Connecticut Land Conservation Council c/o TNC 55 High Street Middletown, CT 06457 Contact: Sarah Pellegrino spellegrino@tnc.org Technical contact: Damon Hearne dhearne@ctwoodlands.org 860-346-2372 I. Request for Proposal Overview The CT Land Conservation Council (CLCC) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advocate for land preservation, stewardship and funding, and ensure the long term strength and viability of the land conservation community. It serves as the umbrella organization for land trusts and other conservation organizations in the state. The Council provides Connecticut s conservation community with: Technical assistance and referrals for land trusts and other organizations on Connecticut-specific conservation topics Training and education, including an annual Conference A voice and advocate for member organizations at the capitol Source of conservation news and activity A venue for bringing forward issues of importance to other conservation groups CLCC is a membership organization and is governed by a Steering Committee comprised of 14-19 representatives of member organizations. Project Description CLCC is seeking a web developer/designer that can work closely with our organization to develop and deliver a new and improved website as part of a larger communications and re-tooling project now underway. Our existing web presence is within the website of The Nature Conservancy (located at http://www.nature.org/clcc). Our goal is to build an independent website that will be hosted as a full site rather than as part of a larger website system. We desire a clean and modern website that allows us to manage our own content and incorporates the logo and color scheme now in development. After the initial site build, CLCC staff require the capability to manage and create new content, publish changes and update the site as needed. We would also like the ability for member groups to be able to access and update parts of the site as permitted. Members of our organization have some experience with content management systems, specifically Drupal. We are open to other suggestions, but believe that Drupal would be a good fit for our needs. We anticipate the project would be completed in 2 or more stages of work, with the basic framework and content as Phase 1 and advanced options as Phase 2.
Project Schedule Release RFP February 23rd. Question and Answer period - 25 th March 4th th Deadline for Proposals March 6 th. Project Award March 16 th. Mockup of site design as interim deliverable (front/splash page and one interior page) April 2nd. Project Completion As negotiated - as soon as possible/reasonable after project award. Project Team After vendor selection, a small team from CLCC will provide input to the project at various stages and may work closely with the design team on certain aspects of the site. Please anticipate meetings to review the process at key stages such as site structure concepts, navigation design, visual interface, functionality testing etc. While we operate under a committee structure, this project will be under the direct management of our staff person and one committee member. We will make every effort to make project communications clear and efficient. II. Project Objectives CLCC would like to better reach and serve our diverse audience through an improved web presence. The CLCC website should support and enhance the activities of CLCC by disseminating information, connecting people and organizations and provide a virtual node of land conservation issues and community through the use of web 2.0 technology. CLCC s audience consists of many groups with a very mixed set of web experience and comfort level: Land trust staff, board members, volunteers and general membership Other state-wide, regional or site-specific conservation organizations Garden clubs Municipal commissions and land-use boards Legislators Professionals with services used in conservation Landowners Donors and others interested in conservation issues in the state It is important that the site broaden CLCC s value to Connecticut s land conservation community and increase our name recognition. We propose to achieve this in no small part with an effective website, which would: Provide a central and recognized location for CT land conservation information dissemination.
Provide information resources to the core users that will help increase the quality, scale and pace of conservation in CT. Offer informative and engaging material that is presented in a clean, consistent and attractive format. Improve communication between land conservation entities and across town borders. Provide clear, trustworthy and unbiased information to landowners seeking a conservation transaction. Provide an easy to manage, update and query database of CT land trusts that is searchable by map, county or town and includes key information about each LT. Provide an outlet for conservation news items that can be subscribed to by category (ie Policy, Education events, success stories etc). III. Design Requirements CLCC will be developing a logo and communications materials as part of an overall branding initiative. The website will need to incorporate these designs to a certain extent for consistency. The site should feel professional and established, while also conveying that we are trustworthy, engaging and helpful. The website will be accessed by a range of people looking for varied information. Areas of the site will exist with general organization information as well as areas with specific content that would be accessed by a more narrow audience. The navigation scheme must provide a logical, easy to follow method for moving through the site. The site must make sense from an outsider s perspective as it will be accessed by a varied audience, ranging from experienced conservation professionals to the layman. We anticipate the navigation needing 6-10 parent categories, each with 3-20 sub-pages. Any solution should be compatible with and able to manipulate a database of CLCC member organizations (land trusts, town conservation commissions) and individual members (at large, land trust board members, commission members). This requirement will be explored in greater detail before the project gets underway. IV. Scope of Content The new website will contain much more information than is currently shown on the existing web pages. The following is a draft concept of site content. (phase 2 items in italics underlined items represent, in our estimation, complex or database related solutions): NOTE: Please submit proposal based on phase 1 work only. Solutions should be expandable to accommodate the phase 2 items. 1. Home Page split content between brief mission/who are we message, news updates (1-2 items), dynamic feed from recent content updates, and potentially other static teaser (ie Conference advertising, new incentives etc).
2. About CLCC a. Who we are/what we do/mission statement b. Contact information c. Steering Committee and working committees d. Membership e. Site map 3. Land Conservation Resources a. Registry of Land Trusts i. Land Trusts receive user account that allows them to submit and update information on their land trust. (5-20 fields including geographic location/coverage some with multiple towns or nonpolitical watershed lines). ii. Public page for each trust displays key information and is linked up to a categorized search iii. Multiple search options: 1. Alpha list of towns, counties, org names etc 2. Clickable map of CT 3. Browse Google style map (ph 2) b. For the Conserver (needs better name) i. Information Resources Library (FAQ), - Documents, web pages, annotated links, presentations, video, searchable by keyword or browsable by category. Advanced taxonomy setup? ii. Community Exchange 1. Email list subscription and management? (or better using Constant Contact?) 2. Forums basic. Out of box solution likely a good solution. (this segment up for discussion). iii. Conservation Funding Programs (info on all grants/funding opportunities in CT). Categorized by basic taxonomy. c. Landowners i. Overview of land conservation options. ii. Conservation Options (flow chart?) iii. Search for Conservation services (Phase 2) see 3.a.ii.3 iv. Find a land trust by town and/or other search options. d. Conservation services registry (ph 2) i. Registry/list of professionals and businesses that offer services to the conservation community. Ideal solution would allow people to register to be come a low-level authenticated user (via paid membership?), submit information on their business via a webform, and then be able to log back in later to make changes to their own info. Webform submissions would be held for approval, and then automatically published based on what categories were filled in on the form. This section is up for discussion and has not yet been nailed down e. Conserved Land Registry (ph 2)
i. Similar concept as Conservation Services Registry Land Trusts log in and submit information on a given parcel of land, including address, acres, type of holding, public access etc. Most of this data would stay internal some fields may be published to the given land trust s profile page. Must be able to update and submit without administer oversight. Ultimately, addresses from this database should be publishable to a Google/mashup style map. Data points link to land trust registry database? 4. Policy Center a. Annual policy priorities b. Policy updates c. Signup for notices d. Policy help for Land Trust s and Towns e. Explore interface with CTEarthnet.org? (ph 2) 5. Training and Education a. Seminar and Workshop announcements and registration, follow up materials. b. Annual Conference info and registration (registration module would be a nice bonus tie to land trust database for participant tracking?) c. Online payment option? 6. News/Updates (archived by category and by date) a. blog type function? 7. Calendar of events/workshops 8. Conservation Jobs a. Basic solution via admin at first. b. Administered via a forum as second phase?? 9. Authenticated user interface a. Page used for updating user-updated pages - contains links to user update functions such as land trusts updates, conservation services, conserved land registry. V. Budget CLCC has a modest budget for website development, hosting and maintenance. In an effort to make the RFP process more efficient, we are sharing our budget for the site. We ask that RFP submissions include enough detail for us to understand why your budget proposal is a real number, not just matching our budget. Please understand that money from this budget not spent in Phase 1 will be directly put toward web development for phase 2 items and new work most likely with the same developer. Budget maximum for Phase 1 site development: $11,000 VI. Deliverables/Technical Requirements Deliverables should include (but are not limited to): Initial design proposals for review Completed site design including style sheets for text, header and link treatment.
Completed CMS backend with appropriate modules installed and tested. Completed level 1 navigation with examples of level 2 and 3 (if applicable) Completed content/taxonomy/structure for resource library, land trust info/finder, etc including browse and search, category mockups etc. Completed content (as provided by CLCC) for a pre-determined number of example pages. CLCC will complete most of the site content and sub-navigation. Instruction to CLCC staff to use the site. Technical requirements may include: Site operated and updated by non-proprietary content management system that can be used by CLCC staff (with minimal to moderate technical training). Tech/security updates performed by vendor Vendor provides consulting/technical assistance for updates and issues beyond staff capacity Search engine friendly site We plan to contract directly with a third party host for the site site designer recommendations will be appreciated. VII. Proposal Submission Along with the standard information that would ordinarily accompany a proposal, we request that proposals also contain the following: Company information o History, Size o % of overall business dedicated to web design o Overview of services & capabilities o Key personnel info o Why are you the right fit for this project? o Have you worked with non-profits in the past? Proposed solution o Why is this specific solution best for our needs? How often have you used this solution for similar projects? Project team o Who would be working on our project? Would there be consistency in personnel and availability? Ongoing support. How would we be supported as content is propagated and issues arise in the first 3-6 months of use? References o Examples of previous work o Client references VII. RFP Standard Conditions This RFP is not an offer and neither this RFP nor any subsequent discussion shall give rise to any commitment on the part of CLCC or confer any rights on any proposer unless
and until a binding written agreement is executed by CLCC and the proposer. CLCC reserves the right to reject any or all proposals, to waive defects or irregularities in any proposal, to enter into discussions with selected proposers, to discontinue discussions with any proposer at any time and for any reason, to correct inaccurate awards, to change the timing or sequence of activities related to this RFP, to modify, suspend or cancel this RFP, and to condition, modify or otherwise limit awards pursuant to this RFP. All costs associated with the preparation of a proposal, any related investigative or due diligence activities and any resulting discussions or negotiations shall be borne by the proposer.