Request for proposals: CiviCRM Constituent Relationship Management System. June 4, 2010

Transcription

1 Request for proposals: CiviCRM Constituent Relationship Management System June 4, 2010

2 About us The Philadelphia Public School Notebook (the Notebook) is an independent, nonprofit news service. The Notebook publishes a print newspaper si times per year and has a daily updated website run on Drupal. Names and title of contact Erika Owens, Web editor Others involved in the project Paul Socolar, Editor and Director Corey Mark, Business/operations manager Organization name and location Philadelphia Public School Notebook 3721 Midvale Ave Philadelphia, PA addresses erikao@thenotebook.org, pauls@thenotebook.org, coreym@thenotebook.org Business phone Mission statement The mission of the Notebook is to promote informed public involvement in the Philadelphia public schools and to contribute to the development of a strong movement for educational change in the city. By providing information and analysis of educational issues, we support the efforts of parents, teachers, students, and communities to organize for improved conditions in their schools. We want to see schools that are affirming of all students, enabling them to become critically thinking, active participants in society. We place particular emphasis on the needs of schools that serve low-income communities and communities of color, which are the most seriously hurt by the failings of public education. We are committed to transforming our two-track education system, which provides decent schools only for some children. Students should not be denied a quality educational eperience because of their race, class, gender, language, or disability. We believe that public education can fulfill its promise of promoting democracy and social justice. But to bring about positive change in a large urban school system like Philadelphia's will require a massive effort starting with alliances of people at the grassroots level working to make their schools and the whole system work more effectively. The Notebook plays a vital role by offering a vision of quality public education, and by providing news, dialogue, commentary, and promising strategies to support and inspire people who are working for change. Web address

3 Project summary The Notebook communicates with a variety of constituencies and currently that information lives in several disconnected databases (see Appendi A). The goal of this project is to bring those disconnected databases together in one place. Consolidating the databases will improve workflow for Notebook staff, and give members and readers of the Notebook a single entry point for updating contact information, subscribing to targeted lists, renewing membership, etc. Using a single software package will also streamline staff training. A year and a half ago the Notebook launched a membership program, which includes several member levels. A growing and robust membership community is critical to the organization's financial stability. To better engage with members and prospective members the Notebook needs a functional database. In February 2009, the Notebook launched a redesigned, daily updated website. This increased engagement online further necessitates an agile database that can quickly respond to members, readers, and other constituents. The Notebook staff support FLOSS and are unafraid of technology, but capacity for intensive development and programming does not eist in house. The web editor does some administration of the website and coordinates with an outside firm for ongoing backend and design support for the Drupal website, and can serve a similar function to maintain and improve the CiviCRM database. The database must be easy for end-user staff to use, after sufficient training, with a minimum of workaround and duplication. The Notebook needs CiviCRM epert help in: configuring CiviCRM data conversion and importation developing functional workflows for common tasks such as cash receipts entry, member signups, mailing list additions, acknowledgements, dunning letters, creating mailing labels identifying gaps in what CiviCRM provides and it needs figuring out the best way to address those gaps, and if necessary, building new functionality By July 30, 2010 the CiviCRM configuration must be able to segment lists of current donors (approimately 2,500 records) based on past giving history and create mailing labels (and ideally, personalized letters) for prospective members. In the final configuration CiviCRM must allow: mass s for segmented lists membership stewardship: level segmentation, renewals, appeals, etc online donations, membership purchase renewal, other online payment processing online event registration and payment tracking of event participation ad sales stewardship and processing distribution route list creation reporting/tracking of cash receipts batches

4 RFP/Proposal Process Intent to Bid Notice of intent to bid shall be submitted in writing by June 11, 2010, to: Erika Owens, RFP Questions All questions regarding the RFP should be submitted by June 18, 2010 to Erika Owens, (215) et. 2155, The Proposal 1. The supplier s proposal will be submitted, in writing, to the Notebook by 5 p.m. on June 18. Any proposal arriving after that time will not be accepted. 2. The supplier s proposal shall include the following required elements: Eecutive Summary with brief description of project development approach and costs Corporate information List qualifications including eperience with fundraising implementations, and previous clients with contact information (for references) and relevant URLs Description of development process Ideas for implementation Project stages and milestones Quality control Testing Project cutover Training/documentation Proposed Schedule Pricing itemized costs and payment detail Proposed project team and their qualifications Procedure for telephone support Other terms and conditions Issues and concerns Post project schedule and terms Post proposal process During the week of June 21 the Notebook will contact vendors with clarifying questions or requests for supplementary information in advance of scheduling interviews. If selected for an interview, it will be scheduled beginning the week of June 28. o As part of the final interview process, the consultant should demonstrate a realistic approimation of the workflow for adding, updating, and accessing member records. The consultant should also review possible workflows for advertising management and other common tasks. Work on CiviCRM would start July 12.

5 Technical requirements The Notebook selected CiviCRM due to its strong integration with Drupal, out-of-the-bo user friendliness, and eisting modules that fit its needs well. The Notebook website is hosted by Mayfirst ( The site is hosted on a VPS, so the Notebook does not need CiviCRM hosting. Mayfirst runs the popular mailman list service from its servers, so we epect to be able to use CiviMail and not an outside service. Must Must General requirements have now have Notes Data validation Consistent data entry: allow drop lists and default values where appropriate Backup: automated backup Our webhost is crazy about backups! Find and replace functionality Canned reports We'll need some help sorting through reports v. the robust search options in CiviCRM Saved queries Automated reminders of tasks that need to be completed Dashboards and shortcuts for common tasks Import/eport contact, donation, event, and other information tracked in CiviCRM as csv or similar portable format Documentation/training Easy way to navigate/track all of the search and report options Contact management Multiple classifications for records, eg prospect, parent, grad student The configuration will facilitate easy entry, tracking, and access to donor history Create mailing labels Allow tracking of households and spouses Track relationships between contacts, organizations, employees, board members, etc Creating personalized letters as PDFs rather than via mail merge would be a big win Preferred method of contact Also allow use of informal names Allow mark as no mail, no solicitation Outgoing Don't need by end of July, but absolutely required piece of CiviCRM configuration

6 Allow archiving of contacts Smart search so that you don't have to type full names Allow tracking of method of contact via drop list with notes field Allow tracking and naming of mailings and different types of contact CiviCRM seems to have etraordinary search options, just need to get a good handle on all that it can do! Donor/money management member management must be configured to match our current membership level setup Import/eport donation data Would love to have report or some sort of eport for an overall income log Soft credits Tribute/honor gifts Allocated funds: split donations between funds Major donor cultivation Need room to grow here Easy way to produce letter and see Thank you notes history Anonymous donors Donor campaign and appeals ability to track campaigns and appeals Pledges Employer matching Outgoing campaigns Accept online donations Need help evaluating the best way to do this--which vendor? Try Ubercart integration? Allow online donation form customization Systems in place to avoid/purge duplicate, blank, and incomplete records With automated online acknowledgement and receipts Events management Track invitations and attendees Track admission comps, RSVPs, etc Allow online ticket purchases send mass s track opens, bounces, etc Use of tokening in the s would be great!

7 Project Management Project time frame (estimated) July 2010: Basic setup, member data conversion and importation, and member history functionality August-September 2010: o Preliminary training on basic donor mailing list creation and segmentation (Aug). o Configuration and integration of balance of functionality and balance of data conversion and importation October 2010: Comprehensive staff training Nov 2010-Jan 2011: Ongoing improvements and bug fies Project budget At this time the Notebook is not prepared to provide a budget. We are eager to see an itemized breakdown of how much the supplier suggests it would cost for the items we wish to see configured in CiviCRM. Project Staffing Requirements The supplier will appoint one to two staff members to be the Notebook s key point of contact who shall be reasonably available for questions and comments Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Supplier shall not appoint as the Notebook s contact person a staff member who will be taking ecessive leave during the duration of this project. Roles and Responsibilities 1. The supplier will create and deliver the product with the input of the Notebook staff and board members. The Notebook will handle readying current data for importation, with the assistance of the supplier. Notebook will review and approve the product. 2. Once the test setup is ready, a 2-3-member team of the Notebook staff will spend etensive time eploring and testing the viability and user friendliness of the configuration. 3. The supplier will work with our staff to iron out any kinks or discrepancies. 4. The supplier shall not make CiviCRM publicly accessible until given final go ahead by Paul Socolar. Design, Development, & Implementation 1. Delivery & Installation Supplier shall be asked to create a timeline, with dates, of epected delivery/installation of each segment of development. The dates shall be met unless the supplier gives notice of one calendar week and eplanation (with a new date) as to why the delivery/installation deadline will not be met. Any payment epected along the way should be included in the timeline. 2. Testing Supplier shall submit, as part of the proposal, its plan for testing the project. 3. Training Supplier shall provide training on how to maintain, update, and utilize CiviCRM for two

8 to five Notebook staff members. 4. Project Cutover Supplier will provide the Notebook with eamples of how they have aided other organizations with the cutover from an old database. 5. Supplier Issues & Concerns Supplier should feel free and is welcome to comment on potential issues and/or discrepancies with the Notebook s RFP. Additionally, further suggestions on the project are strongly encouraged.

9 Appendi A- Current Technology Member/donor information 2,500 donor records in an Access database with multiple tables for contact info, gift history, event participation, subscription history. Approimately 300 active, 800 lapsed donors/members and 1,400 prospects and others. Donor records include: o contact information o spouse/ o organizational affiliation-these are now merged in one field and need to be separated o current member level o event participation history o some donation history o notes field Donor records are used to generate mailing lists for first class mailings of each print edition, event invitations, member/donor appeals and renewals, and other mailings. Cash receipts records Ecel cash receipts logs by fiscal year track name, type, and amount of income from donations, advertising, memberships, etc. This is the most complete record of gifts. These will need to be matched to the member/donor list. Event records Event income is tracked in a single Ecel spreadsheet for each annual event The Ecel spreadsheet also tracks ticket purchases, attendees, comps, donations, sponsorships, hosts, and other event related income and information. lists 1,800 addresses and names saved in Groundspring/NetworkForGood About 500 bad/bounced addresses addresses are entered/imported by hand. They are gathered from snail mail responses, signups at events, signups during user registration on the website, and an form on the site. o None of these signups generate automated welcome s. list is used to distribute monthly e-newsletter, to solicit online donations, and publicize annual event. o No current list segmentation capacity. Registered site users Approimately 400 users Username and address required; name, organizational affiliation, and contact information optional Users who signed up for Newsflash are entered in Groundspring; otherwise the contacts are solely in our Drupal MySQL database. Online donations

10 Processed through Groundspring/NetworkForGood. DonateNow page with limited customization. Sends automated thank you , and alert to Notebook staff. Donations entered manually in cash receipts log. Event registration First year using eventbrite. Event registration entered manually in Ecel revenue tracking sheet for event sheet. Advertising contacts Approimately 400 records (270 active) managed in a Filemaker Pro database Stores advertiser contact info and used to log booked ads for the generation of invoices/statements; also produces dunning and solicitation letters and mailing labels Separate DB is used to manually create custom invoices for multiple ads due; primary database is unable to do this Actual tracking of booked ads and payments/revenue is done in an Ecel spreadsheet Tracking of advertiser correspondence and contact history is recorded in a second Ecel spreadsheet Distribution list Approimately 900 records managed in a Filemaker Pro database Used to generate lists for different sections of the city for drivers and for UPS drop offs and to track total circulation. Each organization/site record has delivery quantity, route, geographic region, contact name, address, phone, delivery instructions, delivery sequence. Also used to track distribution site history (date added, date made inactive, notes on followup needed)