RFP: We're Seeking a Technology Consultant
/People Powered seeks a technology consultant to assess our communications and program technology needs and recommend solutions. Thanks to a capacity-building grant from one of our funders, we aim to contract a consultant by early March and complete work by April.
About People Powered
People Powered is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York, that serves as a global hub for participatory democracy. Our mission is to expand people’s power to make government decisions, by supporting organizations and governments that are building participatory democracy around the world. We launched in July 2020 and have quickly grown to a staff of eight and a $1.3 million budget.
We're building a participatory democracy in which community members make the policy decisions that affect their lives, together with government. In practice, this looks like programs such as participatory budgeting, participatory policy-making, participatory planning, and citizen assemblies. We support this work by sharing and developing resources, providing training and mentorship, and building a global community of practice. We focus on supporting organizations and advocates with the greatest needs, especially in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.
Our challenge
We have grown rapidly in our first two years, and our technology infrastructure has not kept pace with practical demands. We have successfully adopted nearly a dozen different software products to support our programs, but much of this technology is not integrated effectively. We need to upgrade our software and/or switch to new technologies to accommodate our growth.
Our goal
Our goal is to identify the most appropriate technology solutions that meet our current and projected needs, and that will hopefully save time and money. We aim to upgrade our communications technology (currently a standard Mailchimp plan and Google Suite tools), make our online learning content available via an LMS, better integrate or upgrade our mentorship software (Qooper), and integrate our different email and contact lists into a more usable infrastructure (CRM).
Scope of work
Assess our technology systems and needs, especially for the CRM, learning management, member-community management, and mentorship functionalities.
Propose a technology strategy that includes recommended software and changes in how we use and manage organizational technology. This would include recommended CRM and LMS software and potential changes in our current software or how we are using it for member community management and our mentorship program.
Budget
We have allocated a maximum budget of $15,000 USD for a consultant. (We recognize software costs are separate.)
We are highly organized, have a clear sense of our needs, and work frequently and efficiently with external consultants, so we anticipate that this engagement will be relatively straightforward. But let us know what you think!
Please send inquiries and proposals (as PDFs) via email to info@peoplepowered.org by February 24, with this subject line: Technology Consultant.