Organizational Background Request for Proposal: Floodlight Project Pivot The Denver Foundation is a community foundation serving the seven-county Metro Denver area. Community foundations are created and funded by gifts from individuals and businesses to support a specific geographic region. As the oldest and largest community foundation in Colorado, The Denver Foundation makes grants and assists local donors in accomplishing their charitable goals. The mission of The Denver Foundation is to inspire people and mobilize resources to strengthen our community. Last year, donors contributed more than $105 million to the Foundation, and the Foundation gave grants of $67 million to support charitable activities in Metro Denver and across the United States. Project Background: FLOODLIGHT Floodlight is a web-based storytelling platform designed to surface stories about the work of nonprofits and community organizations in Denver. Storytellers use the story builder to combine and contextualize images and text, as well as media embedded from a number of popular web services, to create stories that break complicated topics into digestible pieces or that forefront compelling images or quotations from the community. Stories can be placed in a variety of categories and associated with projects or organizations to make it easier for others to discover and follow stories. The Technology Floodlight is an open-source project using Python and Django. The browser-based story builder application is implemented with Backbone and help from a number of other popular JavaScript libraries. It interfaces with the backend using a REST API implemented with Tastypie. Solr is used for site search and Django CMS is used for page content. Front-end styles are compiled using LESS. Floodlight History The original beta version of Floodlight was built in 2012 and used extensively for storytelling immediately. During the summer of 2013, the original Floodlight Team added new features, edited old features, and updated the site based on extensive feedback from storytelling users. By late 2013, it was clear that though the storytelling feature was well-built, the website itself did not have a clear audience or much traffic from readers. In 2014, The Denver Foundation took over the site with the intention to build out new features that would increase reader traction and return visits, and further ease the storytelling process for storytellers. The 2015 Pivot In 2014, a new Floodlight Team conducted interviews of this new intended audience, reviewed and analyzed current features for storytellers and readers, and designed 1
the 2015 Pivot. The current development of Floodlight thus focuses on building new features that help community organizations use Floodlight storytelling to connect with donors. These developments will strengthen and increase donor-reader use and interaction with the existing platform. Project Goals Floodlight seeks a web development company to first and foremost complete the open user stories on GitHub, and second, deploy a secure site with stabilized software. While the latter might happen concurrently, we are comfortable if it takes a while, as long as the new features outlined in the open milestones and issues in Git are deployed on an aggressive, accelerated timeline. Goals: o Complete open user stories on Github o Deploy the site for user testing o Finalize site based on user input o Ensure site is securely deployed with stabilized software o Provide documentation of all work and recommendations on site maintenance What Floodlight doesn t need: We do not need a redesign of the site, additional user analysis, or refactoring separate from the code necessary for new features. We spent the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 identifying what our new anticipated audience will want, and outlining and describing these new features through more than fifty user stories on Git. We want to begin a relationship with developers not from ground zero, but from our existing features and framework, and those described in the open issues on Git. Timeline and Scope of Work The proposed timeline for the project is the following: Deadline for receipt of proposals September 3 Interviews/Selection process/company Selected September 10 Information transfer/project launched September 17 Site pivot executed for user testing October 22 Site pivot based on user stories/testing completed November 17 Site stabilization completed January 2016 Relationships Company staff will work with the Vice President of Operations and Communications and the Floodlight Project Manager. The Floodlight Project Manager will serve as primary day-to-day contact, preferably with an equivalent individual on the company side. Complete Project Goals Company will complete project goals described above within the proposed timeline. Any work outside of the scope of the Project Goals or alteration of the timeline will be discussed and approved in writing prior to execution. 2
Recommendations At the end of this initial engagement, the company will provide recommendations for development of the site, both from an internal technical standpoint and UI/UX standpoint. Corporate Qualifications/Qualities The company selected will have staff who exhibit the following qualifications and qualities: Be fluent in Python and Django. If other technologies are chosen for new features, they must interface with existing components. The framework should remain with Django. Be full-stack developers. You should be a strong JavaScript coder who has experience implementing user interface elements that respond to data via REST APIs. And you should have strong opinions about API design and know where to start if you need to optimize database queries. Use Git. The first version of Floodlight was developed leveraging git and GitHub. This shouldn t change in future versions. Hate technical debt. You ll be developing software for a foundation, and more broadly a community with limitations on their technical capacity, so it s important to choose dependencies and architecture that limits complexity, future costs, and is code that you or someone else would want to maintain in the future. You should be willing to write code that sometimes prioritizes simplicity, readability and explicitness over elegance. You should avoid hacks and kludges and be explicit when you have to make them. Be willing to jump into the current project management approach. GitHub is ready to go with updated Milestones and issues, with clear descriptions and user stories. Certainly there will be discussion about how to proceed, and input from your approach and style will be helpful. Particular attention should be paid to estimating how long specific user stories will take to complete and test. Ideally as a team we will build on the current momentum within the existing storybase. Listen well. You should be able to help other project stakeholders synthesize needs and feedback into concrete features in the software. Be test driven. You should prefer test-driven development and generally write tests for the code that you write. You should think of low-fidelity methods, such as paper prototyping, for testing interfaces or new ideas. Be excited by open-source software. While you should feel free to develop new software components to implement functionality, you should use your knowledge of open-source software to consider how using or contributing to existing projects can streamline implementing functionality in Floodlight. Additionally, when you write new components, you should be able to identify when code can be factored out into an opensource component that may be more generally useful. 3
Budget The budget for this project is not to exceed $30,000. Please note that The Denver Foundation is a nonprofit organization and a software development project of this magnitude is a significant expense to us. We ask that you consider a pro bono contribution of time and/or expense to supplement the proposed budget. Evaluation Criteria The following criteria will be used to evaluate proposals.. Proposed methodology and its match with the needs expressed in the RFP Description of results of previous systems analysis projects Strategic approach to the unique challenges of this project Experience and expertise with projects of this nature Qualifications and capabilities of the firm s staff assigned to the project Foundation staff and volunteers may also choose to interview one or more finalists in person prior to awarding of the project. Proposal Request Please respond briefly and specifically to each of the items in the order that they appear below. Please be sure to identify the section to which any additional materials or samples are related. A. Background 1. Provide a brief background and history of the company s work 2. Indicate primary contacts and staff members who would be assigned to this project and include a brief biography of each Focus on the Qualifications and Qualities section in preparing these materials 3. Provide a list of clients served in the last two years, identifying type of project for each client. B. Proposal contents 1. Please describe a general outline of your plan for executing on the outlined Project Goals 2. Include samples of similar projects and show detailed results. 3. Provide client references of companies or organizations with which you have worked to plan and execute similar projects. 4
Preparation and Submission of Proposals Proposals shall consist of complete responses to the information requested above. Please submit the proposal in electronic form (PDF preferred) to: Rebecca Arno Vice President of Operations and Communications The Denver Foundation rarno@denverfoundation.org Proposals should be received by 5 p.m. MST on Thursday, September 3 rd. If you do not receive return email confirmation of receipt of your proposal, please follow up. Notification of Award All bidders will receive written notice of the award decision by September 17, 2015. Proposal Conditions This RFP shall not commit The Denver Foundation to award a contract to any firm or to pay any costs incurred by the firm to prepare a proposal in response to this request. The Foundation reserves the right to accept or reject any and all proposals in whole or in part, to negotiate with any and all bidders and to award single or multiple contracts. The Foundation reserves the right to cancel this request in whole or part at any time. The Denver Foundation further reserves the right to request additional information, oral discussions or presentations to support, supplement or clarify any written proposal. In no event shall any firm have any cause of action against the Foundation or any of its members or any officer, employee or agents of the same arising out of, relating to, or in any way connected with this RFP. Use of Proposals and Work Product 1. During the process of evaluating the proposals, The Denver Foundation reserves the right to request additional information or clarification from firms submitting a proposal, and to permit corrections of errors or omissions without notice to other competing firms. 2. All research tools, results, and other products developed or purchased by the company in connection with this engagement shall be the property of The Denver Foundation at no additional cost. 5