Seeking Program Evaluator

Neighborhood Spotlight Project Evaluator

Request for Proposal (RFP)

Summary and Background

Legacy Foundation is seeking an experienced evaluator to design and conduct an evaluation of Neighborhood Spotlight, Legacy Foundation's collective impact initiative to transform neighborhoods in Lake County, Indiana. From 2013-current, Legacy Foundation, in partnership with Chase Bank, has provided funding to the Indiana Association for Community Economic Development (IACED) to train, guide, convene, and engage residents in 4 local neighborhoods to create a "quality of life plan" for each neighborhood. Legacy has also provided (or will provide) implementation funding to carry out some portions of these plans, which address a variety of local challenges. The purpose of this Request for Proposal (RFP) is to solicit applications from qualified individuals, institutions, and organizations to develop and produce a rigorous evaluation of all outcomes resulting from Neighborhood Spotlight.

Neighborhood Spotlight was informed by research that residents have better outcomes when they live in neighborhoods where individuals and organizations come together to respond to local challenges. Legacy Foundation wanted to help local agencies and residents learn to work together to facilitate implementation of diverse community improvement projects. This place-based approach focuses on the neighborhoods where families live creating strategies that build community capacity to create and sustain thriving and healthy environments for all residents. Currently focused on 4 neighborhoods in Lake County, Neighborhood Spotlight is an important part of Legacy Foundation's strategic priorities.

Through Neighborhood Spotlight, Legacy Foundation seeks to help improve the lives of Lake County residents neighborhood by neighborhood. At the heart of this framework is the belief that if neighborhoods are strong and residents are engaged, there will be more sustainable long term outcomes.

Neighborhood Spotlight is intended to leverage additional investments and help neighborhoods and non-profits connect to new groups and create and/or strengthen partnerships. Neighborhood Spotlight goals include:

building the capacity of individual community organizations to function as neighborhood wide conveners
building stronger partnerships
coordinating program implementation among neighborhood organizations based on mutual trust
leveraging external resources for varied improvement projects of quality and scale.

To enact these goals, Legacy Foundation funded a convening organization, selected by the collective, that would act as the backbone for the initiative in each selected neighborhood and paid for a community builder, technical support, and the opportunity to participate in learning from peers and subject area experts. Backbone organizations varied in size and capacity.

During the planning phase, each community builder working with the backbone organization engaged and convening organization convened residents and other stakeholders to define their own quality of life plan for their neighborhood. The plan provided a template for varied projects to be accomplished over the course of several years.

Timeline

December 2013 - Legacy Foundation hosts press conference to announce Neighborhood Spotlight Initiative
February-June 2014 - Nine neighborhoods complete training sessions to learn about collective impact.
September 2014 - Applications due for first cohort of Neighborhood Spotlight applicants.
October 2014 - Miller neighborhood of Gary {Miller Beach Arts and Creative District) and NW side of Hobart (Hobart Family YMCA) announced as first round of NS backbone grantees
February 2015 - Cohort 1Community Builders are hired and communities begin receiving collective impact trainings
February -June 2015 - 2"d cohort of neighborhoods complete training sessions to learn about collective impact
March-November 2015 -1:1resident interviews, visioning sessions, and working groups take place to inform the plan
September 2015 - Applications due for second cohort of Neighborhood Spotlight applicants
October 2015 - Emerson/Downtown neighborhood of Gary {FAITH CDC) and Griffith announced as second round of NS backbone grantees
December 2015 - Hobart NW and Gary Miller release their Quality of Life Plan.
January 2016 - Cohort 2 Community Builders are hired and communities begin receiving collective impact training
January 2016-May 2016 - Cohort 2 training with IACED and community engagement conversations/events
February 2016-July 2016 - Cohort 1Community Builder contract extension. Begin implementation of QOL plan goals.
June 2016-0ctober 2016 - Cohort 2 working groups
November/December 2016 - Cohort 2 Quality of Life Plan roll-out
January - December 2017 - Cohort 2 plan implementation

Proposal Guidelines

This RFP represents the requirements for an open and competitive process. Proposals will be accepted until 5:00 pm CST August 31, 2016. Any proposals received after this date and time will be rejected.

Evaluation of proposals will be conducted from September 1, 2016 until September 12, 2016. If additional information is needed with any bidder during the review process, this bidder will be notified. The selection decision for the winning bidder will be made no later than September 19, 2016. All questions and requests for additional information regarding this RFP must be received via email to Kelly Anoe (kanoe@legacyfdn.org). If the organization submitting a proposal must outsource or contract any work to meet the requirements contained herein, this must be clearly stated in the proposal. Additionally, costs included in the proposals must be all-inclusive. Any proposals which call for outsourcing or contracting work must include a name and description of the organizations (or individual) being contracted. All costs must be itemized to include an explanation of all fees and costs. Contract terms and conditions will be negotiated upon selection of the winning bidder for this RFP.

Project Scope (3 pages)

Legacy Foundation is seeking an evaluator to design and conduct an evaluation of Neighborhood Spotlight. The evaluation will need to take into account the complex nature and interacting effects of various factors and influences. The scope of this project includes development and oversight of an evaluation plan that will measure the effectiveness of the overall program model, the specific outcomes of the neighborhood specific plans, and changes in quality of life indicators in the targeted neighborhoods. The final product must consists of a thorough written evaluation of Neighborhood Spotlight, submitted to Legacy Foundation. The final evaluation report should describe challenges that Neighborhood Spotlight faced, lessons learned, the extent to which it achieved its goals, and the implications for similar initiatives. Recommendations should be made for Neighborhood Spotlight moving forward into future phases.

The evaluation must also build the knowledge base for future Legacy Foundation initiatives.

This evaluation should, at a minimum, provide the following information:

Describe the reach of Neighborhood Spotlight (who was served, how many, to what extent?) and identify those that still need to be targeted (any groups that were not engaged/excluded).
Assess how this initiative impacted individual, community, and systemic change and the interaction of these three domains
Assess if and how Neighborhood Spotlight impact can be sustained over time.
What other factors may influence the impact of the initiative?
What were the barriers to change?
What are facilitators of change in the community environment and settings?
To what extent has the neighborhood improved? What changes can be seen as a result of Neighborhood Spotlight?

Information will be gathered by completing, at a minimum, the following tasks:

Meet with key Neighborhood Spotlight leadership, including Legacy Foundation staff and board, IACED, Convening organizations, Community Builders, and Steering Committees. The purpose of these meetings is to learn more about the program, make key decisions about the study, and identify action items and next steps.
The evaluator will engage in various efforts to better understand the Neighborhood Spotlight initiative and available data sources.
Once the measures and data sources have been determined, the evaluator will be responsible for all aspects of data collection for the evaluation.
The evaluator will analyze the data according to the evaluation plan and develop a summary of findings along with data tables and figures. The analysis is expected to be multidisciplinary and applicants should consider both quantitative and qualitative analysis.
The evaluator may be requested to present findings in person to Legacy staff and board
During the duration of the project, the evaluator will provide quarterly progress updates to Legacy Foundation. The updates will be organized by task and provide updates on progress as well as any obstacles or issues encountered and next steps.

Proposal Narrative (3 Pages Single Spaced)

Proposal narrative should include the following information:

How the applicant would approach this evaluation, including design, questions, measures, approach, and anticipated limitations
Identify any expected challenges and describe how they will be addressed or minimized.
How Legacy Foundation and other stakeholders will be engaged in the evaluation process.
Scope of Work (SOW) organized by task for the entire 18 month project period.
An SOW narrative should be included that describes the proposed process to complete each task outlined in the SOW, identifies key deliverables, provides a timeline, and identifies any other key members of the evaluation team along with their roles and responsibilities.

Budget (2 pages)

The evaluator will be compensated based on the final budget developed during the contract negotiation phase. It is anticipated that the work will be carried out over an 18 month period beginning September, 2016. It is expected tha t the applicant's budget will be clearly justified in the budget narrative and will be appropriate to the work proposed. The bidder's proposal must include proposed costs to complete the tasks described in the project scope.

Include a budget narrative that explains how all costs were determined and why they are essential for the proposed scope of work.

Bidder Qualifications (2 pages)

Eligible applicants must possess knowledge of place-based collective impact evaluation. Bidders should provide the following items as part of their proposal for consideration:

Description of experience in program evaluation that is similar in scope to that required of Legacy Foundation's Neighborhood Spotlight initiative
Discussion of one or more comparable program evaluation accompanied by reports or other documentation of the work and the results
References or endorsements from two or more customers with whom the bidder conducted comparable projects.
Demonstrated capacity to work throughout Lake County, Indiana.
Experience and knowledge working in Lake County. Understanding of the cultural, regional, community, and demographic experiences.
Effective communication and problem solving skills.

Please include with the application a previous sample evaluation report and resume or CV for each key member of the evaluation team (does not apply toward page count).