The Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) is a national nonprofit association which connects Canadians working to promote community economic development. With a mandate and funding from the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Trillium Foundation, CCEDNet was tasked with conducting the 2015 Social Enterprise Survey for Ontario.

We are looking for a creative, skilled designer to work with us in developing visually appealing documents that use graphic presentations to communicate report data with immediacy and clarity that is engaging and accessible.

This RFP includes a background of the Survey project, its purpose, details of the final report’s scope, project budget and timeline, and specific requests relating to the proposal. We understand that details may be subject to change upon your recommendations and/or creative research of more effective design solutions. In your proposal, please feel free to suggest alternatives where noted.

Project Overview & Background

Social enterprise is an emerging field of interest in Ontario and around the world but there is a lack of clarity and comprehensive research about this sector.

To address this, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Government of Ontario has funded the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) to conduct the 2015 Social Enterprise Survey for Ontario. This survey is the second of its kind in the province (see 2012’s Inspiring Innovation) and is part of a larger Canada-wide study of social enterprise.

The 2012 research provided initial baseline information for major portions of the social enterprise sector. Compared to similar projects conducted in other provinces, the Ontario study was the largest of its kind with more than 1,000 nonprofit social enterprises identified with 363 respondents. Our research findings, as described in the ground-breaking report, Inspiring Innovation, have often been referred to by sector stakeholders, including the provincial Office for Social Enterprise.

That data allowed us to say with some confidence that Ontario’s nonprofit social enterprises contributed almost $2 billion in annual sales and employed 69,000 people – a substantial economic impact and source of employment. With this second study we have reached out to more social enterprises and are able to describe growth and trends over time of both for-profit and nonprofit social enterprises. The survey provides a more comprehensive analysis and a more complete picture of the social enterprise sector in Ontario such as how many engage in social enterprise, as well as clarifying their activities and resources, how many people they serve, what challenges they face and what supports they need.

We are looking for a creative, skilled designer to work with us in developing an engaging report to share these results and continue the conversation around how to better understand and promote social enterprises in Ontario.

Project Goals

What we want to accomplish

We want to present the results from this survey in a highly visual way which clearly shows the important findings and recommendations while motivating people to action.

The aim of the report is to inform key players in the social economy and policy spaces to take steps to better support the Ontario social enterprise sector.

Target Audience

This report will be publically available but will most likely be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers such as policymakers, social entrepreneurs, community organization practitioners, academics, politicians and government officials.

The Ontario social enterprise field is diverse comprising both nonprofit and for-profit organizations at different development stages so we want to make this report as inclusive and clear as possible. For example, the nonprofit social enterprise sector alone has been separated into: Arts & Culture organizations, Farmers’ markets, Thrift stores, Social Housing Providers, Co-operatives, Child Care Providers, and Employment and Training focused enterprises.

We realize many of the people reading this report might not be very familiar with social enterprise research so want to ensure we include as many visual representations of the information as possible. We also appreciate the limited time people will have to closely read the results so are looking for an easy-to-navigate format for our large set of complex results so people can find the areas most relevant to them.

Scope of Work

Deliverables

We will provide the written content and some charts but are looking for help with graphics and the overall design of the report.

We plan to have one core report as outlined in the Table of Contents below. There will also be up to 12 smaller feature fact sheets (1-3 pages each), using a common design template, targeted to unique stakeholder groups. These will be stand alone documents pulled from the subsections in the ToC (Poverty, Disability etc.).

The complete report would be primarily available on CCEDNet’s website as a pdf though a limited number of hard copies will be printed.

Estimated deliverables include:

• 1 Report (60-70 pages) for print and online pdf.
• In Design Template (2-3 pages) for print and online pdf that CCEDNet can work with in-house to develop fast fact sheets as needed.
• Approximately 30 info graphics/data visualizations (numerical, charts, graphs, chevrons, illustrations, etc.)
• Visually enhancing approximately 3 GIS maps.
• Text layouts within the report pages

General Report Structure

Please see Table of Contents - 2015 Social Enterprise Survey for Ontario below for the complete report outline.

The report will begin with the key findings, introduction to the survey project and the Ontario social enterprise landscape, and then go into the results in detail. The results for the sector overall will be presented first then broken down into specific subgroups. The end of the report will have select feature sheets as well as conclusions and recommendations for supporting the social enterprise sector.

We’re aiming to have as many visuals throughout the report as possible including graphs/charts, infographics, icons, word clouds, maps, and textboxes to highlight key ideas.

Using 2012’s report as a guide, there are some elements we’d like to keep consistent but are also looking for new ways to differentiate the current report. Specific pieces we like from the 2012 report include: the Executive Summary; the consistent infographics to represent specific subsectors (e.g. a carrot for farmers’ markets); maps of social enterprises in Ontario; word clouds; stand-out words and charts; and consistent color palettes to organize report sections.

Inspired by similar reports like State of the Nation and The Canada We Want in 2020, we’re open to other ways to visually communicate our findings.

Budget

Up to $4,000

Project Timeline

The duration of the contract will be approximately 1 month, from mid-August until mid-September.

We’d like a rough draft of the report prepared by mid-September for review with a final copy of the complete report and feature sheets to be ready for distribution by the end of September.

Selection Criteria

You could be considered for this project if you:

• Have at least 3 years’ proven work experience in designing communications and media materials
• Are fluent in Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop); familiarity with other design applications are an asset
• Are able to work collaboratively within deadlines
• Have an understanding of research reporting and creative portrayal of numeric data (an asset)

Format & Proposal Requirements

In your proposal, please illustrate your vision for communicating the survey results in a way that engages the diverse stakeholders mentioned above. We also ask you outline the following:

1.  An overview of experience in report and web-based design, including examples and a list of past clientele;
2.  An overview of services to be provided, as they relate to the scope of this work
3.  An estimation of costs, including a breakdown of rates, as they relate to the scope of this work
4.  Turn-around timelines (ex. If we provide half the report – how long before we can review the first draft?)
5.  Expectations from the client (ex. Do we provide data we want visualized or do we provide a rudimentary chart?; Do we complete the entire report before providing it for design or provide it in stages)

Please send your proposal to pchamberlain at ccednet-rcdec.ca by August 18, 2015 to be considered for this project. All questions or clarifications about the project can also be directed to this email.

Reviewing of proposals will take place from August 18 with final selections August 24