Hi-
I am looking for a NYC-area based web design and development firm to help re-create North Star Fund's website: northstarfund.org. The firm selected will spearhead the discovery, design, development, content migration, launch, and post-launch troubleshooting of the new northstarfund.org.
North Star Fund is a community foundation supporting grassroots groups leading the movement for equality, economic justice and peace in New York City. By organizing donors, raising money for grants, and providing technical assistance, we support efforts ranging from better schools, housing and health care, to protecting civil liberties, creating living wage jobs, and advocating for peace, freedom and human rights.
Below is the RFP we are sending out. If you are interested, or know of any NYC-area firms that might be, please pass along!
Project Specifications
The overall goals for the new northstarfund.org are an attractive site whose design clearly reflects our mission and organizational personality, navigation that is simple to use and encourages visitors to take our desired actions, basic integration with SalesForce (our donor database), and an administrative back-end that is simple for North Star Fund staff to use.
Visitors who land on northstarfund.org should immediately know that we are a progressive, philanthropic community foundation that organizes donors to support grassroots groups working towards a just and vibrant New York City. It should express our values clearly, yet with humility.
In addition to a home page redesign, new IA, and creation of new templates for content pages, there are a variety of particular functions we would like the new northstarfund.org to support:
• Online donations, including recurring monthly gifts. Currently, donations are processed through Network for Good. We would like much more flexibility in how our donation pages look, and are open to complete control over the donation process by securing our own merchant account and configuring northstarfund.org accordingly, or using another off-the-shelf product with more flexibility. This functionality should also be able to support the sale of event tickets.
• Event calendar and registration. North Star Fund hosts events throughout the year for donors and grantees. We would like a searchable event calendar that integrates all events, has a way of visually indicating the target audience for each event, and offers the ability for attendees to register (and pay, if necessary) online. Ideally, this would integrate with our donor database.
• Online grant applications. Currently, organizations that seek grants from North Star Fund must print and submit a PDF. Although some will still choose to do so, we would like to offer the ability to apply online. The online application will consist mainly of text fields, and should offer applicants the ability to save in-progress applications and upload supporting documents. This would ideally integrate with our grant database (FileMaker), but have an interim step so staff could approve content before it goes into the database.
• Database integration. North Star Fund manages donations and contacts using a modified version of the SalesForce database. The new northstarfund.org should include basic integration with SalseForce. At minimum, visitors who complete the mailing list sign-up form should be automatically entered into the database, as should data related to any visitors who makes a donation or purchases a ticket.
• The Roots build-out. The current northstarfund.org has a section called “The Roots,” which is currently a basic searchable guide to community organizing/grassroots groups in New York City. We plan to expand this section of the website, beginning with more robust profiles for the organizations included and an area to post “action alerts” for breaking issues.
• Dynamic sidebars. To more effectively showcase relevant content to our visitors, we would like dynamic sidebars that auto-populate with links to other related pages based on what the visitor is currently viewing (i.e. blog posts, news items, and other content related to what is on the page would display so users could explore further).
• Blog. Although northstarfund.org hosts a blog now, it does not have traditional blog elements like searchable archives, easy sorting by tag/category, the ability to follow via RSS, or a blogroll. We would like to add each of these features, along with the ability to follow different topical RSS feeds.
• E-journal for Gala. Our major annual fundraising event uses an online journal rather than a print journal (see http://northstarfund.org/events/2012-gala-supporter-ads.php). This is an ability we need to retain/re-imagine.
• E-communications. In addition, we would like the firm re-designing our website to design and develop a suite of e-communications templates (e-newsletter, e-appeal, e-vite, etc.) that match the look and feel of our website.
In terms of user actions, there are several actions we would like our various audiences to take when they visit northstarfund.org. The IA and design, particularly of the home page, should help funnel users toward the content that encourages these actions and should make it simple to find the relevant pages. Key actions include:
• Donate to North Star Fund
• Sign up for North Star Fund's mailing list
• Register for a North Star Fund event
• Open up a donor-advised fund
• Search The Roots
• Follow up on an Action Alert
Our current site is built on Moveable Type, a platform that no longer meets our organizational needs, and is hosted on BlueHost. We are interested in building the new site on the Drupal platform.
We will not accept proposals from firms using Moveable Type, Expression Engine or Ruby on Rails.
Commitment to non-profits and social justice and women/people of color ownership are both pluses.
Please ensure that your proposal contains all the required elements (see below). Proposals that omit a required element without an explanation will not be considered.
Proposal Requirements
• Phase-by-phase timeline, including deliverable dates for wireframes, initial development, and final delivery, and post-launch grace period. North Star Fund agrees to provide feedback, decisions, and content in a timely manner.
• Cost for entire project, broken down by module (i.e. separate pricing for each of the functions listed under project specifications)
• Description of discovery process, including information/access to people North Star Fund will be expected to provide
• Description of any recommended partners needed to complete the project, e.g., merchant account providers, third-party electronic journal software, recommended host
• Payment schedule
• Narrative description of process and project management approach
• Brief bios of team members
• Samples of at least three other sites for which your firm did both design and development
Submit proposals in either PDF or Microsoft Word format to Maggie Jacoby, Communications Director, maggie@northstarfund.org. Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about our needs prior to submitting a proposal.
We will confirm receipt of all proposals, but only firms in which we are interested will receive a further response.