Ripple Effect Communications, Inc.

Ripple Effect Communications, Inc., doing business as Ripple Effect, is a Rockville, Maryland-based SBA-certified Woman-Owned Small Business that delivers professional services—program management, research evaluation, communications, data management, clinical research support, and strategic consulting—to federal agencies as a prime contractor (95% of recent awards) and subcontractor. The vendor competes across full-and-open and set-aside vehicles, with woman-owned small business set-asides recurring across prime work, particularly on GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) delivery orders.

Ripple Effect's customer concentration is heavily civilian, with the National Institutes of Health (particularly NIAID at 31 awards), the Defense Health Agency (20 awards), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (15 awards), and the National Human Genome Research Institute (17 awards) anchoring the top-five agencies by award count. By potential value, GSA Federal Acquisition Service leads at $228.4 million (driven by vehicle awards), followed by CMS at $117.4 million and NIH Office of Logistics and Acquisition Operations at $114.2 million. The top five customers account for 45% of awards and 9% of combined potential value—a signal of vehicle concentration rather than customer concentration; Ripple Effect holds significant position on multiple governmentwide IDIQs and GSA schedules that inflate ceiling values but generate task-order competition, not sole-source depth.

On vehicle position, Ripple Effect holds a $121 million GSA Multiple Award Schedule (115 task orders, $252.9 million combined potential value), two OASIS+ GWACs (Unrestricted and Total Small Business set-aside, each with multi-billion-dollar ceilings), Seaport-NXG ($4 billion ceiling, single award), OASIS+SB ($3.4 million task order in FY2025), a $7.0 million NIH Professional and Technical Services Support BPA, a $100 million CMS Blanket Purchase Agreement for regulatory and comment analysis support (established September 2025), a $12.25 million NIH HBCU Path to Excellence and Innovation IDIQ, and a $2 billion PRESTO IDIQ with the Department of Education. Notable recent IDV awards include a $151 billion Missile Defense Agency SHIELD IDIQ (December 2025, single initial $500 task order issued) and a $100 million HHS single-award BPA for consulting and training services (December 2024).

Recent prime capability work spans the breadth of Ripple Effect's service portfolio. Representative awards include an $18.2 million National Library of Medicine delivery order (June 2026) for data science and biomedical informatics research support under MAS; a $15.9 million Defense Health Agency delivery order (May 2023) for biomedical program management support; a $12.4 million Defense Health Agency delivery order (May 2023) for program evaluation, analysis, and management support; a $5.1 million National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke delivery order (September 2024) for NIH BRAIN Initiative communications and outreach support (woman-owned small business set-aside, time-and-materials); a $4.9 million Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality delivery order (September 2023) for the National Action Alliance to Advance Patient Safety program support (Total Small Business set-aside); a $4.7 million CMS delivery order (September 2023) for human-centered design illustration services; and $1.8 million–$4.7 million delivery orders from NIAAA, NIHCD, and the National Library of Medicine for program support, well-being advising, and evaluation assistance. A $1.8 million HHS OASH delivery order (September 2026, woman-owned small business sole source) covers professional, technical, analytical, communications, evaluation, data management, and administrative support for the Office for Human Research Protections, Office of Minority Health, and Office of Research Integrity through March 2028.

Activity grew year over year from 2022 through 2024 (11, 26, and 36 awards respectively) before declining to 12 in 2025 and 8 in 2026 year-to-date through September. This recent flattening may reflect the typical portfolio adjustment cycle on mature GWAC and schedule vehicles or pending recompete exposure. Over the next twenty-four months, nine awards with combined potential value of $44 million face ultimate completion, representing moderate recompete exposure.

Ripple Effect operates predominantly as a prime contractor, self-performing the majority of delivery work. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, the vendor has invoiced $23.9 million across FY2022–FY2025, with FY2025 (the most recent full-year data) showing $7.4 million invoiced against 23.9 FTEs at a median government-paid hourly rate of $117.31 per hour, with rates ranging from $24.49/hr at the 10th percentile to $249.56/hr at the 90th percentile. Sub-engagement on prime contracts averages 3% of total contractor hours, with 16 named subcontractors reported across the SCI dataset. The GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans 21 categories from associate-level analyst roles ($60.16/hr, no experience required) through senior technical analyst positions ($325.37/hr, 14 years experience, bachelor's degree); no security-cleared labor is offered.

In its subcontractor role, Ripple Effect delivers policy and operational support, public affairs and multimedia services, and identity theft tax refund fraud information-sharing support to Leidos on DOD and National Institute of Health programs, and provides identity theft tax refund fraud ISAC support to The Mitre Corporation on IRS and CMS work. Additional sub work includes strategic support to CMS Consumer Support Group initiatives under L&M Policy Research and Island Peer Review Organization, and hospital price transparency analysis under Booz Allen Hamilton.

The vendor's positioning centers on civilian-sector professional services—research evaluation, program management, communications strategy, and regulatory analysis—with growing exposure to defense health and medical research through Defense Health Agency and NIAID. Woman-owned small business set-asides characterize Ripple Effect's prime vehicle mix and recur frequently across MAS delivery orders, enabling the vendor to compete for and win sole-source and small-business-reserved task orders across HHS and NIH. Recent GWAC additions (OASIS+, Seaport-NXG, the SHIELD vehicle) broaden competitive scope but create significant recompete and pricing pressure as Ripple Effect competes alongside larger task-order incumbents.

Ripple Effect provides professional consulting and exceptional staff augmentation for federal, private, and non-profit clients to deliver some of the most crucial policies and programs that shape our nation. Our core capabilities include research and evaluation; communications and outreach; program management and policy; digital transformation; and strategic staffing.