Website Designer

Budget: $5,000 to $10,000

Request for Proposals

ABOUT COLLEGESPRING
CollegeSpring, a nonprofit, partners with schools and community organizations to help high-school students from low-income backgrounds boost their SAT scores, tackle the college admissions and financial aid processes, and confidently pursue college degrees. CollegeSpring has served over 2,700 students since 2008, and is poised to grow significantly within the next few years.


WEBSITE REDESIGN
CollegeSpring seeks proposals for a website redesign. Bids must be received by Monday, December 3. We hope to choose a vendor by mid-December and to complete the project near the end of February. See below for details.

TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Email the following information:

-Your qualifications and how the project(s) would be carried out.
-An estimate of fees to be charged and expenses to be incurred
-Examples of past work, preferably on similar projects for similar clients
-Names, phone numbers, and contact people at three nonprofit organizations who have been your clients during the past 18 months, and whom we can call as references

Please direct any questions to Meg Duff, Communications and Data Manager.

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MORE DETAILS:

WEBSITE REDESIGN

Purpose
CollegeSpring is expanding. We need a website that reflects our position as California’s premier provider of SAT preparation and college-readiness instruction for low-income students. The website should:
-Convey our position as the leader in our space and build excitement about our work.
-Convey key program elements, impact, and recent achievements to multiple audiences.
-Increase our ability to advertise multiple positions and achievements simultaneously on
our homepage and throughout the site.
-Showcase CollegeSpring’s desirability as a workplace to potential staff.
-Provide visitors with an engaging and painless user experience.
-Grow easily with CollegeSpring as we expand; be easy for staff to update.

Audiences
CollegeSpring’s website must appeal to several distinct audiences: school and nonprofit partners, individual donors and foundations, seasonal staff (including both undergraduates and professional teachers), potential full-time staff, and participating students.

Deliverables
New look, layout, and functionality for CollegeSpring’s website
Design that captures our brand persona and enhances our visual brand.

PREFERENCES:

Design
Integrate design with basic colors, fonts, design elements already in use by
CollegeSpring, and expands on these to continue solidifying CollegeSpring’s visual brand.

Layout
Create layout that makes good use of photos of our programs.
Use space well. Text (especially in navigation buttons) should be large and easy to read, and photos and other elements should be large and engaging.
Create intuitive navigation options so that users can easily see what pages exist and explore the site.
Optimize site for all major screen sizes and browsers, including mobile.

Features
Include a variety of features contributing to an engaging, informative user experience. Web designer should have the expertise to advise us on options. Features could potentially include:
-Slideshow banner on homepage that is easy to update with new photos and stories
-Social Media feeds and buttons and newsletter subscription integrated throughout
-Ability to display multiple news stories and job opportunities on the home page
-Blogging ability

Content Management
-Site should be built on an intuitive CMS; content and pages should be easily updated by staff. We currently use Wordpress and are happy to continue, but are open to other options.
-CMS must include the ability to integrate Salesforce forms for applicant tracking.
Wordpress currently allows us to do this with some workarounds.