ESBD_573387_1793746456644_Rider 101_Scope of Work_Direct Response Marketing.pdf

Direct Response Fundraising Strategy, Creative and Growth Services

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Request for Proposal Statement of Work (SOW)

Direct Response Fundraising Strategy, Creative, and Growth Services

AIS-ADM-01738-RFP

Table of Contents

1.0 General 3

2.0 Background 3

3.0 Objectives 3

4.0 Minimum Requirements 4

5.0 Description of Services 5

5.1 Program Scope and Governance 5

5.2 Core Direct Response Fundraising Programs 5

5.3 Integrated Program Strategy 6

5.4 Budget Forecast and Management 8

5.5 Account and Project Management 8

5.6 Data Management Targeting and Modeling 8

5.7 Creative Strategy and Development 10

5.8 Email Program 10

5.9 Paid Advertising and Top of Funnel Audience Acquisition 11

5.10 Reporting Analytics and Forecasting 12

5.11 Technology Platform and Vendor Coordination 13

6.0 Miscellaneous Provisions 13

7.0 Presentations 13

1.0 General:

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (“UT MD Anderson”) requests proposals from qualified and experienced firms to provide direct response fundraising strategy, creative development, audience growth, campaign execution support, and related services described in this Statement of Work

(SOW).

UT MD Anderson may make one or more awards and may award all or a portion of the services, as permitted by the solicitation.

2.0 Background:

UT MD Anderson is one of the world’s most respected institutions devoted exclusively to cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention. Established in 1941 as a component of The University of Texas System, UT MD Anderson is a federally designated comprehensive cancer center and advances a mission to end cancer.

UT MD Anderson’s direct response fundraising program engages prospective and current donors through direct mail, email, digital advertising, online experiences, and other approved channels. The program supports donor acquisition, retention, reactivation, monthly giving, mid-level giving, stewardship, and long-term donor value while delivering an experience consistent with the UT MD Anderson brand.

3.0 Objectives:

UT MD Anderson seeks an experienced direct response fundraising agency to develop and support an integrated, data-informed program that increases donor acquisition, retention, long-term value, and net revenue while strengthening the donor experience and advancing UT MD Anderson’s mission to end cancer. UT MD Anderson’s engagement objectives shall include, but not be limited to:

3.1. Selecting supplier(s) that develop an integrated annual direct response strategy aligned with institutional and philanthropy priorities.

3.2. Selecting supplier(s) that increase the number, value, retention, and long-term engagement of donors through disciplined audience strategy, creative development, testing, and optimization.

3.3. Selecting supplier(s) that build a measurable pipeline that reaches new prospective donors, generates qualified and permissioned leads, and converts prospects into first-time and repeat donors.

3.4. Selecting supplier(s) that develop and execute integrated advertising campaigns that expand

UT MD Anderson’s prospective-donor audiences, increase qualified traffic and leads, and support direct-response fundraising objectives through coordinated paid media, creative, landing experiences, and conversion strategies.

3.5. Selecting supplier(s) that deliver high-quality, accessible, brand-aligned creative across agreed-upon offline and digital channels.

3.6. Selecting supplier(s) that establish timely, transparent reporting, forecasting, and documentation practices that support investment decisions and accountability.

3.7. Selecting supplier(s) that provide responsive account leadership and effective coordination with UT MD Anderson staff, platforms, agencies, production suppliers, and other authorized partners.

4.0 Minimum Requirements:

The selected supplier(s) must demonstrate the following qualifications:

4.1. The selected supplier(s) must have experience leading direct response fundraising programs for nonprofit organizations of comparable scale and complexity.

4.2. The selected supplier(s) must demonstrate expertise across direct mail, email, paid digital and offline acquisition, audience strategy, creative development, testing, analytics, and forecasting.

4.3. The selected supplier(s) must demonstrate ability to translate advanced analytical findings into actionable media, audience, creative, channel, and fundraising optimization recommendations and to operationalize those recommendations within campaign planning and execution.

4.4. The selected supplier(s) must have experience supporting health care, cancer, research, or other complex mission-based fundraising programs.

4.5. The selected supplier(s) must have experience developing and deploying fundraising emails in Salesforce Marketing Cloud or a comparable enterprise platform.

4.6. The selected supplier(s) must have the capability to manage sensitive constituent data in accordance with applicable security, privacy, consent, and records-management requirements.

4.7. The selected supplier(s) must have a named account lead and a sufficiently experienced cross-functional team, including strategy, creative, data, analytics, digital media, email, and project-management expertise.

4.8. The selected supplier(s) must have at least three (3) references for comparable engagements and relevant case studies demonstrating measurable fundraising outcomes.

4.9. The selected supplier(s) must disclose all subcontractors, offshore resources, actual or potential conflicts of interest, and material third-party dependencies.

4.10. The selected supplier(s) shall perform the work in a professional and workmanlike manner consistent with commercially reasonable standards for firms providing comparable direct response fundraising services.

4.11 The selected supplier(s) shall comply with approved strategies, schedules, budgets, specifications, policies, and applicable laws.

4.12 The selected supplier(s) must have adequate business continuity, staff transition, and escalation procedures in place to ensure uninterrupted service.

5.0 Description of Services:

5.1 Program Scope and Governance

The selected supplier(s) will plan, execute, manage, and report on UT MD Anderson’s direct response fundraising program in accordance with approved annual roadmaps, campaign plans, budgets, schedules, and performance objectives. Work may include, but is not limited to, direct mail, email, telemarketing, paid advertising, landing pages, lead generation, SMS, and other channels authorized by UT MD Anderson.

Unless otherwise authorized, the services described in this SOW do not include direct mail printing, lettershop, postage, gift processing, or lockbox services. The selected supplier(s) will coordinate and collaborate with UT MD Anderson’s designated supplier(s) for direct mail printing, lettershop, postage, gift processing, and lockbox services, as applicable.

5.2 Core Direct Response Fundraising Programs

5.2.1 Acquisition Program

The selected supplier(s) will evaluate UT MD Anderson’s current performance, recommend audience, offer, channel, creative, investment, and conversion improvements, and develop strategies to identify and convert qualified prospects into first-time donors.

5.2.2 Renewal and Retention Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop strategies to secure subsequent gifts, improve first-to-second-gift conversion, strengthen active-donor retention, increase donor value, and reduce avoidable attrition.

5.2.3 Telemarketing Program

The selected supplier(s) will evaluate and recommend appropriate telemarketing use cases, audiences, scripts, timing, integration, and performance measures. Any execution must comply with consent, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Do Not Call, and other applicable requirements.

5.2.4 Lapsed Donor Reactivation Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop strategies to reactivate donors within lapse periods defined by UT MD Anderson. Recommendations shall address prioritization, channel, offer, cadence, audience economics, and post-re activation cultivation.

5.2.5 Stewardship Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop communications that demonstrate impact, deepen engagement, and reinforce the donor’s role in advancing UT MD Anderson’s mission. Work may include newsletters, donor recognition, welcome communications, annual giving summaries, and other approved stewardship experiences.

5.2.6 Acknowledgment Program

The selected supplier(s) will recommend, and support timely, accurate, brand-aligned gift acknowledgment experiences designed to strengthen donor satisfaction and encourage continued engagement.

5.2.7 Monthly Giving Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop strategies for sustainer acquisition, one-time-to-monthly conversion, onboarding, retention, upgrades, failed-payment recovery, cancellation prevention, reinstatement, and long-term value.

5.2.8 Holiday Giving and Special Moments Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop strategies and creative experiences that enable donors to celebrate holidays, honor meaningful moments, and engage their personal networks through approved giving products and communications.

5.2.9 Mid-Level Donor Program

The selected supplier(s) will develop strategies for donors and prospects within giving thresholds established by UT MD Anderson. Work shall support identification, qualification, cultivation, upgrade, retention, concierge experiences, and coordinated movement to relationship-based fundraising when appropriate.

5.3 Integrated Program Strategy

The integrated program strategy will connect individual campaigns through a coordinated, multichannel approach aligned with UT MD Anderson’s annual fundraising objectives and donor-lifecycle goals. The selected supplier(s) will develop annual roadmaps, campaign plans, pro formas, testing plans, audience strategies, creative strategies, schedules, and optimization recommendations, including, but not limited to the following:

5.3.1 Guide the annual strategic planning process and maintain a comprehensive multichannel fundraising calendar.

5.3.2 Recommend channel roles, audience segmentation, contact cadence, campaign timing, offers, messaging, and creative approaches.

5.3.3 Develop an integrated paid advertising and direct response strategy that defines the role of advertising across the prospective-donor and donor lifecycle, including audience development, acquisition, lead generation, conversion, reactivation, sustainer growth, and other approved fundraising objectives.

5.3.4 Develop campaign-level advertising plans that define target audiences, objectives, offers, messaging, creative, media channels, budgets, conversion pathways, testing approaches, and performance measures.

5.3.5. Identify opportunities to expand successful fundraising campaigns and audiences through paid media and use campaign performance and approved insights from UT MD Anderson’s internal analytics team to optimize media, audiences, creative and investment.

5.3.6 Identify opportunities to improve acquisition, retention, reactivation, sustainer growth, mid-level movement, donor experience, net revenue, and long-term value.

5.3.7 Develop a documented annual testing plan with hypotheses, control and test definitions, measurement methods, decision rules, and plans to scale validated results.

5.3.8 Coordinate direct response recommendations with UT MD Anderson’s institutional marketing, communications, advertising, events, planned giving, donor relations, and other relevant activities.

5.3.9 Provide strategic recommendations in response to performance, market conditions, platform changes, emerging technologies, and evolving business needs.

5.3.10 Translate paid media and campaign performance data, along with approved insights from UT

MD Anderson’s internal analytics team, into actionable recommendations that optimize advertising campaigns and strengthen integration with direct response programs.

5.3.11 Integrated Audience Growth Strategy

The integrated audience growth strategy shall identify opportunities to reach new prospective donors, generate qualified and permissioned leads, convert prospects into first-time donors, and cultivate newly acquired audiences toward subsequent giving and long-term value. The selected supplier(s) will develop an integrated audience acquisition and conversion strategy across paid, owned, and direct response channels, including, but not limited, to the following:

5.3.11.1 Distinguish between campaigns intended to generate immediate donations and campaigns intended to generate leads for subsequent cultivation.

5.3.11.2 Include a documented consent, data-transfer, welcome, cultivation, and conversion plan for each lead-generation initiative.

5.3.11.3 Recommend and test audience targeting approaches, including first-party, modeled, look-alike, contextual, geographic, and other approved audience strategies, with appropriate suppression and sequencing across channels.

5.3.12 Meetings and Documentation

Meetings and documentation services shall include, but not limited to the following:

5.3.12.1 Weekly program status meetings, unless another cadence is approved by UT MD Anderson.

5.3.12.2 Revenue and performance reviews twice-monthly during priority campaign periods, or at another mutually agreed- upon cadence.

5.3.12.3 Quarterly strategy and creative planning sessions.

5.3.12.4 Quarterly business reviews and donor-lifecycle performance scorecards.

5.3.12.5 Annual roadmap planning and fiscal-year results reviews.

5.3.12.6 An annual strategic roadmap, integrated campaign calendar, testing plan, paid media and audience growth plan, and campaign-level briefs tied to annual objectives.

5.4 Budget Forecast and Management

The selected supplier(s) will assist UT MD Anderson with annual budget development, pro forma preparation, revenue and expense forecasting, investment recommendations, and ongoing financial management, including, but not limited to the following:

5.4.1 Provide gross revenue, net revenue, expense, and investment forecasts by program and campaign.

5.4.2 Report actual performance against approved objectives and provide updated forecasts throughout the fiscal year.

5.4.3 Distinguish agency fees, creative costs, production costs, media spend, technology costs, data costs, travel, and other pass-through expenses.

5.4.4 Provide channel-level projections for cost per lead, cost per acquired donor, return on advertising spend, net revenue, and other agreed-upon performance measures.

5.4.5 Provide an approved pro forma budget that does not exceedor materially reallocate funding among channels or campaign objectives without prior written approval from UT MD Anderson.

5.5 Account and Project Management

The selected supplier(s) will manage overall communications, meetings, schedules, deliverables, dependencies, scope, risks, approvals, and budget oversight, including, but not limited to the following:

5.5.1 Provide a primary account lead and a documented escalation path.

5.5.2 Maintain current work plans, status reports, decision logs, risk logs, schedules, and budget trackers.

5.5.3 Coordinate routine and ad hoc meetings with UT MD Anderson and authorized partners.

5.5.4 Identify potential delays, budget variances, data issues, or performance risks early and recommend corrective action.

5.5.5 Proofread, fact-check, and quality-control all materials before submission to UT MD Anderson.

5.5.6 Use a documented change-control process for work outside approved scope, assumptions, quantities, or revision rounds.

5.6 Data Management Targeting and Modeling

The selected supplier(s) will support audience selection, segmentation, modeling, suppression, quality control, transfer, matchback, and documentation for approved programs. UT MD Anderson shall remain the system of record for constituent and gift data.

The following estimates represent anticipated annual audience builds or campaign file selections.

Program Estimated Annual Audience Builds

Acquisition Program (Audience build primarily handled by acquisition data partner) 18

Renewal and Retention Program 22

Telemarketing Program To be established

Lapsed Donor Reactivation Program (Audience build primarily handled by acquisition data partner) 18

Stewardship Program 4

Acknowledgment Program 4

Monthly Giving Program To be established

Holiday Giving and Special Moments Program 5

Mid-Level Donor Program 5

For each audience build, the selected supplier(s) will, but not limited to the following:

5.6.1 Translate approved strategy into documented selection, segmentation, and suppression criteria.

5.6.2 Produce preliminary counts, final counts, campaign files, control totals, and quality-control documentation according to approved schedules.

5.6.3 Validate criteria, counts, layouts, naming conventions, and output files before release.

5.6.4 Return relevant campaign, model, response, and disposition information to UT MD Anderson in agreed-upon formats.

5.6.5 Document models, scores, selection logic, transformations, matchback methodology, and known limitations sufficiently for institutional use and continuity.

5.6.6 Estimate the cost and schedule effect of UT MD Anderson-requested changes that materially alter an approved strategy or file specification before beginning the additional work.

5.7 Creative Strategy and Development

The selected supplier(s) will develop integrated, donor-centered creative for approved direct response programs, including, but not limited to, strategy, concept development, copywriting, design, art direction, production preparation, versioning, quality control, and presentation of recommendations, and the following services:

5.7.1 Develop annual and campaign-level creative strategies aligned with UT MD Anderson’s brand, mission, donor audiences, offers, and performance objectives.

5.7.2 Develop direct mail packages and components; email copy and design, including HTML and plain-text versions, landing-page and donation-form content; telemarketing scripts; paid advertising assets, and other approved collateral.

5.7.3 Recommend channel-appropriate creative variations by audience, placement, message, offer, format, imagery, spokesperson, call to action, and stage of the donor journey.

5.7.4 Prepare creative testing plans and document the control, test variable, hypothesis, measurement method, and recommended next action.

5.7.5 Provide accessible content and assets, including alternative text and other requirements specified by UT MD Anderson.

5.7.6 Provide production-ready PDFs and other required output formats, as well as editable source files, packaged fonts or font information, linked assets, specifications, and usage-rights documentation.

5.7.7 Identify the number of concepts and revision rounds to be provided for each assignment and obtain written approval before proceeding with work beyond the agreed-upon scope.

5.8 Email Program

The selected supplier(s) will evaluate and enhance UT MD Anderson’s fundraising email program and provide approved strategy, creative development, build, quality assurance, and deployment support within UT MD Anderson’s enterprise email platform, including, but not limited, to the following:

5.8.1 Develop annual and campaign-level email strategies addressing acquisition, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, reactivation, renewal, sustainer conversion, and upgrade.

5.8.2 Develop copy, design, HTML, plain-text versions, dynamic-content recommendations, personalization, subject lines, preview text, links, and calls to action.

5.8.3 Build and test emails in Salesforce Marketing Cloud or another platform designated byUT MD

Anderson.

5.8.4 Follow approved audience, suppression, seed-list, proofing, approval, send-authorization, naming, UTM, and deployment procedures.

5.8.5 Conduct rendering, accessibility, link, personalization, data, and deliverability quality assurance before deployment.

5.8.6 Document and follow an error-response and escalation process for material deployment or content issues.

5.8.7 Return engagement, conversion, unsubscribe, complaint, deliverability, and other agreed-upon data to UT MD Anderson systems and reports.

5.9 Paid Advertising and Top of Funnel Audience Acquisition

The selected supplier(s) will develop, execute, manage and optimize paid advertising campaigns designed to expand UT MD Anderson’s prospective-donor audiences and support direct response fundraising objectives. Advertising services shall include, but not be limited to, audience and campaign strategy, offer and messaging recommendations, creative development, media planning and buying, campaign setup and trafficking, landing-page and conversion recommendations, testing, optimization and performance reporting.

Based on campaign objectives, target audiences, fundraising opportunities, expected audience quality, conversion potential, and projected value, the selected supplier(s) shall recommend and implement advertising approaches across approved channels, including, but not limited, to the following:

5.9.1 Paid social media, paid search, programmatic and direct-site display, and native advertising.

5.9.2 Online video, connected and traditional television, streaming audio and general market radio, and podcast advertising.

5.9.3 Paid email acquisition, lead-generation initiatives and approved content-based acquisition.

5.9.4 Look-alike modeling audiences, and coordinated direct mail and digital targeting.

5.9.5 Other emerging performance-marketing channels individually approved by UT MD Anderson.

5.9.6 Campaign Development, Media Planning, Buying and Optimization

The selected supplier(s) will develop campaign-level advertising plans that define the campaign objective, target audience, offer, messaging, creative approach, media channels, budget, timing, conversion pathway, testing approach and performance measures, including, but not limited, to the following:

5.9.6.1 Develop and execute advertising campaigns that support direct donation, lead generation, donor acquisition, reactivation, sustainer acquisition and other approved fundraising objectives.

5.9.6.2 Develop channel-appropriate creative concepts, formats, messaging, calls to action, and audience variations.

5.9.6.3 Develop and optimize landing pages, donation experiences, lead forms, and other digital conversion pathways, as applicable.

5.9.6.4 Build, traffic, launch, monitor, and optimize campaigns within approved advertising platforms and budgets.

5.9.6.5 Collaborate with designated UT MD Anderson personnel to implement approved campaign naming conventions, campaign identifiers, UTM parameters, conversion-event definitions, and tracking tags across advertising platforms, creative assets, URLs, and landing experiences.

5.9.6.6 Validate tracking before launch and after material changes, and maintain documentation and data access necessary for consistent cross-channel reporting and analysis.

5.9.6.7 Manage audience targeting, exclusions, suppression, frequency, pacing, placements, bids, and creative rotation.

5.9.6.8 Monitor performance and make timely recommendations regarding audience, creative, channel, budget, and campaign strategy.

5.9.6.9 Collaborate with UT MD Anderson’s internal analytics team to incorporate approved media mixed model (“MMM”) and Multi-touch attribution (“MTA”) testing, and other measurement insights into campaign planning and optimization.

5.9.6.10 Obtain written approval before initiating a new platform, material budget reallocation, new data partnership, or materially different campaign objective.

5.9.7 Audience Journey and Conversion

Each advertising campaign shall have a defined audience, conversion objective, next action, and appropriate handoff or cultivation strategy. The selected supplier(s) will develop conversion pathways appropriate to each advertising objective, including direct-to-donation, lead generation, welcome and cultivation, email, second-gift conversion, sustainer conversion, and other approved fundraising journeys.

5.9.8 Emerging Channel Testing

The selected supplier(s) will identify and recommend emerging paid acquisition opportunities that may expand UT MD Anderson’s prospective-donor audience or improve fundraising performance.

Each proposed pilot will include, but not be limited to, the target audience, campaign objective, rationale, estimated investment, creative and technical requirements, risks, measurement approach, and criteria for scaling, modifying, or discontinuing the pilot.

5.10 Reporting Analytics and Forecasting

The selected supplier(s) will establish a multi-touch attribution measurement framework that connects campaign activity to lead acquisition, first-time giving, subsequent giving, retention, and long-term donor value, as data availability permits. Reporting shall be available by program, campaign, channel, audience, creative treatment, offer, and other agreed-upon dimensions, including, but not limited, to the following:

5.10.1 Gross revenue, net revenue, expense, response rate, conversion rate, average gift, cost per donor, cost to acquire, and net revenue per contact or piece.

5.10.2 Media spend, impressions, reach, frequency, click-through rate, landing-page conversion, cost per lead, cost per acquired donor, and return on advertising spend.

5.10.3 Lead-to-donor conversion, time to first gift, first-to-second-gift conversion, new- and existing-donor retention, donor value, and projected long-term value.

5.10.4 Lapsed-donor reactivation, sustainer acquisition and retention, failed-payment recovery, mid-level upgrades, and other agreed-upon lifecycle measures.

5.10.5 Test design, statistical significance or other decision methodology, results, interpretation, and recommended action.

5.10.6 Forecast-to-actual variance, updated full-year projections, risks, opportunities, and investment recommendations.

5.11 Technology Platform and Vendor Coordination

The selected supplier(s) shall work within UT MD Anderson-approved platforms and processes and coordinate with UT MD Anderson and authorized technology, data, production, fulfillment, media, and analytics partners, including, but not limited to the following:

5.11.1 Document platform access, configuration, data flows, file specifications, dependencies, and responsibilities.

5.11.2 Protect UT MD Anderson ownership and portability of accounts, assets, data, audiences, configurations, and campaign history.

5.11.3 Support testing, issue resolution, platform transitions, and implementation of approved process improvements.

5.11.4 Provide current documentation and knowledge transfer sufficient for UT MD Anderson or a successor supplier to continue the work.

6.0 Miscellaneous Provisions

6.1 Personnel and Administration

The selected supplier(s) shall maintain properly trained and experienced personnel sufficient to perform the work in an expeditious and economical manner. The selected supplier(s) shall designate a representative responsible for administration and coordination and shall obtain UT MD Anderson approval before materially changing key personnel. Proposed replacements must have qualifications equal to or greater than those of the personnel being replaced.

7.0 Presentations

In response to COVID-19 pandemic, on-site supplier presentations/product demonstrations shall be subject to UT MD Anderson’s recent change in institutional policy to limit on-site visits.

After evaluation of RFP written proposals, UT MD Anderson will identify a shortlist of proposers for onsite or remote supplier presentations/product demonstrations. In response to COVID-19 pandemic, such supplier presentations/product demonstrations may be held remotely, and specific instructions for remote supplier presentations/product demonstrations shall be provided to the shortlist of proposers.