Request for Proposals – Website Re-Design At Near East Foundation

RFP Issue Date: Friday, July 16, 2021
RFP Closing Date: Thursday, July 29, 2021
RFP Closing Time: 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time

Purpose // Project Overview

The Near East Foundation (NEF) is seeking an agency or consulting firm to support the redesign of its public-facing website (desktop and mobile) to ensure an excellent user experience and effective donor engagement. The new website must communicate NEF’s mission and impact clearly and compellingly, emphasizing the voice and experience of the people who benefit from NEF programs. It should elevate the use of visual media (e.g., graphics, photos, multimedia).

Organization Background and Mission

The Near East Foundation (NEF) is a non-profit international development organization that has supported livelihoods recovery and community-based economic development in the Middle East, Africa, and Caucasus since 1915. NEF draws on local teams, experience, and partnerships in these regions to create community-led solutions to reduce poverty, create economic opportunity, and empower conflict and crisis-affected groups to improve their future outlook and wellbeing. Working through a network of country offices and local partners, NEF has operations in ten countries: Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan, South Sudan, and Syria. HQ offices are based between Syracuse, NY, Washington, DC, London, UK, and Brussels, Belgium.

Anticipated Deliverables

  • Conduct a deep analysis with the NEF team to understand the existing site and to identify the main elements needing improvement (i.e., new features, additional functionality, etc.)
  • Develop and implement an action plan (with a timeline that includes frequent check-ins) for a website redesign; this should include wireframe mockup for the new site.
  • Support the roll out of the redesigned website, including admin user guides needed for future maintenance.

Website Audience

The NEF website serves as a digital window into our work. We want to bring our projects and the people we serve as close as possible to the donors and partners who support our mission. Priority audience categories include:

  • New and existing individual and foundation donors with an affinity for NEF’s work
  • Project partners and stakeholders (existing and potential)
  • International development colleagues and leaders/institutional donors/humanitarian enthusiasts

New Website Objectives

A successful redesign of the NEF website will minimally:

  • Give the NEF website a design lift and fresh look to attract new donors, partners, and supporters.
  • Incorporate an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that is easy for website administrators to maintain/
  • update.
  • Offer a modern and highly attractive design that facilitates superior user experience.
  • Guide users on a journey to becoming an NEF donor, feeding into our ultimate goal of securing
  • additional funds to support our ongoing work.
  • Clearly articulate NEF’s story, mission, vision, impact, programs in a concise and compelling way.
  • Prioritize visual illustrations of NEF’s impact (photos/multimedia) that bring the beneficiary
  • experience/voice front and center.
  • Ensure easy navigation to any “calls to action” and “campaigns” to drive donor engagement and
  • support (with easy linking directly to the donation platform, with minimal distraction).
  • Coordinate with NEF’s digital mobilization efforts to ensure seamless back end for the processing
  • of data.
  • Promote transparency of NEF’s work (impact, financial documents, reports, charity accreditations
  • etc.).
  • Include a desktop and mobile friendly design.
  • Clearly illustrate NEF’s global team and the projects we support (with HQ offices in New York, UK,
  • and Belgium, and country offices in the Middle East, northern Africa, and Caucasus).
  • Accommodate web accessibility for a global audience (i.e., include language translation other than
  • English, accessible to people with disabilities).

NEF’s website is currently hosted via WordPress and a redesign would need to work within our existing structure.

Timeline

September 2021 start, or as soon as possible with a view to working with an agency for no longer than 8 – 10 weeks.

Budget

We are looking for creative proposals that are cost-effective without compromising quality. We have budgeted roughly 30,000 USD, and we are keen for guidance on maximizing return on this level of investment. We are open to creative solutions you may have for working with this budget level.

How to apply

Proposal Requirements

Interested agencies must submit a proposal in electronic copy via email, on or prior to July 29, 2021 (5pm EST), to nefprocurement@neareast.org (subject line: Website Redevelopment RFP). Please ensure that your proposal includes:

  • a detailed work plan to your approach to achieving the desired aims as well as the estimated time frame/cost for each phase
  • how you would evaluate the effectiveness of a finished project
  • a portfolio of similar projects you have completed
  • a brief history of your firm, qualifications/capabilities, and bios of key personnel who would be
  • involved on the project
  • 3 references that speak to past performance, experience, and customer satisfaction

All questions, inquiries, and requests for clarifications must be submitted in writing to the designated contact listed below.

Andrea Crowley, Director of Partnerships & Philanthropy

acrowley@neareast.org

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NEF may, at its sole discretion, contact vendors to solicit responses, verbal briefing or discussions if beneficial to the success of the RFP.

Potential vendors are encouraged to read this RFP in its entirety. Issuance of a solicitation does not obligate NEF to award a contract or pay for any cost incurred in the preparation and submission of a proposal.

Issuance of this RFP in no way constitutes a commitment by NEF to award a contract. NEF reserves the right to reject any or all proposals or portions of proposals received in response to this RFP, to request modification or clarification of any part of a proposal, or to cancel this RFP if it is in the best interest of NEF to do so. NEF may reject any proposal if it is considered incomplete or conditional, contains irregularities, or does not meet qualifications, requirements, or specifications. Failure to furnish all information may disqualify the proposal.

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