FINAL EDA Grant Simplified Bidding Request for Bids 2021-08-09.pdf

WEDC Request for Bids August 9, 2021

Ethnically Diverse Business Community COVID-19 Response Assessment

To Whom it May Concern:

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) is requesting bids from vendors interested in providing a complete assessment of the economic injury and challenges faced by micro- and diverse-owned businesses because of the pandemic. (Micro business is typically 1 to 5 employees; diverse-owned business is typically ethnically diverse, veteran-owned, women-owned, and LGBTQ businesses)

WEDC’s success draws upon the combined strength of an innovative strategy and strong relationships with an extremely capable economic development community in Wisconsin. To foster that community, WEDC has strong ties with State Agencies, the UW System and the Technical College System. In addition, WEDC invests in Key Strategic Partners with specialized skills and a proven track record of success. Their work contributes significantly to the outcomes recorded in this report. The following Key Strategic Partners are organizations uniquely positioned to help WEDC meet its strategic goals. By leveraging the existing services and subject matter expertise of these partners, WEDC increases the economic development impact of the funds we deploy. This includes but is not limited to regional economic development organizations, Minority Chambers of Commerce, Wisconsin Procurement Institute, Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative, and the Center for Technology Commercialization.

Specific services to be provided include:

1. Create a best practice framework for and assess micro- and diverse-owned businesses to ascertain what obstacles these businesses experienced during the pandemic. As a part of the framework, the proposal should include a detailed engagement strategy for the diverse-owned microbusiness community that will be used in the assessment.

2. Develop strategic recommendations to increase capacity, engagement, and sustainability of these businesses and other diverse organizations. This would include, but not be limited to, recommendations addressing 1) access to capital, 2) access to providers of robust technical assistance, 3) business management training and ensuring micro- and diverse-owned businesses have the capacity to adequately survive economic changes. These recommendations will include information obtained through the assessment of the Wisconsin Diverse-owned business community and third-party best practice research of diverse microbusinesses.

3. WEDC requires an identification of communication barriers and types of communication gaps within the micro- and diverse-owned business communities.

Beyond outlining these barriers & gaps, WEDC is looking for a communication strategy with actionable recommendations to reach diverse-owned micro businesses.

4. Identify those opportunities to support capacity building efforts needed to develop implementation tactics for the recommendations in 2 & 3 above. This should address for differences in business location throughout the state, including type of diversity, culture and language.

5. Issue a report that includes the strategic recommendations and implementation tactics for those recommendations.

WEDC will be responsible for ensuring accessibility of the final assessment report and recommendations to all organizations, including translation. In addition, if you are interested in providing translation services, please provide your experience in translating documents and quotes for this service in your response.

Vendors must maintain confidentiality regarding WEDC and employee information.

Vendors interested in providing services to WEDC should submit a bid by the end of business on August 31, 2021 Mary Gage at mary.gage@wedc.org. Bids should include the following information:

1. Vendor’s ability to provide the above outlined services;

2. Vendor’s experience providing related services;

3. Detailed description of the proposer’s technical approach to the project;

4. Timeline for conducting the work under this RFP;

5. References from clients to whom the vendor has provided similar services; and

6. The cost of services on an hourly as well as overall project fixed cost basis;

Selection will be granted to the vendor that provides the best value to WEDC and will be evaluated based on the vendor’s ability to accommodate the above stated requirements, the vendor’s experience providing related services, and the vendor’s cost proposal. WEDC may review the vendor’s website as a tool for evaluating bids.

Questions concerning this request for bids should be directed to Mary Gage at mary.gage@wedc.org.

Thank you for your interest in working with WEDC.