RFP : Engaging Services of Communication Agency – Language & Learning Foundation’s (LLF)
Last date for application – 31st May 2023
Language & Learning Foundation’s (LLF) vision for change India is facing a severe foundational learning crisis as evidenced by several national surveys like the National Achievement Survey (NAS) and ASER (Annual Status of Education Report). The World Bank has called this the ‘learning poverty’, viz. the inability of a 10-year child to read a simple text with understanding. The early learning crisis in Indian primary schools is severe and 55% of children in the age group 6 to 10 years are ‘learning poor’. Foundational learning more commonly called FLN (foundational literacy and numeracy), includes the ability to read fluently with deep comprehension and write independently and numeracy skills of addition, subtraction and multiplication.
Goal: Founded in 2015, the Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) is an education non-profit dedicated to improving foundational learning of students in primary grades at scale, in collaboration with the national and state governments in India. Our narrow focus on FLN has helped us develop highly effective program designs and create impact at scale. LLF is currently working with eight state governments (Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Gujrat, Odisha, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh) to reach roughly 20 million children through its programs, thus helping more than one-third of the at-risk chil-dren in these states.
Objectives: To reach this goal, LLF focuses on three strategies:
1. Enhancing state governments’ commitment to improving language and literacy instruction;
2. Persuading governments to include children’s home languages in school; and through
multilingual approaches; and
3. Developing capacity in the public education ecosystem to implement and sustain high quality interventions in early literacy and multilingual education at scale
LLF’s core operating principles
1. Work preferentially in educationally disadvantaged areas with the focus on improving
student learning outcomes
2. Co-create contextualized academic solutions with state agencies
3. Build strong professional relationships with the government system at all levels
4. Work with all stakeholders: Teachers, teacher mentors, teacher educators, administrators and state level educational leadership
5. Ensure gender equity in learning outcomes and representation within the organisation
6. Strong internal and ongoing monitoring processes at all levels
2. Essential information:
- The reference no. LLF/RFP/2023/01 must be shown on the technical proposal.
- Proposal must be received latest by 31st May 2023
- Request for Proposal must be emailed to communications@languageandlearningfoundation.org
- Your proposal should include Technical and Financial proposal
- The proposals will be assessed by a committee of members from LLF and experts from the communication field.
- Technical proposal: Please prepare the proposal as an overall response to Scope of Work ensuring that the purpose, objectives, scope, criteria and deliverables of the project are addressed.
- Financial proposal: Please include any additional requirement/cost needed to complete the project or that might have an impact on cost or delivery of services.
- LLF recourse in case of unsatisfactory performance: in case of unsatisfactory performance, payment will be withheld until quality deliverables are submitted. If the agency/individual is unable to complete the assignment, the contract will be terminated by notification letter sent 30 days prior to the termination date. In the meantime, LLF will initiate another selection in order to identify appropriate agency/individual
3. Main Objective
We would like to achieve following objectives:
- Create brand awareness and recall amongst various stakeholders (government, peer
organisations, funders) to build our reputation and attract new donors. - Increase revenue through major fundraising initiatives. By the end of FY 2027, we are aiming to raise a total revenue target of INR 58 crores through diversified set of donors viz.
- Corporates, Institutional funders, foreign foundations and Ultra High-net-worth donors.
4. Scope of Work but not limited to following deliverables
Eligible applicant agencies can choose scope of work as a combination whole scope (a, b &c) or in part (any one/two) of the below.
The brand strategy, positioning, narrative and guidelines are currently being developed by another agency. The incoming agency is expected to take it forward.
a) Media Advocacy/Public Relations Strategy
- Design an effective and comprehensive traditional and new-age Public Relations/Media Advocacy Strategy and finalise it with approval from the LLF team. To organize and conduct press briefings, press conferences, press releases, panel discussions, launch research reports etc. which fall within the ambit of LLF. This will include targeting the relevant media across India, pre-announcement preparation, drafting the key messaging, press release & related information, talking points, media list collation, media invites, pan India press release dissemination, etc
- Keep the media abreast of all important developments about LLF and its activities. The agency will proactively identify appropriate media opportunities to highlight important developments and announcements.
- Ensure a consistent share of voice for LLF through industry stories, interviews (print,
electronic and online), thought leadership articles, podcast participation opportunities. - Arrange for media coverage of any significant event attended by the senior management of LLF (as specified by LLF) in any part of the country.
- Ensure visibility for top leadership by identifying appropriate award and speaking
opportunities - Monitor and track PR metrics through monthly dossiers and annual report
- Mitigate negative information and manage crisis communication through appropriate steps
b) Digital Media
- The agency will develop and submit a customized digital strategy and ensure that it would work in tandem with the brand communications strategy (currently WIP)
- Conceptualise and develop message content, devise awareness and fundraising campaigns (short video, GIF, Banners, graphics/infographics, greetings, animations etc.) for publishing/posting/uploading in traditional media, social media platforms and websites
- Take over management of social media handles and be responsible for metrics such as
increasing followers, increasing engagement rate - Monitor and report on the social media conversations around LLF, education, foundational literacy and numeracy, competition and advise appropriate steps
- Ensure online reputation management through prompt response to queries on social media
- Ensure social media analytics through monthly social media reports
c) Website Management &SEO
- Website content and design is currently developed by another agency. The SEO and content management agency should input, edit and improve the website content to ensure SEO optimisation.
- Provide keyword lists under relevant buckets for SEO optimisation of the website content
- Optimize search engine ranking for LLF’s official websites(https://languageandlearningfoundation.org/) (https://llf-usa.org/) in terms of number of keywords and improvement in ranking month-on-month
- Find and fix duplicate, missing and truncated title tags, meta tags, meta descriptions and content
- Conduct technical SEO audit of the website, working closely with the developer
- Improve website traffic through guest posts and internal linking to blogs
- Tap into blogosphere, ideate themes for blogs and draft blogs
- Perform regular audit of SEO and submit monthly reports
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE OR EXPERIENCE
The qualifications and experience required for the agency/vendor as follows:
Credible agency with professional experience in providing holistic communications solutions that are targeted towards brand recall, strengthening fundraising and achieving program delivery goals.
- Experience working with NGOs or social impact sector to ensure an understanding of target audience and sector dynamics.
- A well-rounded sufficient team of experts. Profile and/or CVs of the team as well as
references/links to two most recent projects should be provided with the technical proposal.
CRITERIA FOR SHORTLISTING AGENCIES
Agencies will be evaluated against the following criteria: adherence to RFP instructions, timeliness, responsibility, initiative, innovation, cost effectiveness and quality of the past work, references and case studies from the development sector.
TIMELINES:
● 22nd May 2023: Floating of Request for Proposal for hiring communication agency
● 31st May 2023: Deadline for submission of proposals by agencies
● 6 th& 7th June 2023: Presentation by shortlisted agencies
● 8 th & 9th June 2023: Finalisation of agency by the Selection Committee
● 15 th June 2023: Intimation to the selected agency
