REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL - Home page | UNICEF · 1.6.4 Technical Proposal – The technical proposal...
Transcript of REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL - Home page | UNICEF · 1.6.4 Technical Proposal – The technical proposal...
United Nations Children’s Fund Telephone: +41 22 909 5111
Private Fundraising & Partnerships Division (PFP) Fax +41 22 909 5901
Palais des Nations Website: www.unicef.org
CH-1211 Geneva 10 Visitors: 5-7 ave. de la Paix
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REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL
RFP PFP-141007
7 January 2014
THE UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN’S FUND (UNICEF)
Wishes to invite you to submit a proposal for
DEVELOPMENT AND ENHANCEMENT OF UNICEF’S
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE FUNDRAISING PLATFORM
(www.supportunicef.org)
Proposals must be submitted via UNICEF Web Bidding Tool
IMPORTANT – ESSENTIAL INFORMATION
A) Page 2 of this document must be completed, signed and returned with your proposal.
B) Proposals must be submitted via UNICEF Web Bidding Tool no later than
Tuesday 28 January 2014, 17h00 CET, and must be split into 2 (two) separate
attachments as follows:
i) Technical Proposal – all technical information must be submitted in PDF
format. The Technical Proposal containing technical information must not
contain any information relating to prices or fees.
ii) Price Proposal – all information relating to prices or fees must be entered in the
attached pricing form and submitted in a separate attachment.
iii) Proposals must not be sent to any UNICEF e-mail address – only via UNICEF
Web Bidding Tool.
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BID FORM
(Must be signed and returned with proposal)
THIS PAGE/BID FORM must be completed, signed and returned to UNICEF. Bid must be made in
accordance with the instructions contained in this Request for Proposal.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT
Any Contract or Purchase Order resulting from this RFP shall contain UNICEF General Terms and
Conditions in Annex 1, and any other Specific Terms and Conditions detailed in this RFP.
The Undersigned, having read the Terms and Conditions of Request for Proposal No. RFP PFP-141007
set out in the attached document, hereby offers to supply the services specified in the schedule at the
price or prices quoted, in accordance with any specifications stated and subject to the Terms and
Conditions set out or specified in the document.
Signature: _____________________________________
Date: _____________________________________
Name & Title : _____________________________________
Company: _____________________________________
Postal Address: _____________________________________
Tel. No.: _____________________________________
E-mail: _____________________________________
Validity of Offer: _____________________________________
Currency of Offer: _____________________________________
Please indicate, after having read UNICEF Payment Terms, which of the following Payment Terms are
offered by you:
10 Days 3.0%______ 15 Day 2.5%_______ 20 Days, 2.0%_________ 30 Days Net________
Other Trade Discounts: ______________________
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1.0 PROCEDURES AND RULES
1.1 ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND
UNICEF is the agency of the United Nations mandated to advocate for the protection of children’s
rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential.
Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child UNICEF strives to establish children’s rights as
international standards of behaviour towards children. UNICEF’s role is to mobilise political will and
material resources to help countries ensure a “first call for children". UNICEF is committed to ensuring
special protection for the most disadvantaged children.
UNICEF carries out its work through its headquarters in New York, 8 regional offices and 125 country
offices world-wide. UNICEF also has a research centre in Florence, a supply operation based in
Copenhagen and offices in Tokyo and Brussels. Its 36 committees for UNICEF raise funds and spread
awareness about the organisations mission and work.
1.2 PURPOSE OF THE RFP
The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to select a qualified vendor for the Development and
Enhancement of UNICEF’s international online fundraising platform (www.supportunicef.org).
Detailed information regarding the terms of reference is available in paragraph 2.0 below.
1.3 FORECAST SCHEDULE
The planned schedule of the contractual process is as follows:
1.4 RFP CHANGE POLICY
All requests for information or clarifications on this RFP must be submitted in writing by email to the
following:
Christine Lambert at [email protected] and to
Noëlle Bouvier at [email protected]
Only written inquiries will be entertained. Please be informed that responses to all queries received will
be consolidated and distributed to RFP invitees.
Step Date Process/Milestone Milestone description
1 Tuesday 07/01/2014 RFP issued RFP released by UNICEF to the bidders
2 Wednesday 15/01/2014 Bidders to submit questions Bidders to submit by email questions on the RFP by Closure of Business
3 Friday 17/01/2014 UNICEF to issue response to bidders questions
UNICEF to respond to the bidders by Closure of Business
4 Tuesday 21/01/2014 Bidders to confirm intention to submit a proposal
Bidders to confirm by email intention to submit a proposal by Closure of Business
5 Tuesday 28/01/2014 Bidders submit final proposal Bidders to submit final proposal to UNICEF by 17:00 CET
6 Wednesday 05/02/2014 Shortlist Notice UNICEF to notify the bidders that have been shortlisted to make a technical presentation to UNICEF
7 Monday 10 & Tuesday 11/02/2014
Technical Presentation (Video Conference)
Shortlisted bidders to present company and its solution (2 hours will be allocated)
8 End February 2014 (estimated)
Notification of award
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Erasures or other corrections in the proposal must be explained and the signature of the applicant
shown alongside. All changes to a proposal must be received prior to the closing time and date. It must
be clearly indicated that it is a modification and supersedes the earlier proposal, or state the changes
from the original proposal. Proposals may be withdrawn on written request received from bidders prior
to the opening time and date. Bidders are expected to examine all instructions pertaining to the work.
Failure to do so will be at bidder’s own risk and disadvantage.
1.5 RFP RESPONSE FORMAT
Bidders are requested to confirm no later than Tuesday 21 January 2014, their intention to submit a
proposal, by sending an e-mail to the following:
Christine Lambert at [email protected] and to
Noëlle Bouvier at [email protected]
Full proposals should be submitted in ENGLISH via UNICEF Web Bidding Tool and must be
received no later than Tuesday 28 January 2014, 17h00 CET – and should not be sent to any other
UNICEF email address.
Registration details for the UNICEF Web Bidding Tool are attached as Annex 3.
Proposals must be split into separate attachments as follows:
a) Technical Proposal – must not contain any mention of prices or fees. The attachment should be
titled “RFP-PFP-141007 - Technical Proposal – [Company Name]”.
b) Price Proposal – should be submitted in a separate attachment from technical proposal. The
attachment should be titled “RFP-PFP-141007 - Price Proposal – [Company Name]”
Offers delivered by e-mail or in a different form than prescribed in this RFP, or which do not respect
the required confidentiality, or received after the designated time and date, will be rejected.
1.6 BIDDER’S RESPONSE
1.6.1 Formal submission requirements – The formal submission requirements as outlined in this
Request for Proposal must be followed, e.g. regarding form and timing of submission, no price
information in the technical proposal, etc.
1.6.2 Bid Form – The completed and signed bid form (page 2 of this RFP document) must be
submitted together with the proposal.
1.6.3 Mandatory criteria – Mandatory (i.e. must/have to/shall/should) criteria, if any, mentioned
throughout this Request for Proposal have to be addressed and met in your proposal.
1.6.4 Technical Proposal – The technical proposal should address all aspects and criteria outlined in
this Request for Proposal, especially in the statement of work in section 2 below. However,
bidders are free to suggest/ propose any other solution. UNICEF welcomes new ideas and
innovative approaches.
No price information should be contained in the technical proposal.
1.6.5 Price Proposal – The price proposal should be as per, but not limited to, paragraph 1.10 of this
Request for Proposal.
1.7 CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
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Information which the bidder considers proprietary, if any, should be clearly marked "proprietary" next
to the relevant part of the text, and UNICEF will treat such information accordingly.
1.8 RIGHTS OF UNICEF
UNICEF reserves the right to accept any proposal, in whole or in part; or, to reject any or all proposals.
UNICEF reserves the right to invalidate any Proposal received from a Bidder who has previously failed
to perform properly or complete contracts on time, or a Proposal received from a Bidder who, in the
opinion of UNICEF, is not in a position to perform the contract. UNICEF shall not be held responsible
for any cost incurred by the Bidder in preparing the response to this Request for Proposal. The Bidder
agrees to be bound by the decision of UNICEF as to whether her/his proposal meets the requirements
stated in this Request for Proposal. Specifically, UNICEF reserves the right to:
- Contact any or all references supplied by the bidder(s)
- Request additional supporting or supplementary data (from the bidder(s)).
- Arrange interviews with the bidder(s)
- Reject any or all proposals submitted
- Accept any proposals in whole or in part
- Negotiate with the most favourable bidder(s)
- Contract any number of candidates as required to achieve the overall evaluation objectives.
1.9 PROPOSAL OPENING
Proposals will be opened at UNICEF office in Geneva on Wednesday 29 January 2014, but due to the
nature of this RFP, there will be no public opening of proposals.
1.10 PROPOSAL EVALUATION
After the opening, each proposal will be assessed first on its technical merits and subsequently on its
price. The proposal with the best overall value, composed of technical merit and price, will be
recommended for approval. UNICEF will set up an evaluation panel composed of technical and
procurement staff and their conclusions will be forwarded to the internal UNICEF Contracts Review
Committee, or other relevant approving authority.
The evaluation panel will first evaluate each response for compliance with the requirements of this
RFP. Responses deemed not to meet all of the mandatory requirements will be considered non-
compliant and rejected at this stage without further consideration. Failure to comply with any of the
terms and conditions contained in this RFP, including provision of all required information, may result
in a response or proposal being disqualified from further consideration.
The overall weighting between technical and price evaluation will be as follows:
The technical component will account for seventy per cent (70%) of the total points allocated and the
financial component will account for thirty per cent (30%) of the total points allocated.
The assessed technical score must be equal to or exceed 42 of the total 70 points allocated to the
technical evaluation in order to be considered technically compliant and for consideration in the
financial evaluation.
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The proposals will be evaluated against the following technical criteria:
Technical Evaluation Criteria Weighing
(out of 70 pts)
Overall quality and completeness of the proposal 10
Demonstrated experience building global, multi-currencies and multi-
language websites
12
Demonstrated experience in building mobile-friendly websites, especially
with responsive design
8
Clarity and detail of the proposed methodology and approach 14
Demonstrated ability to meet the project’s strict deadline (based on the
preliminary draft of a detailed project timeline)
9
Solution demonstrates easy administration of website content and
management of donors
7
Vendor is PCI compliant (proof submitted), has demonstrated prior hosting
uptime of minimum 99.99%
5
Level of services offered in the monthly support, vendor and support team
available within the European time zones
5
Total Maximum Points 70
The price/cost of each of the technically compliant proposals shall be considered only after evaluation
of the above technical criteria.
The bidders should ensure that all pricing information is provided in accordance with the following:
a) The currency of the proposal shall be the currency of the country where the bidder’s office is
located, or in USD, and invoicing must be in the same currency.
b) Unless a specific price structure is provided in this RFP, the bidder should suggest a payment
schedule for the Contract, linked to unambiguous Contract milestones.
c) All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes as UNICEF is a tax-exempt organization.
1.11 PROPERTY OF UNICEF
This RFP, along with any responses there to, shall be considered the property of UNICEF and the
proposals will not be returned to their originators. In submitting a proposal the bidder will accept the
decision of UNICEF as to whether the proposal meets the requirements stated in this RFP.
1.12 VALIDITY
Proposals submitted must be valid for a minimum of one hundred and twenty (120) days from the date
of opening of this RFP and must be signed by an authorised representative of the company/institution.
Bidders are requested to indicate the validity period of their proposal in the Bid Form (page 2 of this
RFP document). UNICEF may also request for an extension of the validity of the proposal.
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1.13 CONTRACTUAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The UNICEF General Terms and Conditions are attached and will become an
integral part of the agreement.
These General Terms & Conditions are non-negotiable. Vendors must agree to
these General Terms & Conditions without exceptions and no extra provisions can
be added that would conflict with these provisions.
1.14 FULL RIGHT TO USE AND SELL
The bidder warrants that it has not and shall not enter into any agreement or arrangement that restrains
or restricts UNICEF’s to use, sell, dispose of or, otherwise, deal with any item that may be acquired
under any resulting Contract.
1.15 PAYMENT TERMS
Payment will be made only upon UNICEF’s acceptance of the work performed to UNICEF’s
satisfaction in accordance with the contract deliverables. The terms of payment are Net 30 days, after
receipt of invoice and acceptance of work. Payment will be effected by bank transfer in the currency of
the contract.
1.16 TECHNICAL PRESENTATION
Bidders that are shortlisted following the consolidated evaluation will be requested to make a
presentation to the UNICEF team on Monday 10 or Tuesday 11 February 2014. The presentation will
take place by video conference and should take no longer than 2 hours. Companies will be informed by
Wednesday 5 February 2014, 17h00 (Geneva Time), if they are required to make a presentation and, if
so, at what time. The presentation time will be used to (a) explore the proposed approach and solution
in more details, and clarify any unclear points or scenarios (in using the solution) and (b) where
possible to have a walk through the tools. A demo tool (or an existing website that could be used for
this purpose) should be used to demonstrate tools used to manage the website, launching global
campaigns and landing pages, managing donors’ profiles (including issuing a refund) and preparing an
email appeal. No costs whatsoever will be paid by UNICEF with regard to the presentation.
1.17 INTENDED CONTRACT PERIOD
It is UNICEF’s intention to enter into an initial three year contract with the selected vendor, with an
option to extend for a further two years, at UNICEF’s discretion. The vendor’s performance under this
contract will be reviewed after each twelve month period, and the contract will contain an opt-out
clause after each twelve month period, whereby the contract will be terminated if UNICEF is not
satisfied with the performance of the supplier.
2.0 TERMS OF REFERENCE
2.1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
Supportunicef ( http://www.supportunicef.org) is a global gateway for potential donors wishing to
make an online donation to UNICEF. The primary function of the supportunicef.org website is to
serve as a traffic controller for global visitors wishing to make an online donation -
Supportunicef.org redirects donors to our National Committee and Country Office websites, and
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takes in online donations from individuals in markets where UNICEF does not have the ability to
take in online donations locally.
On average, between US$500,000 and US$1,000,000 is raised annually through the website
(depending on the level of emergencies). The website takes one-time as well as recurring
(monthly) donations.
The website is currently hosted and maintained by an external service provider. Content, donor
management, email marketing and publishing is done through their product and is managed by the
Digital Unit in Central Fundraising (PFP, Geneva, Switzerland).
The platform has severe limitations (outlined under point 2) and is no longer suitable to support
global fundraising campaigns.
2.2 JUSTIFICATION
UNICEF is looking to provide donors with an exceptional experience in donating and supporting
our cause. The main goal of the website is to continue to raise increasingly more funds for
children’s programs worldwide. UNICEF is looking to work with a partner who can help achieve
this by delivering an outstanding donor’s experience online as well as allowing UNICEF to
capitalize on global campaign opportunities.
Supportunicef.org is increasingly supporting global fundraising campaigns, especially in sudden
global emergencies. There is also an increasing need to support global corporate employee giving
and celebrity-driven fundraising campaigns. A flexible, multi-currency platform is crucial for a fast,
supporter-friendly and adequate response in raising funds online.
As mentioned, the current platform has severe limitations. The most notable ones that would need
to be resolved with the new platform are lack of multiple currencies, absence of a mobile-friendly
version of the website and limitations around translating pages and donation forms into other
languages.
The following aspects of the existing website are still valid for future use and will only need to be
fully replicated on the new platform: design (website and email), wireframes, site structure and
donation flow, content and redirect functionality.
2.3 PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVE
The main objective is to enhance Supportunicef.org platform, allowing multiple currencies, easy
translation of any page to other languages and a full mobile-friendly version of the website. This
will be greatly beneficial for future international fundraising campaigns.
In addition, the project aims to upgrade the Supportunicef website to best-in-class fundraising tools
including content management, donor management and email marketing.
2.4 SCOPE OF WORK
The scope of work (as outlined in detail below) includes the following areas:
Content Management System;
Online Donation System;
Email Marketing System;
Online Donor Management System;
Reporting and Analytics;
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Hosting, Maintenance, Upgrades and Development;
Service and Support;
In order to fully reach the project’s objective, the selected vendor will have to carry out several
activities, including but not necessarily limited to the following tasks:
To review and map out the existing website’s functionality and content;
To replicate the existing website and email design, wireframes, site structure, migrate the
existing content and maintain the redirect functionality;
To set up a donation system that will allow one time and recurring donations in multiple
currencies (see list under point 4.1.);
To set up a content management system that will allow translation of content to multiple
other languages;
To identify possible solutions for migrating existing recurring donors to the new platform;
To migrate existing donor database to the new CRM (see Appendix 2 for details on the
current CRM);
To create a mobile-friendly version of the website and enable automatic mobile versions
of any pages and donation forms set up after the website launch;
To set up reporting and full integration with Google Analytics and Ecommerce;
To provide hosting and on-going support (including rapid response, ideally within a
couple of hours, for urgent requests related to website downtime and global emergency
appeals);
To provide training to UNICEF staff who will be managing the website (including
supplying a detailed manual with instructions).
UNICEF requires a fundraising technology solution that performs to the highest standards in
a number of key areas of functionality, as outlined below.
Please note that even though some details below are technically specific or suggest a specific
solution, UNICEF is open to considering other options and proposed solutions that the vendor
considers will meet the requirements better. 2.4.1 Content Management System
A content management system (CMS) that allows UNICEF to rapidly develop and deploy
fundraising content, especially in response to sudden emergencies;
A mobile-friendly version of Supportunicef.org (responsive design);
The CMS needs to support templates including:
- Templates that are assignable at the section, subsection and page level;
- Support for page-level template customization;
- Multiple, fully customizable templates for global content including navigation
menus, etc.;
- The ability to easily switch templates on a page-by-page basis;
CMS must support content* presentation in multiple languages, including:
- Support for all character sets, including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic;
- Support for right-to-left languages;
- Support for page-based linking between languages (i.e. link directly to alternate
language versions of specific content).
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*Content includes email confirmations and donation forms.
An additional (optional) feature that could be desired in the future would be the ability for
the CMS to identify the browser language setting of a site visitor and auto-select the same
language, when available, to present the content. If available, this should be enabled /
disabled by UNICEF.
Content Management Administration requirements:
- The CMS should have a web-based administration/management system that has
cross-platform support for all major web browsers and operating systems,
possibly including a mobile browser interface for quick administration tasks;
- WYSIWYG and HTML type of editing;
- Permission-based access control: The administration system must be able to
support multiple levels of administrators, including subscriber, contributor, author,
editor and administrator levels of access. Additional administrative groups based
on project teams, etc, should be supported, with customizable permissions.
Ownership and permissions should be assignable on a page-by-page and section-
by-section basis;
- Version archiving and roll-back system which would record changes to page
content, and allow for previous versions of content to be restored;
The content management system for supportunicef.org will require an efficient and versatile
system for managing unique landing pages. Individual landing pages should be based on a
common base template, but there should also be the ability for customized templates to be
easily adapted, saved, and cloned onto new landing pages. Landing pages may need to be
created very quickly (under an hour) in case of an emergency response. Each individual
landing page will require its own unique, user-friendly URL that can be used for
marketing purposes. Traffic, response rates and conversion data will need to be trackable
according to each landing page.
The website serves the primary purpose of redirecting incoming traffic to the most suitable
donation form, determined by the country of origin selected / confirmed by the user; in case
a local online donation form exists then the user is redirect to give through a local UNICEF
website; in case there is no country-specific donation form, then the visitor is redirected to
the global Supportunicef.org donation form.
Note: Please visit www.supportunicef.org to visualize how this process works. Click on
the ‘donate now’ in the top right corner and a window will pop up. If users select e.g.
‘United States’ as your country of residence, then they will be redirected to US Fund for
UNICEF’s local donation form. If users select e.g. ‘Angola’, they will reach the global
Supportunicef.org donation form.
When specialized landing pages are developed for individual themes or emergencies, then
this redirect functionality also needs to be included - a customized list of redirect URLs are
needed for different situations. Currently the website is utilizing around 12 lists with specific
local links for redirection. Redirects are used for donation purposes, as well as for e-
newsletter signups.
Site structure that allows search engine friendly URLs; for example, the current page “Why
support UNICEF” has the following URL:
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/lookup.asp?c=dvKUI9OWInJ6H&b=7651797, while it is
standard practice to use URL structure like this: www.supportunicef.org/how-you-can-
help/why-support-unicef. This is not about redirecting from a user-friendly URL to a
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different one, the actual URL should be search engine friendly.
Setup of redirects from current URL to the new ones, to maintain the content reachable by
old URLs as they are already indexed;
Ability to quickly build user-friendly short URLs (e.g. Supportunicef.org/Philippines);
Setup of SSL certificate on our donation forms (note: SSL certificate will probably be
purchased by UNICEF directly);
Solution to smooth transition from current links to the new ones (e.g. mapping out of
redirects from the current to the new links);
Replication of e-newsletter sign-up and contact forms;
Ability to fully mask the vendor / hosting information with all public facing tools, like
donation forms, email communication and links that are seen by users and donors;
Social media sharing support: this functionality needs to be built into the content
management system allowing for content to be automatically formatted with social
bookmarking and sharing tags for Facebook, Twitter, and other. Possibility of post-donation
social media sharing should be included;
All content will need to be approved by UNICEF prior to uploading.
2.4.2 Online Donation System
An online donation system that is secure, robust, and user-friendly, able to support multiple
currencies, multiple languages;
The donation system must provide protection from fraudulent and criminal usage, and must
demonstrate the highest level of security in the receiving, handling, processing, storage and
communication of donor data;
The platform must support employee-giving and celebrity-driven fundraising campaigns for
UNICEF:
In order to meet the increasing needs of global fundraising campaigns in partnership with
celebrities and companies, UNICEF would like to investigate the possibility to develop a
fully-integrated platform for supporting global corporate employee giving as well as
celebrity-driven fundraising campaigns. The platform will allow partners (individuals or
corporate) to create personalized landing pages to support their appeals in support of
UNICEF. An example of this platform is from UNICEF Spain and can be can be visualized
on http://meayudas.unicef.es. This platform should accommodate the following elements
(but not limited to):
Ability to manage multi-currency, multi-language and mobile-friendly pages, in
line with the core Supportunicef.org website’s design.
Be fully-integrated with all the elements of the core website, including the
payment gateway and the donor database (i.e. donations via this platform will be
recorded an included in the database as all the other donations on the main
website)
Allowing corporate and celebrity partners to easily personalize the page and
donation flow (including thank-you emails) to a certain extent (e.g. adding their
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logo and specific text). This personalization should be possible via a user-friendly
back-end accessible by the partner creating a campaign. UNICEF will need the
ability to review and approve campaigns prior to publishing.
The selected vendor will work with UNICEF to better define the user flows prior to the
implementation. UNICEF is expecting from the vendor to develop landing page templates,
including all steps of the user journey (the last one being email confirmation).
Ideally this should be developed and ready by end of September 2014 as well, however,
depending on the time and budget required UNICEF will consider implementation of this as
a second phase, after the core website is re-launched in October.
State of current practice online transaction security protocols that UNICEF would expect in
the online donation system include at minimum a 256-bit encryption, with PCI DSS
compliance;
Ability to set up 3D secure step (or equivalent) based on requirements as set forth by each
payment method;
Ability to apply robust spam filters on our donations forms that will intercept transactions
that are considered fraudulent; filters should be connected with a robust database that has
historical information on what is considered fraudulent and what not but should allow
ability to be modified based on UNICEF experience; in worst case scenario UNICEF should
also have the ability to enable manual approvals/rejections of transactions at the back-end;
Ability to display a custom message on our website when it is down due to maintenance /
upgrade / technical issues; ideally UNICEF would like to put a custom message (with a
UNICEF logo) with custom message that directs users to unicef.org during the website
downtime.
Currencies The online donation system should be able to accept and process payments in a range of
major international currencies, the list to possibly include:
U.S. Dollar (USD)
Singapore Dollar (SGD)
Utd. Arab Emir. Dirham (AED)
Saudi Riyal (SAR)
Russian Rouble (RUB)
Euro (EUR)
Swiss Franc (CHF)
British Pound (GBP)
Japanese Yen (JPY)
Australian Dollar (AUD)
Mexican Peso (MXN)
Brazilian Real (BRL)
Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
Cyprus Pound (CYP)
Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Trinidad/Tobago Dollar (TTD)
Nigerian Naira (NGN)
Chilean Peso (CLP)
Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD)
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Malaysian Ringgit (MYR)
Qatari Rial (QAR)
Indian Rupee (INR)
Venezuelan Bolivar (VEB)
Bahraini Dinar (BHD)
The final list of currencies for the launch will be determined based on cost for setup with the
ability to add additional currencies beyond the launch, on a needs basis.
Currencies should be enabled and handled through one donor database and be available for
users to select on one donation form (not one currency per one form).
Ability to customize the message that appears on donors’ credit cards statements (for
example, to reflect that donation was made via Supportunicef.org);
The online donation system must be able to accept and process donations made through all
common online payment methods, including major credit cards. The ability to process
some debit cards (where possible within national restrictions) will be considered a plus, but
not a requirement at this time;
Ability to enable PayPal with UNICEF branding throughout the donation flow;
Ability to add new payment methods in the future, as they become widely used, especially
in countries where UNICEF does not have online donation forms and thus collects
donations through Supportunicef.org;
Donation types: the online donation system must be able to accept single, immediate
donations with real-time processing and immediate email confirmations to be sent out.
Signups for recurring donations are also a requirement – most commonly for monthly
donations, optionally also for other periods (quarterly, annually, semi-annually). Recurring
donations would have no termination date;
Ability to set-up an email reminder for donors who have a recurring donation set up and
whose credit card will expire in a few months;
Ability for UNICEF to modify the minimum and maximum donation amount in the back-
end;
Ability to enable manual review of donations above a certain amount (and ability to modify
this threshold amount manually in the back-end);
Proposed optimization of donation form design and layout is welcome in light of optimizing
the user experience and increasing the conversion rates;
A custom base URL for donation pages should be supported (e.g.
https://donate.supportunicef.org);
Confirmation pages and email confirmations must be customizable to each individual
donation form, and allow for dynamic content to be included, such as donation amount,
designation, and other supporter-specific information.
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Donation forms should support the inclusion of optional fields to collect additional data
and/or opt-in checkboxes for email communications; the inclusion of a post-donation
engagement and other types of actions should also be possible (for example, sharing via
social networks or signing up to become a monthly donor);
Standard donation-required fields (name, address, etc.) must be customizable to
accommodate international donors (e.g. postal codes are not commonly used for all personal
addresses around the world, so they should be optional, not required);
The gift array for each donation form should be customizable, as well as the presentation of
single / recurring options on the same form. Donors should have the option to select from an
array of designations (these will be managed by UNICEF on the back-end), for example
“Where most needed”, “Philippines emergency” and “Syria crisis”;
Ability for ongoing A/B and multivariate testing of donation form content should be
supported, including testing of alternate content presentation and donation form layout;
UNICEF will require that all donations raised be deposited into one centralized UNICEF
bank account on a biweekly basis (at minimum).
2.4.3 Email Marketing System
An email broadcast solution that will allow for marketing campaigns to be launched, with
full support for segmentation and tracking of delivery, response and conversion;
The email marketing system must be capable of handling high volumes of messages and
contact records, and have sophisticated tools for managing and measuring subscriptions and
subscriber lists;
Web integration is required, allowing visitors to UNICEF's website to subscribe
automatically to receive email communications;
The tracking of email response is a critical element of UNICEF's online fundraising
program, and this must be a strong, built-in function of the email system, allowing complete
tracking of donor response including email open rate, click-through rate, donation form
completion and overall response rate.
A/B testing should be a built-in function, allowing competing versions of an email campaign
to be tested against a small random selection from the full target population to decide the
best version for the rest of the list;
Email broadcast system should be fully integrated with donor database in a seamless way;
Robust email system allowing for easy newsletter subscribers segmentation and a robust
functionality for communication with our pledge donors (for example, an email
confirmation for monthly donors should only go out upon subscribing and not upon all other
subsequent payments as well).
Ability to insert dynamic fields in email copy and subject lines (for example, inserting
donor’s first name);
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Ability to set up an automatically triggered email that is sent to pledge donors whose credit
card will expire soon;
Replication of current email program in place – supporters currently receive:
o email confirmations upon their successful donation;
o email notifications upon failed donations;
o automatic email 3rd
day after their one-time donation was made, asking them
to make a recurring (monthly) donation;
o email appeals are sent out once a month (one version for newsletter
subscribers and one version for existing recurring donors who subscribe to a
separate newsletter);
Please see Appendix 1 at the bottom of this document for screenshots of the email templates.
2.4.4 Online Donor Management System
Specific functions required for online donor data management would include:
Viewable, editable donor profile, consolidating donation and contact history;
Simple query-based searching and selection tools to generate exportable lists for ability to
contact supporters;
Ability to import of web donation data into the donor database;
Ability to track campaign IDs and report on response rates, donation outcomes, etc. on a
campaign by campaign basis;
Dashboard system allowing for live or near-live viewing of campaign results;
Customizable reporting, including PDF generation as a confirmation of a donation;
All donor data, regardless of which currency the donor made a donation should be fully
integrated into one database of records. The integration of multiple currency donations
within a centralized database should be automatic and seamless;
Export of donor contact information and giving history to handover to other UNICEF local
offices;
Donor database system that meets the current standards for managing donor data, allowing
for easy segmentation of donor lists, analysis of trends and results; 2.4.5 Reporting and Analytics
Specific tracking requirements for the online fundraising system are:
The online donation system must support real-time data reporting, including analytic tools
to determine traffic levels, country of origin and donation results (avg. response rates, gift
amounts by designation, etc.). All donations should be reported in a single report covering
original amounts and currencies plus details of remittance payments to UNICEF's central
bank account (breakdown of fees, net amount etc.);
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Integration at campaign level with Google Analytics’ Ecommerce tool is required, reporting
should be reliable at a minimum of 95% accuracy level;
Donation reporting must include source/referral details (for example, income generated by
links on unicef.org);
Traffic levels, unique visitors, email open rates, click-through rates, time spent on site,
repeat visits, popular pages/links, conversion performance, etc.;
Comparative stats and benchmarking between individual campaigns, including A/B testing
of donation form layouts and email marketing content;
Analysis of marketing response rates, including Google AdWords and social network
marketing;
Country specific slats including numbers of visitors I numbers of donors from each country
of origin;
A proposal on how to track conversions referred from Supportunicef.org to local UNICEF
websites (e.g. to unicef.fr, unicef.org.uk etc.), avoiding manual work of setting up tracking
codes for each link by local offices;
Cultivation of existing online donors requires another specific set of analytical tools to
show: attrition rates for monthly donors, segmentable by donation type, date, country of
origin, campaign;
A dashboard view that allows for integrated review and analysis of all of the above
components related to supportunicef.org including web site visits, email broadcasts, and
completed donations;
Optional: graphic reporting tools allowing for the viewing of visual charts and graphs of
key performance statistics.
2.4.6 Hosting, Maintenance, Upgrades and Development
The solution should facilitate the following parameters:
The supportunicef.org website receives visitors from all parts of the world currently
around 700,000 visitors per month (due to a Yahoo display advertising deal; around 30,000
visitors in a normal situation). It is important to consider how traffic to the website is driven
and affected by global events, especially during the time of a sudden global emergency.
Traffic to the website could increase substantially overnight, and the content server must be
able to support this capacity of page request, especially donation forms and delivery of
email confirmations. In the most recent emergency, the Philippines appeal, UNICEF
received close to 500 donations per day at the peak. At a previous campaign in 2013
Supportunicef.org received at maximum 100,000 visitors in one day.
Primary considerations for determining the suitable scenario for hosting include security,
backup of content and data, and guarantee of service (especially in accommodating spikes
in traffic levels during peak international emergencies). Proposals should include details of
a peak-traffic load-bearing system to allow the Supportunicef.org from being accessible
anywhere in the world during critical times of international emergencies. The page load
time should not be affected in any situation.
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Routine backups should be in place (retaining the last daily, weekly and monthly on the
server) and ability to restore information and website from a previous backup. A refund or
credit should be provided in case of failure to guarantee uptime.
UNICEF has Long Term Agreements in place with two ‘cloud’ IAAS providers Amazon
and Azure - the web application should be ready to be deployed on these vendor’s resources.
The vendor will carry out (at its own cost) updates, upgrades and maintenance to ensure
continuity of agreed functionality; all scheduled maintenance will be advised at least 5 days
in advance, all emergency maintenance will be advised immediately.
Please note that UNICEF owns the URL www.supportunicef.org.
2.4.7 Service and Support
Provide options for levels of monthly support; The type of support needed includes, but is
not limited to: one focal point managing and addressing technical issues and bugs within 12
hours (including after-hours and weekends), dealing with urgent requests for custom design
work, overseeing UNICEF account from the contractual and financial point of view,
proactively proposing solutions and improvements to help UNICEF achieve fundraising
objectives of the website and optimize administrative aspects; having a scheduled call with
UNICEF focal point approximately 2 times a month;
Website protection: should someone maliciously attack the website or deface it, the vendor
will restore the website within a few hours to full working order and then secure it on our
behalf;
The vendor and / or support team will ideally operate within the same time zone than
UNICEF’s time zone (GMT+1), or a few hours of time zone difference;
Periodic (at least monthly) penetration testing exercises based on industry standards web
application security framework (such as
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Top_Ten_Project) with sharing
reports with UNICEF (possibly on a staging server, not the production one);
Website ownership: UNICEF shall own the website and all associated intellectual property,
content and data; and must be able to access and download customer related data at any
time;
Website enhancements: the vendor will have the capacity to develop enhancements to
increase website functionalities as UNICEF may from time to time require;
Service level agreement – the vendor must warrant that the services delivered in the
execution of any contract resulting from the RFP will comply with the conditions set forth
in Appendix 3 available at the bottom of this document;
Transition and exit provisions: Should the agreement with the vendor be terminated, the
vendor must provide all necessary support and information (including but not limited to
access to website content and data in a required format, source code and information with
respect to the versions of any other third party products that may have been used to allow
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the website to function) to allow the orderly migration of UNICEF’s website to a new
vendor. No further costs or charges or fees will be paid to the vendor for transition.
2.4.8 Additional low-priority deliverables
This is a list of deliverables that are considered low-priority and thus not necessarily needed for
the launch of the website in October (depending on time and cost required for development
these might be excluded from deliverables).
Blogging tools to allow for a variety of single and multiple author blogs - which could be
updated by UNICEF field staff - to be created and attached to pages/sections of the
supportunicef.org website. Support for posting through email and SMS may be required. Individual pages and blog posts should support an optional commenting system that can be
activated or deactivated to allow for discussion of the article contents. Comments would
need to be reviewed / approved by a moderator before appearing on the site. Support for
photo and video sharing tools, allowing site users to upload and share multimedia content
where permitted would also be needed.
Support for virtual gifts webshop;
The capability to send SMS messages to supporters who subscribe to receiving them (e.g. in
case of an emergency, UNICEF would like to text messages with an appeal and a link to
mobile donation form);
2.5 DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME
2.5.1 Deliverables
1. Detailed Statement of Work, with business and technical requirements mapped out and
agreed with UNICEF at the beginning of the project upon after project launch;
2. Project plan and timeline (Gantt or similar format);
3. Website content, donor database and other assets as described in point 4 fully migrated to
the new platform to replicate the current set up;
4. Online donation system in place, supporting easy enabling of multiple currencies;
5. The platform for employee-giving and celebrity-driven fundraising campaigns;
6. Multi-language support for website translation fully in place;
7. A mobile-friendly version of the website in place;
8. Content management system in place;
9. Website tested and validated before the launch;
10. Email marketing system in place;
11. Service levels options delivered (UNICEF will need to decide on a post-launch support
package, please outline what each support package includes.)
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UNICEF will be able to provide more details on the current use of website, traffic, and other
background information that the selected vendor will consider useful.
2.5.2 Timeframe
All deliverables should be completed before October 2014 for the website switch over to the
new platform in October 2014.
Week of February 24 2014 Kick-off meeting in Geneva
Week of March 31 2014 Detailed Statement of work, Project plan and Project
timeline delivered
Week of September 15 Website ready for internal testing (vendor side and
UNICEF side)
First week of October Website live (switch from current to the new
platform)
2.6 RESPONSIBILITIES
UNICEF will be responsible in providing all the detailed information on the current website,
clarifying requirements, giving input on deliverables and providing timely feedback and approvals.
The vendor will be responsible for the complete project management, delivering on time and
quality, providing prompt response to UNICEF, make themselves available for in-person meeting
(if needed) and flag any risks or issues that might arise during the project on time.
Both UNICEF and the vendor will provide commitment in meeting the strict launch date (October
2014).
Please note that if any travel is required during this project, UNICEF travel rules apply.
UNICEF will have one contractual relationship with the lead contractor. While the vendor
may wish to engage 3rd party vendors to deliver certain aspects of this project (such as
payment service provider or email marketing tool) UNICEF will appoint one contractor as
the only and on-going point of contact from a client service perspective.
2.7 REPORTING REQUIREMENTS
The vendor will be responsible in providing the following reports for the duration of the project:
Minutes of meetings (call / in person);
Progress reports (on a needs basis, for use with project stakeholders)
Training material and detailed manual with instructions
Presentation material (on a needs basis, for use with project stakeholders)
All documentation must be provided in English.
2.8 QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
The vendor should have strong experience in:
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Building global multi-currency fundraising websites;
Working with global charities;
Solid project management;
Working and resolving issues with payment processors;
Providing technical and substantive support in boosting online fundraising;
2.9 ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES
The UNICEF team who will be working on this project is based in Geneva, Switzerland, 9.00 to
18.00 (GMT+1). While the core teams will be working on the project on a daily basis, a weekly
meeting (over the phone) will be expected for a wider project team to align up until the website
launch.
2.10 CONTENT OF THE TECHNICAL PROPOSAL
Your technical proposal should address all aspects of the brief. It will be evaluated against the pre-
established technical evaluation criteria stated in the above point 1.10. Please include the following
elements in your technical proposal:
a. Proposed methodology and approach;
b. Description of previous experience and examples of building multi-currency, multi-
language and mobile-friendly global websites, especially related to charity / fundraising
fields (including the list of clients and website examples);
c. Description of previous experience on project management (including the list of clients
and an example of the final outcome, stripped of any sensitive data or information)
d. Preliminary draft of a detailed project timeline, indicating stages of the project;
e. Outline the project team structure and individual roles, responsibilities and their
previous experience;
f. If possible, include details of your demo tool.
Bidders should provide sufficient information/substantiating documentation or any relevant information
to demonstrate their ability to deliver this project.
2.11 CONTENT OF THE PRICING PROPOSAL
The attached Pricing Schedule (see Annex 2) must be completed and shall constitute your
pricing proposal. Please submit your prices for each part of the project, as follows:
1- One-time all inclusive fee for the services included in the above Terms of Reference. This fee
should include the following components:
- Project management fees;
- Production costs with a breakdown as outlined under point 2.5.1;
- Product limitations and overage fees (if any) with a breakdown between the
tools outlined in point 2.4;
- Monthly support fee (for each service level option) – please recommend the
service level option which would best match our minimum requirements stated
in this document;
Bidders may want to provide the rationale for the costs stated (anticipated level of effort, working days
included, applicable daily rate(s), etc.) in your pricing proposal, for information purpose only.
Please note that the resulting contract will be a deliverables-based contract. All services provided will
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be paid by UNICEF only once satisfactorily delivered by the selected vendor in accordance with
UNICEF's requirements and once accepted by UNICEF. Any travel costs incurred during the
development and implementation period will be reimbursed upon submission of an invoice. UNICEF
will pay the Vendor (a) Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) for the period of travel (if authorised and
if applicable), subject to standard UNICEF rules and regulations governing DSA payments, and (b)
reimbursement for travel costs upon submission of a ticket receipt and original boarding passes. The
Vendor will purchase the lowest available fare class.
2- Recurring yearly fee for Maintenance services, upgrades and functional changes;
3- Recurring yearly fee for Hosting services;
4- Travel costs (max. five trips to Geneva, Switzerland);
5- Breakdown of transaction fees, split between vendor fees and payment method fees;
6- Optional: Fees associated with any request for additional currency setup;
7- Optional: Post-launch cost of additional work which is out of scope from this project (hourly
fees);
8- Optional: Low-priority deliverables (point 2.4.8)
The attached Bid Form should be completed and signed.
Please note that UNICEF is exempt from paying VAT and other sales taxes.
APPENDICES AND ATTACHMENTS
Appendix 1 Email templates currently in use
Appendix 2 Current donor/supporter database details
Appendix 3 Service Level Agreement
Annex 1 General UNICEF Terms and Conditions that will form an integral part of the contract
Annex 2 Pricing Form for the submission of your pricing proposal
Annex 3 Registration details for the UNICEF Web Bidding Tool
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Appendix 1: Email templates currently in use
A) Email confirmation upon successful donation
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Appendix 2: Current donor/supporter database details
Supporter Profiles – Record of all critical information about supporters (giving history, contact
information, newsletter subscription, special record flags, etc.);
Custom Profile Fields – Creation and organization of custom fields for individual, organization,
and transaction records;
Static and Dynamic Segments – Categorization of supporters for ability to target
communication;
Duplicate Management – Ability to automatically set up and resolve duplicate records (or
resolve them manually);
Interaction Tracking – Centrally record activities about interactions associated with supporters;
Funds and Designations – Setting up and organization of funds and designations as per
UNICEF’s campaign needs;
Query Tool – Retrieving records using customized queries and a standardized set of templates
covering most all available data;
Import / Export Center – Import/export of records through CSV, with ability to flag records that
have been exported for later exclusion from communication cycle.
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Appendix 3: Service Level Agreement – minimum requirements
Part A. Web Hosting Service Level Agreements
The vendor shall ensure that any appropriate third party service provider (approved by UNICEF
in advance) will be monitored on a 24-hour, 7 days a week basis and shall promptly address any
problems and notify UNICEF.
The vendor shall ensure that the hosting arrangement is sufficiently robust to allow sudden high
peaks of volume of traffic and donations to Supportunicef.org without downtime, delays or
payment processing issues.
The vendor guarantees the functioning of all hardware, including servers, CPU’s, cabling and
associated server hardware, firewalls, load balancers, and storage area networks, and will
promptly replace any failed component at no cost to UNICEF.
The vendor guarantees a minimum of 99.99% hosting uptime. All scheduled maintenance will
be advised at least 5 days I advance. All emergency maintenance will be advised immediately.
The vendor shall backup the Supportunicef.org website and all data files associated with it,
including the supporter/donor database, at least once each day and shall store the backup
materials in a safe secure location not at the same location as the vendor’s primary server.
Part B. Customer Support Service Level Agreements
The vendor shall provide support to UNICEF by phone and email.
Email response time for regular requests and questions shall be 12 hours (excluding weekends
and public holidays), and 2 hours for urgent and critical requests (such as reported downtime,
issues with tool functionalities, urgent design work required). Phone support should be available
24/7 for critical requests.
Part C. IT Security Service Level Agreements
The vendor shall maintain, and ensure compliance with, an information technology security
policy. The vendor shall conduct regular security risk analyses and amend its policy as
necessary to mitigate such risks.
The vendor represents to UNICEF that (a) the online donation system shall include at minimum
a 256-bit encryption, with PCI DSS compliance and (b) a copy of the PCI DSS Certificate has
been submitted to UNICEF prior to the signature of the contract.
The vendor represents to UNICEF that throughout the Term (a) it shall apply the standards of
ISO 27001 and the quality system of ISO 27002 and (b) shall arrange audits by an external
auditor on an annual basis to investigate the quality of the execution of above-mentioned
standards. The vendor shall provide UNICEF with a copy of the report of the external auditors
promptly.
Personal data of all customers and visitors to the www.supportunicef.org website shall be
encrypted when saved or transferred (including, but not limited to, transfer of data when filling
in forms online).
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Part D. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
UNICEF and the vendor will review monthly service level KPI’s and assess performance
results. If it is determined that the service levels are not being met during a specific reference
period, UNICEF and the vendor will meet to review the non-conformance and develop a
mutually acceptable course of action to restore the service at the agreed Service Level.
Applicable Key performance indicators (KPIs) shall be as follows:
a. System availability
b. System reliability
c. Support team response time and issue resolution time
d. Disaster recovery and restoration of services after incident