Purpose of Contract: United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee (UCP) is reviewing our fundraising events and practices in the context of COVID-19 and the changes it has brought about to face-to-face fundraising activities. The primary goal of this contract is to shift special events to, or at the least, to develop a substantial online fundraising component for, as many of our fundraising activities as possible. The contractor will help us with development and maintenance of websites, online commerce setup, social media promotions and prospect development.
Contractor’s Experience: UCP is seeking a skilled professional or an organization with substantial experience in online fundraising. This experience does not have to be with non-profit organizations. It can be with political or other groups. Key to the successful proposal will be documentation of successful prospect/donor development and fundraising experience.
UCP Special Events and Fundraising Activities: UCP expects the contract to start with online fundraising components for the following special events/fundraising activities:
- Spaghetti Supper: In 2019, UCP created and produced our first Spaghetti Supper. This event was a success in terms of attendance and enthusiasm from attendees as well as our Board of Directors. We would like to build on this event by creating an online component that does not require a large group gathering. If, in the future, we are able to restart the event as a large group gathering, we hope to be able to continue the online fundraising component.
- Casual Day: Casual Day is one of UCP’s longest-running fundraising events. Participating companies designate a Casual Day Coordinator who promotes UCP’s event to their employees. The employees become involved by making a donation to UCP in exchange for a t-shirt to wear on Casual Day at their company. Most of the Coordinators use a sign-up sheet to secure participants and they fax the signup sheet to UCP. UCP fills the order and the Coordinators come to the office to pick up their supplies. We have created an online component to this activity, but it isn’t very sophisticated, and it has generated little enthusiasm from long-time coordinators. This event will need to be redesigned at all levels to accommodate COVID-19 measures.
- VIP Campaign: This is UCP’s direct fundraising drive. We have postal addresses for donors, but very few email addresses or ways to connect with donors electronically. The contract will include updating this activity and creating a year-round method of communicating with donors, as well as developing online media content.
- Legacy Giving: UCP has received a limited number of gifts from wills, trust, insurance and other bequests. The importance of this form of giving is that in almost all cases, these have represented the largest gifts UCP has ever received from individual donors. The goal of this portion of the contract will be to help us develop legacy donors from our regular/VIP donors.
Length of Contract: The initial contract period will start on date of signing and will be reviewed at 3-month and 6-month intervals. Successful contract completion will result in continuation and potential expansion of the contract in future periods as new funding is developed.
Definition of Successful Contract: A successful contract will result in a minimum of $100,000 of net proceeds to UCP by the end of the contract.
Contract Budget: The UCP Board of Directors included up to $5,000 per month in the 2020-21 budget for this contract. This is all-inclusive of contractor’s compensation as well as funds needed for any social media fees or other services. Except for a basic website, email and internet services, UCP has no budget for online activities. The contractor will have wide discretion in establishing an online presence for the agency within the budget provided. Please understand that this represents a substantial investment for our agency. We have experienced significant income loss as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Proposals must stay within budget parameters, however, proposals can include additional projected income from potential grant-making sources with whom the contractor has existing donor relationships.
Items to Include in your Bid: Please provide the following information in your proposal:
- General information about yourself/your organization’s background and experience in online development
- Specific information about online fundraising activities you have produced
- Samples of online media content you have developed
- Detail of suggested budget for use of no more than $25,000 over a period of not less than five months to develop the project you propose herein. Please note that UCP highly values frugality. Every dollar we save on this contract will be used to help families in extreme need. Contractors who can accomplish more with less resources will be considered favorably and compensated accordingly once the initial contract proves to be successful.
- Telling the story of UCP and the families we serve is an important component to this contract. We are interested in your plan for sharing these stories.
- We are seeking innovation. We encourage you to use your own creativity in explaining how you would implement an online fundraising strategy.
- Any additional information you believe is pertinent to the contract
Other:
- United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee will retain exclusive ownership of all work product, including but not limited to intellectual property, materials, content, online registrations, passwords, social media pages, sites, designs, graphics, regardless of format, whether now existing or developed as a function of the contract
- Online content must be fully accessible to people with disabilities
Questions/Additional Information: UCP is interested in reviewing proposals that are as targeted as possible to our specific needs. If you have questions about items contained in this Request for Bid, you may contact our Executive Director for an appointment by phone or Zoom to address your questions: Deana_Claiborne@ucpnashville.org
Where to Submit Your Proposal: Bids should be submitted to the UCP Executive Director via email: