enhance the visual appeal of our current website, and we prefer a clean, modern but updated and contemporary look.

We have been monitoring Google Analytics to better understand who visits our website and which pages are most frequently visited. This information, along with the most common inquiries we receive from website visitors, has shown us that the information people most often look for (our funding priorities and how to apply for a grant) should be highlighted more prominently.

With the recent launch of new RFPs, such as funding for DEIJ and Professional Development opportunities, as well as an updated unsolicited grants RFP, it is particularly critical that website visitors be able to easily find all necessary information, and not feel the need to reach out directly to staff with questions.

While we are open for unsolicited grant requests for any program area in any geography, many of our initiatives are by invitation only. We must balance the desire to speak about our many initiatives and at the same time be clear that some grants are by invitation only. We also frequently find that unsolicited grantees who can and should apply for whatever topic they want still try to fit into one of our Foundation program areas.

Overall, we are seeking to inform grant-seekers of available opportunities, provide transparency to the Foundation’s grantmaking, and accurately reflect the character and values of the Foundation. This could include infographics, such as grant dollars given over time, new vs. returning grants, grant ranges, grant $ per year, # of orgs, or other information.

Something that may be different about our website project is that we are not necessarily looking to drive traffic to our website – we have more than enough “customers.” Instead, we are looking to make the website more user-friendly for the visitors that are finding us on their own.

Another content area we might focus on is related to transparency, and seeing how we can comply with the Glasspockets initiative at the Foundation Center.

Deliverable
At least three design options/templates for a modern, stylish website that offers quick access to useful information about the Foundation and the various grant opportunities we offer. We are more interested in providing information clearly and concisely through as few pages as possible than we are in incorporating extraneous diagrams, photographs, or add-ons.

While the website does not need to focus on the Campbell family itself, it should be reflective of President Samantha Campbell’s design aesthetic, as well as a voice and tone that speaks to her philanthropic philosophies and program directions.

Features we are seeking:

• Adherence to the 7 Principles of Universal Design from the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design
• Mobile-friendly
• A searchable, filter-able database all Foundation grants, preferably with the ability to automatically sync grant data from Salesforce
• A searchable, filter-able database of all organizations that are registered within our grants management system, preferably with the ability to automatically sync data from Salesforce
• A website-wide search feature
• Google Analytics integration
• User-friendly CMS, preferably WordPress, that gives us the ability to update images, text, links and PDFs as needed. The Foundation would like to maintain and update the website in-house moving forward.
• Consideration of third-party skinning where possible for related services such as our Salesforce grantee portal, and integrations, such as Smartsheet, Bill.com, Survey Monkey, as well as human resources applications such as Breezy and Checkr.
• ADA/WCAG/WC3 compliant and tested
• Exploration of a “grantees only” section of the website; accessible via user name/password login
• Security for website is minimal, as we do not collect any personal data from visitors. Adherence to OWASP Secure Coding Practices and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) are seen as appropriate and adequate
• Potentially, bilingual support (Spanish)

Features we are not seeking:

• Traffic motivated SEO functionality
• Donation functionality or donor engagement
• Activism or advocacy tools
• Embedded social media or video links
• Excessive photographs or designs
• Frequent content updates or news feeds
• Updated logo design/branding
• Audience comment/feedback
• Newsletter/data collection for marketing

Audience
The primary audience for our website is potential grantees looking for information to apply for a grant, and current grantees who already have a relationship with the Foundation. Other less frequent website visitors include: other funders, students working on school projects, journalists/media, jobseekers, and government institutions/elected leaders.

Requirements and Assumptions
The Campbell Foundation assumes that most, if not all, of this work will be done remotely, and that the consultant has the capability to complete tasks in this way.

The Campbell Foundation is not liable for any cost associated with the preparation of proposals or any other costs incurred by any contractor prior to the execution of the contract.

Campbell Team Roles

• Samantha Campbell, President – Final decision-making, guidance on alignment with Foundation design aesthetic and values
• Anna Lindgren, Chief of Staff – Project Lead
• Thanh Huynh, Tech Specialist – Internal website administrator
• Pongos Interactive – External tech support for our current website

The Foundation will provide:

• Verbal program information/descriptions for content creation by consultant
• Grants management system content/data
• Logo files and color guide
• Any content on current site that can be re-purposed or migrated, such as Staff bios, headshots, and contact information
• DNS and webhosting information
• Google Analytics data

Timeline

• October 13 – Proposals Due
• November 10 – Decision Date

Budget
$75,000, though we are open to receiving bids that are greater than or less than $75,000. The cost of the website redesign is challenging for us to predict, so we rely on you to provide and appropriate estimate.

Proposals Should Include

• Project description/proposed solution
• Description of the final deliverable
• Examples of prior work/deliverables and your role in each project
• Your approach/process for working with Foundation staff during this process
• Budget, pricing structure, and payment schedule
• Proposed timeline and project stages
• Change order process
• Information about the consultants who will work on this project
• References with whom you have worked on similar projects
• Commitment to racial equity and social justice

Selection Criteria
We will evaluate candidates on the following criteria:

• Design and usability experience
• Experience building flexible websites that can be easily modified by non-technical users
• History of completing projects on time and on budget
• Experience working with nonprofit or philanthropic organizations