Project Name: General Support
RFP Issue Date: 12.4.2024
Response Due Date: 12.18.2024
Contract Start Date: 1.1.2025
Project Overview and Qualifications
The Democracy at Work Institute seeks a qualified contractor to provide a wide range of general support services that are described below. Applicants must have demonstrated experience in areas of work outlined in the scope, strong relationships and credibility within the world of democratic workplaces and the ability to activate those workplaces to participate, and demonstrated ability to coordinate peer advisors from democratic workplaces.
About DAWI
The Democracy at Work Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit movement-based think-and-do tank that works to expand worker ownership to meet the needs of workers locked out of good jobs and business ownership opportunities, especially BIPOC, recent-immigrant, and low-wage workers. We do research and advocacy; we develop tools and new models; we train worker-owners and developers; and we build cooperative development capacity to ensure that further growth in the worker cooperative movement reaches low-income people, people of color and recent immigrants. In all our work, as well as internal operations, we strive to embody our organizational values of Excellence, Equity, Entrepreneurialism, Collaboration, and Human-Centeredness.
Scope of Work
Anticipated project period: January 2025 - December 2025
Anticipated project budget: $30,000
The Democracy at Work Institute seeks a qualified partner to provide support on a wide range of initiatives. We anticipate that the project deliverables, milestones and level of effort will be as outlined in this chart. Milestones and descriptions are preliminary and we welcome extra detail in proposals.
Work Area Description Suggested Milestones/Deliverables Research Conducts research and gathers data and disseminates, such as economic census, individual census Recruits and supports cooperatives to participate in data-gathering and surveys, including the national enterprise survey and individual worker survey Deliverables:
- Annual project plan and scope Individual Worker Census & Business Census:
- Co-create a plan
- Outreach to partners and members
- Support identifying research partner through an RFP process
Event production
Co-produces cooperative field-facing events, recruiting coops to present, participate and attend Milestone: At least 50% worker cooperative participation in convenings and webinars. Support the field
Foster leadership and participation within the cooperative field through TA, training, and the development of educational materials Deliverable:
- List of educational events and participation
- Development of trainings/educational materials for the Learning Management System.
Communications
Collaborate on high-level messaging alignment and comms strategy. Participation in coordinating meetings Deliverable: Meeting notes, creation of shared messaging and advocacy strategy Field building Build connections within the field and with other movements by attending major conferences to represent the worker cooperative sector (e.g. NCBA, others). Collaborate on event attendance with DAWI leadership. Deliverable: List of events participated in. Policy support Co-develop shared priorities with DAWI to engage cooperatives on shared advocacy initiatives. Regular meeting of cooperative policy and advocacy member groups Deliverable: Meeting schedule and notes. Programmatic coordination Participate in strategy and planning meetings with DAWI and join in key staff meetings and strategy calls as appropriate Deliverable: Meeting schedule and notes
Proposal Template
The response should include the following sections:
Statement of Work
A description of how the applicant will undertake the scope of work, including key project milestones and/or deliverables
Organizational qualifications
An overview of why the applicant is qualified to do the work outlined in the scope
Personnel
Names and qualifications of the individuals that will execute this work
Allocation and role of assigned staff
Include a short bio and resumes of staff that will be allocated to the project
Budget
A standard line-item budget using the following categories:
Personnel
Fringe
Contractors
Travel
Supplies
Other [describe]
Proposal Submission Instructions
Organizations that meet the qualifications outlined in this document should submit their documents electronically in a single PDF.
Proposals should be clearly written and describe the applicant’s understanding and plan to address the work described in the Scope section of this document.
Project Name: General Support
Submission Email Address: vbransburg@institute.coop
Submission Email Title: General Support RFP Response
Evaluation Criteria
Submitted proposals will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. Project Approach
a. Applicants demonstrate a clear and effective approach to meet the scope of work
2. Qualifications of the organization
a. This includes: demonstrated experience in the field of worker cooperatives and past experience with relevant project work
3. Qualifications of personnel
a. Demonstrated and relevant experience of staff members
4. Budget
a. Demonstration that the applicant can meet project deliverables within the outlined project budget
In evaluating proposals, DAWI may seek information from the applicant or other sources that it deems necessary on submitted proposals.