ThousandDays.org was built several years ago, and it’s time for an upgrade. While in the first 10 years we were making the case for the 1,000-day window globally and within the United States, there have been dozens of papers solidifying the research and affirming the critical window of intervention. The multiple Lancet series on maternal and child undernutrition (as recently as 2021) gathered evidence about the importance of nutrition during the first 1,000 days; cataloged the long-term effects of undernutrition on the health and well-being of individuals, families, and societies; identified proven interventions to reduce undernutrition; and called for national and international action to improve nutrition for mothers and children. With this evidence, the first 1,000 days has become an organizing agenda for maternal, neonatal, and child health advocacy and programming.
Background:
The first 1,000 days are a time of tremendous potential and enormous vulnerability. How well or how poorly mothers and children are nourished and cared for during this time has a profound impact on a child’s ability to grow, learn and thrive.
An Initiative of FHI Solutions, we work in the United States and around the world to ensure women and children have the healthiest first 1,000 days. We envision a world in which mothers and children everywhere get the nutrition, care, and support they need. Our work is inspired and informed by mothers who strive every day to give their children a strong start to life.
Through targeted and strategic partnerships, communications, and advocacy, we focus on policies and the subsequent funding that support the health and nourishment of moms and babies starting in pregnancy through a child’s second birthday. We engage directly with global leaders and those who influence them to make the case that resilient communities begin with ensuring mothers and children everywhere have a thriving first 1,000 days. Our work centers on marrying the authority of scientific evidence with the power of human voices to create a clear and compelling case for investment in the first 1,000 days. This enables us to speak to different audiences about this critical window of opportunity for the nutrition, health, and well-being of moms, babies, and toddlers.
Scope of Work:
In 2019 and 2020 alone, we’ve seen great change. The country has experienced the triple crises of a global pandemic, a downturned economy and a national reckoning on racial justice. And functionally, in October 2020, 1,000 Days became an initiative of FHI Solutions, a subsidiary of FHI 360, a global nonprofit that envisions a world in which all individuals and communities have the opportunity to reach their highest potential. Its mission is to improve lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development.
What’s needed: As part of a grant that expires December 31, 2021, the organization is now seeking a digital marketing firm to A) give the homepage a facelift; B) enhance capabilities for users to access resources; C) improve the “take action” section; D) improve visibility of “updates” to be more like blog content ; and E) reevaluate purpose of “for parents” page
What’s not needed: We will continue using WordPress as our CMS. We do not need to ‘migrate’ content. We do not need to integrate the site into SalesForce or other CRM tools to manage donor engagement. Many of the pages will remain the same.
Challenges/issues the refreshed website will resolve
1. The story of 1,000 Days is still accurate and relevant. Originally the site was built to educate a wide variety of audiences about the 1,000-day window. However, now that the narrative is better established, the homepage should better reflect where users are today (less education about the 1,000-day window and more focus on the work we are doing).
2. We want the site to become more of a resource hub that U.S. and global key stakeholders (fellow nonprofits, advocacy organizations, policymaker staff) bookmark to retrieve the latest and greatest information. General consumers may visit the site but for parents and caregivers / other individuals, we will drive them to content on our social channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram).
3. The site has been the same for several years, and we’d like a homepage facelift to give the feeling of renewed excitement, fresh perspectives as we are now part of FHI Solutions.
4. We are exploring more opportunities for our audiences to raise their voice by emailing their members of Congress. The “Take Action” page needs to be reviewed and we need guidance on best practices. We currently use Salsa Engage as our platform.
5. We post new content in the “Updates” section at least once a week, and often these updates are pushed out via social media but they become buried on the site. We need users to see the updates / fresh content when they visit the main page, not just when we drive to the content.
6. The “For Parents” page was originally created to house our “parent education” videos but those no longer hold the same prominence. We believe that the primary audience coming to our website will be advocates, academics, partners, etc. Therefore, we need to rethink how we communicate to parents and what we’re trying to do with the For Parents page.
III. TASK DESCRIPTION
1. Site analysis
2. Confirmation of website goals and audiences
3. Develop, launch and test: A) refreshed homepage; B) user-friendly resource hub; and C) take action page.
4. Content refresh / updates (1,000 Days will drive the edits)
5. GDPR compliance
Due Date: 5 p.m. ET August 24
Address:
Responses to this RFP should be submitted by email to the attention of Lina Constien, Project Manager, LConstien@fhi360.org and cc: Nell Menefee-Libey, nmenefee-libey@fhi360.org
Agencies worth considering for this assignment include Ketchum PR and Zeno Group.