Request for Proposal (RFP): Consultant for a business process strategy and fully integrated marketing, ticketing, and fundraising system for the Chicago Botanic Garden Issue Date: February 20, 2015 Proposal Submission Deadline: March 16, 2015 Contact Name for Proposal Delivery and Questions: Harriet Resnick Vice President, Visitor Experience and Business Development Chicago Botanic Garden 1000 Lake Cook Road Glencoe, IL 60022 Phone: (847) 835-8380 Email: hresnick@chicagobotanic.org Website: www.chicagobotanic.org 1
I. INTRODUCTION You have been selected by the Chicago Botanic Garden ( Garden ) to submit a proposal for consulting that will translate the Garden s business strategy into a future state of business processes supported by a new, next generation marketing/ticketing/fundraising solution. Consulting services will also include a plan to develop, select, and implement this new system via a Request for Proposal (RFP). The Garden has designed this process to evaluate potential suppliers and select the one most capable of providing consulting on systems and processes. As you will see from the questions contained in the RFP, in addition to fees, the Garden would like to receive information regarding your service capabilities. Your timely and complete response to this RFP will allow the Garden to properly evaluate your services and cost proposal for final consultant selection in April 2015. We greatly appreciate your investment of time to complete this RFP and look forward to your response. II. GENERAL ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW The Chicago Horticultural Society operates the Chicago Botanic Garden on land owned by the Forest Preserve District of Cook County in Glencoe, Illinois. The Garden also has operations at various sites in the City of Chicago. The 385-acre Garden features 26 display gardens and three native habitats, uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by lakes. The Garden is one of the most-visited botanic gardens in the U.S., with approximately one million annual visitors. It has 50,000 member households (250,000 records, 76,000 e-mail addresses) one of the largest memberships of any U.S. botanic garden. The Board of Directors of the Society has adopted the following Mission Statement: We cultivate the power of plants to sustain and enrich life. The Garden s annual operating budget is approximately $30 million. For additional information, please see the Mission and History sheet at the end of this document. More information regarding the Garden is available at www.chicagobotanic.org and on its Form 990 at www.guidestar.com. For more information on the Garden s 10-year strategic plan, please go to http://strategicplan.chicagobotanic.org/. III. BACKGROUND OF OPPORTUNITY The Garden is engaging in a review of its entire business process (BPR) with regards to marketing, online and offline ticketing, fundraising and donor management platform, and overall database plan. This includes online and offline ticketing, class registration, outbound digital marketing, email and web service, segmentation capability, data warehousing, membership, fundraising, volunteer management, and business intelligence tools. The Garden is looking for an expert consultant with strong experience in the following functions: Business process strategy Ticketing 2
Customer relationship management Marketing and list management Fundraising, memberships, donations, sponsorships, gifts of membership and/or donations Data warehousing for segmentation and data analytics Flexible reporting and analysis tools Extensive web capabilities - full no fee internet transactional capability for online commerce; and automated trigger emails Searchable for search engine optimization Sophisticated analysis tools that tracks sales through purchase Multifunctional calendar Volunteer Management As a recipient of this RFP, your firm has been selected as a potential consultant for the Garden. IV. HISTORICAL SYSTEM The Garden has been using Raiser s Edge Fundraising software (RE) and Patron s Edge software (PE) from Blackbaud to maintain informational and transactional databases. The Garden s online commerce is currently Patron s Edge Online (PEO). These databases currently connect to each other, but do not connect very well to new technologies. The current system has been challenging and insufficient for current business needs. The Garden also has additional systems that must interact with the new one in terms of shared customer information. These other systems are: 1) Trackstar, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) system for member visit tracking and reporting; 2) Micros, (onsite) and Majento (online) for the Garden Shop; and 3) Halo, the Garden View Café commerce system. Record management has to identify our primary member(s) and their additional family members, so that membership discounts can be applied to other members of the household. Relationships of spouse/child/etc. are necessary to relate to the primary account holder. Other linked relationships are employees linked to their employers (corporate membership benefits) and teachers linked to their school (field trips). The user log-in needs to be intuitive and easy to reset. We need the ability to look up e-mail addresses in the database. The following are sold by the Garden onsite (PE) and online (PEO): - Ticketing for 20 public events, including, o The Orchid Show (timed tickets) o The Antiques, Garden & Design Show (non-timed; multi-day) o Wonderland Express (timed tickets) o Holiday concerts and meals (waiting lists) - Memberships 50,000 household members - Donations 4,000 donors 3
- Galas 4-5 events per year - Tribute Gifts and Gifts of Membership (sender; in honor of; and recipient information need to be captured, with room for personalized messages) - Class registrations 1,400 classes and 4,000 students - Camps (waiting lists, need to assign multiple e-mails to child s record) A full list of Garden offerings can be found on the calendar located on the website at: www.chicagobotanic.org/calendar. When transacting with our customers through online purchases, we desire the ability to capture marketing information as well as an opt-in for customers to receive our e-newsletter and other e- communications. V. SOLUTIONS FOR FUTURE STATE/SCOPE OF SERVICES The selected partner will need to help define a future state for the Garden s marketing/ticketing/membership/fundraising business within the context of meeting the Garden s needs, our customer s needs, and technological solutions and options that are available now and will be available in the future. The future state should include new business processes across these activities to improve effectiveness and efficiencies for growing earned and raised revenue and for improving front-end demand generation and back-end fulfillment. Technology solutions should be identified to enable new processes. We realize that customers are conducting more business via the web. We need a solution that offers: - A better buying experience across our public events, membership, donations, gala events, tribute and membership gifts, and class registrations. - A better user-log in experience. The user log-in needs to be intuitive and easy to reset. Currently, we spend a lot of time on back-end data clean up because customers continually create new records. - A responsive (across PC, tablet, and mobile) system that is easy to navigate. One-click shopping would be a huge plus, as well as a real time sold out feature. We also need waiting lists as part of our business practice and a way to optimize revenues. - A rules engine (not available in our current software) that is dynamically triggered by user and/or customer activity. For example, if we are selling a camp we should suggest a family program to the customer. - Dynamic automation of ticket prices, packages, discounts, availability, and promotions based on predetermined conditions. - A data warehousing system and business intelligence tools to automate customer and aggregate data collection across all data bases (RFID, ticketing, fundraising, membership, volunteers, classes, email, and social media, café purchases, shop purchases, etc.) and segmentation for data analytics and marketing strategy. 4
The desired solution will automate our email business practices. The website and the ticketing site should work seamlessly. The on-site or Cloud based database should connect to an e-mail platform that could automate the following: Thanking our customer for subscribing to our e-newsletter Thanking the customer for attending an event Send automated birthday greetings Conducting post-event electronic surveys to monitor customer satisfaction With the use of DMP tags, deliver relevant ads to our customers or custom newsletters based on known preferences. The desired solution will be able to leverage customer segmentation information to solicit donations. The hired consultant needs to demonstrate experience in the above; show other ways we can improve our system; and is future focused on the next technologies. VI. MINORITY and WOMEN OWNED BUSINESS PARTICIPATION GOALS The Garden recognizes its responsibility to the communities which it serves and is committed to a policy of non-discrimination. It is the policy and commitment of the Garden not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, or sex in the award and performance of any Garden contract or in the administration of the Garden s Supplier Diversity Program. The Garden will take all necessary and reasonable steps to assure that minority business enterprises and women owned businesses shall have a fair opportunity to participate in Garden contracts. The Garden has established a 2015 goal for participation by certified minority and women owned businesses at 20%. Bidders with questions on the Garden s minority and women owned businesses program should contact Beth Dunn, Director of Government Affairs and Coordinator of the Garden s Supplier Diversity Program, at (847) 835-6879 or edunn@chicagobotanic.org. VII. RFP PROCESS A. Response Requirements Final responses to the Request for Proposal are due on or before 5:00 PM (CST) March 16, 2015, by electronic submission via email to: Harriet Resnick, Vice President of Visitor Experience and Business Development at hresnick@chicagobotanic.org. Please do not contact the Garden during this process, other than to submit the firm s intent to respond (via email) and any questions related to the RFP (via email), by the dates indicated in the RFP Schedule Timeline provided in the following section. The email subject line of any and all emails should read BPR Consultant RFP. A bidder s meeting will be held at the Chicago Botanic Garden on February 25, 2015 from 2-3pm. At this time, you are invited to come in person to get an overview of this RFP from the Garden s team and to ask questions. Upon entering the Garden, tell the Gatehouse you are here for the BPR RFP Bidder s meeting and staff will direct you. This meeting will last no more than one hour. 5
B. RFP Schedule Timeline - Important Dates 1. Issue date of RFP 2/20/2015 2. Bidders meeting 2/25/2015 3. Deadline for firms to indicate intent to respond, 5pm (CST) 2/27/2015 4. Deadline for written questions submitted to the Garden, 5pm (CST) 3/06/2015 5. Deadline for Proposal, 5:00 p.m. (CST) 3/16/2015 6. Period for possible presentations 3/23-4/10/15 7. Anticipated announcement of appointment(s) 4/17/2015 C. Award Criteria Based upon responses to this RFP, some firm candidates may be invited to participate in a next-step evaluation process. Once responses have been received, they will be evaluated against selection criteria developed by the Garden. Your proposal will be evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively. Our evaluation will be based on, among other things,: 1. Overall ability to satisfy requirements, as summarized in the scope of services 2. Quality of proposal, including competitiveness and completeness of supplied pricing information 3. Breadth and depth of capability 4. Proven track record in the areas mentioned in the scope of services 5. Commitment to long-term partnership 6. Commitment to diversity 7. Pricing and fees, including a willingness to partner with the Garden. Details regarding the Garden s Corporate Partnership Programs can be found on the Garden s website at www.chicagobotanic.org. D. Legal Disclaimers Your firm is receiving this information as an agency/consultant firm-client communication. This RFP and the information contained in it or provided in connection with the RFP are proprietary and confidential and the firm must maintain the information in strict confidence and use it solely for preparing a formal proposal to the Garden. Your firm will not disclose the information set forth in the RFP to anyone other than your firm s members and employees who have a need to know such information. If a conflict of interest or a situation raising an appearance of divided loyalty or impropriety might arise where your firm is representing parties with adverse interest to the Garden in the matters described in the RFP, your firm agrees that no person of your firm who had access to any information contained in this RFP will represent such adverse parties or share the RFP information with the adverse parties or the attorneys representing the adverse parties. Your firm may not use the Garden s name or logo or the name or logo of any direct or indirect subsidiary of the Garden without prior written authorization. If you are unwilling or unable to treat such information as confidential or do not intend to respond to this RFP, please destroy the RFP immediately and notify the Garden that you do not intend to respond to the RFP. At the conclusion of the evaluation and 6
selection process, your firm must continue its ethical and professional obligations to keep the RFP and any related information confidential. The Garden commits to maintain in strict confidence any information you submit in response to this RFP and will destroy your response at the end of the RFP process if you are not selected. VIII. INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM CONSULTING FIRMS A. Executive Summary Please provide a brief (maximum one page) overview of your firm s overall qualifications to advise the Garden with respect to the Garden s industry and the scope of work. B. Primary Contact/Relationship Partner The Garden expects firms to appoint a senior partner/member as the Garden s Relationship Manager, who would be responsible for managing and coordinating the firm s operations across all matters relating to the Garden. Please propose a member of the firm to fill the role of the Garden s Relationship Manager, and the reason you are proposing this individual. Please provide the firm s approach to managing the Garden s plan. C. Consultant s Expertise in Services Area(s) Please identify with specificity the pertinent expertise, capabilities, resources and experience that your firm offers with respect to each discipline described earlier, including experience in dealing with non-profit organizations such as the Garden. D. Staffing Please provide a list of individuals your firm anticipates will work on matters for the Garden. Keep in mind that the Garden is seeking to use the best resources with the most experience. Professional profiles should be succinct. In addition, please provide an overall firm biography. E. Conflicts Please give details of any known or anticipated conflicts of interest that would preclude or limit your ability to work with the Garden. If your firm has prior experience working for the Garden, please provide information regarding the services performed. 7
F. Pricing Proposal The Garden is a private, non-profit organization. Prospective advisors should, where applicable, propose cost-effective fee arrangements. Responses will be evaluated on how competitive the proposed fee arrangements are. The total budget is $65,000. G. Please list value-added services that your firm could agree to provide at no additional cost. H. Approach to Matter Management/Services Please indicate practices or techniques your firm will implement in its work for the Garden to drive efficiency for transactions. Describe the anticipated results from these efforts. Briefly described how you ensure the best quality of service to your clients. I. Differentiating Factors Please list no more than three specific reasons why your firm should be selected to serve the Garden. J. References Please provide a list of representative clients, and provide points of contact whom we may contact as references for your work. The Garden will not contact references without prior notice to you. K. Diversity initiatives and statistics Please provide statistics on the number and percentage of women and minority personnel within each category of your firm. Describe how you will incorporate diversity in staffing the Garden matters. Describe any initiatives, such as outreach programs, in which your firm participates to increase diversity at your firm. Describe efforts your firm is currently undertaking to improve its diversity, both within your office and your external networks. L. Pro Bono practice and initiatives Please provide a brief description of your firm s pro-bono work and community service. 8
Chicago Botanic Garden Mission and History The Chicago Horticultural Society has been promoting gardens and gardening since 1890. With the opening of the Chicago Botanic Garden in 1972, the Society established a center for plant collections, education, and research. Today its 385 acres house a living collection of more than two million plants in 24 exhibition gardens and four natural areas woodlands, wetlands, prairie, and lakes. Owned by the Cook County Forest Preserve District and managed by the Chicago Horticultural Society, the Chicago Botanic Garden belongs to the people of Cook County and serves the Chicago region as a resource that is broadly shared. The Chicago Botanic Garden s mission to promote the enjoyment, understanding, and conservation of plants and the natural world motivates its many activities. The Chicago Botanic Garden is first and foremost a vibrant living and growing museum, with a plant collection that numbers more than 2.3 million in a unique island infrastructure that supports both terrestrial and aquatic plants. The collection s 8,979 taxa form the foundation of the community, education, and research programs that serve so many in the Chicago area and beyond. This scientific collection is aesthetically displayed in gardens that represent the best in 20 th and 21 st century landscape design. While building the collection and defining the landscape, the Garden has maintained an abiding commitment to connecting people with the natural world. This dedication begins with visitor programs that attract both new and returning visitors and extends through interpretation of the site, the School of the Chicago Botanic Garden classes, workshops, and symposia, as well as teacher and school services. The Garden s community education programs reach into Chicago neighborhoods with urban agriculture programs for youth, young adults, and non-violent offenders, culminating in an accredited community college certificate program. Summer science camps for underserved youth and teacher-training programs transform the Garden into a living classroom each summer. The depth and quality of these programs have helped build the Garden s national reputation as an outstanding teaching garden and earned the 2004 National Award for Museum Services from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the nation s highest honor for museum excellence. The Chicago Botanic Garden is committed to plant science and conservation research, practice, and training in response to global environmental threats such as habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, and other human impacts. Garden scientists seek to better understand the consequences of these impacts and develop the capacity to address them meaningfully. With the opening of a new Plant Conservation Science Center in September 2009, the Garden significantly advances its capacity to conduct plant research and to train future generations of plant scientists and stewards through the joint Masters and Ph.D. degree programs in Plant Biology and Conservation with Northwestern University. Free to the public, the Chicago Botanic Garden annually serves approximately one million visitors, 50,000 members, and 100,000 participants of education and community programs. More than 2,000 volunteers contribute to the Garden s operation by planting gardens, working in research laboratories, and presenting programs to the public. Open 365 days each year, the Chicago Botanic Garden is committed to sustaining a place of beauty, protecting biodiversity, and fostering the human relationship with the natural world. 9