Lemonade Day Request For Proposal for PR Agency

by EPR Staff · Published 2015-04-17 · Updated 2023-02-13

FROM OUR FOUNDERS The structure and values of the American family have changed dramatically over the last 50 years. The effects can be seen in divorce rates, high school dropout rates, drug & alcohol abuse, teen pregnancies, gangs & severe poverty. For many, it seems that the American Dream has been beyond reach, until now.

Lemonade Day provides tools and guidance for youth to achieve dreams of their own and to take ownership of their lives. By learning life skills, character education and entrepreneurship, Lemonade Day ultimately “prepares them for life” by teaching them how to start, own and operate their very own business – a lemonade stand. They are taught important values, self-reliance and business principles that can change the trajectory of their lives.
It is simple. The American Dream starts with a lemonade stand, and we are on a mission for every child in America to experience one.
–Michael & Lisa Holthouse.

ORGANIZATIONAL BACKGROUND:

When entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Holthouse’s 10-year-old daughter, Lissa insisted on doing a lemonade stand to earn money for a turtle, his eyes were opened to a way that he could share both his passion for youth and his experience in building successful companies to impact young people everywhere. Lemonade Day was born.

At Lemonade Day, we believe that every child in America should be introduced to entrepreneurship through the real world experience of starting their own business – a lemonade stand. By running their stand, they gain important business, academic and life skills through learning the Four Steps to Success – Set a Goal, Make a Plan, Work the Plan, and Achieve Your Dreams. Launched in Houston, Texas in 2007, Lemonade Day has grown from 2,600 kids in one city to more than 150,000 kids in 31 cities across the United States and Canada in 2014. Through introducing children to entrepreneurship at an early age, we are changing the trajectory of the country.

In 2015, Lemonade Day will achieve the largest growth in the organization to date. We will expand to 26 new cities this year and expect to introduce 130,000 children to entrepreneurship in 2015. This year’s growth will bring our total number of Lemonade Day cities to over 50 and the total number of children who have participated in Lemonade Day since 2007 to over 900,000.

We believe Lemonade Day has the ability to scale to significant size of impact, equal to or greater than other national organizations serving the needs of children, such as Boys and Girls Clubs of America (4,000,000 children per year), Boy Scouts (2.5 million children per year), and Girl Scouts (2.8 million children per year) as we become the starting point in teaching youth practical and experiential lessons in entrepreneurship.
In addition to our proven city licensing model, we will achieve even greater scale through partnering with these national entities, such as Boys and Girls Clubs, Boy Scout, Girl Scouts, etc. that have well established impact nationwide. We also believe that by creating a virtual platform for youth participation in cities where we do not currently have a licensed presence and through the enhancement and expansion of our web-based curriculum, we can create an enormous growth and impact potential for expanding our reach into communities all across the country.
In 2014, Ron Batts, President of Lemonade Day, was recruited to achieve this type of scale based on his success in achieving massive growth in the roll-out of retail concepts. Most recently, he led the expansion of Charming Charlie’s from twenty stores to 205 stores in 42 months – the fastest recorded specialty store expansion in retail history.

The children impacted by this powerful program are able to experientially achieve real success in their own lives from their own efforts. We believe that this experience jump starts creativity, passion, drive and an entrepreneurial spirit in the lives of young Americans, allowing them to see the limitless opportunities available to them.

The impact of Lemonade Day is also evident in the community-wide engagement that occurs during the execution of the program when thousands of youth run their stands on a single day. City leaders, government officials, business owners, entrepreneurs, universities, schools, faith-based organizations, local media, parents and mentors rally around a common goal of fanning the flame of the American Dream and empowering the youth of their community. This impact is significant and a unique element of the Lemonade Day program.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH ARE EVERYWHERE:

There are 593 cities in the United States with populations of 50,000 or more, approximately 19,000,000 children in our current target demographic of 3rd-5th grade students, and approximately 56,000,000 5-18 year olds which represent the enlarged demographic we hope to reach as our programs expand. Currently, Lemonade Day is represented in less than 10% of these cities, and has impacted and only 1.6% of the total children in America. There is incredible opportunity for growth and the expansion of Lemonade Day programs. This expansion will require growth in our infrastructure, further development of our curriculum, improved website functionality, and the creation and implementation of a strategic marketing and PR plan.

PURPOSE:

This is a request for a public relations proposal for Lemonade Day. The proposal should incorporate the development of a public relations plan and the following activities: media relations, relationship building with appropriate centers of influence, and community relations activities that support overall marketing messages for Lemonade Day at the national and local levels of the organization.
There are several unique opportunities for Lemonade Day that we would like to create. We anticipate these activities would include the following:

Arranging national and international media coverage, including interviews and appearances by our co-founders, Michael and Lisa Holthouse , National Lemonade Day staff and local Lemonade Day organizers
Identifying and training key spokespersons from our organization at the national and local level
Identifying possibilities for speaking engagements and appearances
Enhancing current marketing messaging to strengthen the organizations positioning on the national stage
Identifying additional public relations opportunities within a designated budget

OUR KEY MESSAGES:

We provide hands-on, experiential learning opportunities to teach youth the basics of business and entrepreneurship through the running of a lemonade stand

We engage children as young as 5 years of age, separating us from other organizations that do this work only for older youth
We provide opportunities for city and community engagement through participation in our program
We are committed to making the American Dream a reality for every child in America

PUBLIC RELATIONS PRIORITIES:

Position our organization as experts in the field of youth entrepreneurship education
Build brand awareness nationally and locally
Build public interest in and awareness of our program, resulting in the opening of new Lemonade Day cities, an increase in youth participation in Lemonade Day programs, an increase in our donor base and the general increase in impact of our organization
Attract the attention of potential national sponsors and partners

PRIOR MEDIA EXPOSURE:

Lemonade Day has had bursts of national media attention via The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Newsweek, Fox News and CNBC. However, we have not had a sustained media presence or an established PR strategy. Most publicity has been tied directly to our founder, Michael Holthouse.

BUDGET:

While we have not yet developed a budget, we are expecting to utilize expert feedback and input from this RFP process to help us determine the necessary funding for the hiring of a PR firm.

SCHEDULE:

The preliminary schedule for the campaigns is:

Proposal Submission May 1-15, 2015 Submission Review May 15-31, 2015 In-person Interviews as Requested June 1-15, 2015 Candidate Selection by June 29, 2015 PR Firm Contract Begins July 1, 2015

PROPOSAL FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS:

Respondents must furnish one original and three copies of their proposal. Please limit proposal to 20 pages (not including staff resumes). Estimated price and terms for services should be provided along with the proposal. Please address the following in your proposal:

Description of the firm: structure, areas of expertise, time in business, number of employees and other data that helps to characterize the firm, addresses of the main office and the office that will manage the project.

Experience:

Briefly describe recent projects executed by the firm to demonstrate experience relevant to the proposal.
List relevant nonprofit references for which you have performed similar work in the past five years.
For each project listed, provide the name, address, and a contact name of the client’s representative who can be contacted regarding your performance.
Include the name of the lead firm in cases where you worked in partnership or in an auxiliary capacity.

Personnel:

Provide professional resumes for the key people to be assigned to our project.
Include those of consultants and describe their relevant experience.
Describe proposed responsibilities of key people.
Identify the person who would be the primary contact point for the client.
Provide an organizational chart of the project team.
Provide a narrative description of how the firm proposes to execute the project. Descriptions of experience with similar projects that demonstrate effective work are welcome, as are brochures that would help evaluate your firm.
Submit a statement on why you believe your firm is best qualified to carry out the project.
An itemized cost of your services

ORGANIZATION SELECTION:

Proposals will be evaluated and scored by the Board and Staff of Lemonade Day in its sole discretion based on the following criteria:

Demonstrated experience of individual(s) to be assigned to the campaign
Firm’s or individual’s understanding of nonprofit organizations similar to Lemonade Day
Demonstrated success in similar projects

The Lemonade Day Board and Staff may or may not choose to conduct telephone, online or in person interviews. Following proposal scoring, the top ranked firms or individuals, including the staff to be assigned to this campaign, will be expected to travel to Houston at its/his/her expense for an interview. Upon selection of a finalist, Lemonade Day will enter into contract negotiations. If these negotiations fail, Lemonade Day will proceed with contract negotiations with the firm scoring second, and so on. Unsuccessful respondents will be notified.

RFP RESPONSES:

Responses to the RFP must be received by May 15, 2015 and should be directed to:
Lemonade Day ATTN: Ron Batts 1800 West Loop South, Suite 1875 Houston, TX 77027
Please provide one original and 3 copies of the proposal.
Questions can be addressed to:
Ron Batts, President 719.400.9326 or rbatts@prepared4life.org.
or
Katie Stedman, Director of Operations 719.400.9332 or kstedman@lemonadeday.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION & CONDITIONS:

Statement of Non-Commitment Issuance of this RFP does not commit Lemonade Day to award a contract or to pay any costs incurred in preparation of proposals responding to the RFP. Lemonade Day reserves the right to reject any or all proposals and re-advertise. All proposals become the property of Lemonade Day.

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY:

Successful contract bidders must comply with provisions of all applicable federal law, Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any subcontracting by the successful bidder subjects the subcontracting firm(s) to the same provisions of the federal law.