Georgia Historical Society Announces Call for Web Designer
1. Background
For nearly two centuries, the Georgia Historical Society (GHS) has been the leading, most trusted source for Georgia history in the nation and beyond. Through the intentional collection and exceptional care of Georgia’s documentary legacy, and delivery of award-winning programming, publications, and research services, GHS helps cultivate an informed and engaged citizenry for generations to come.
Mission
The Georgia Historical Society’s mission is to collect, examine, and teach Georgia and American history through education and research. GHS fulfills its longstanding mission by facilitating superior research and scholarship, providing outstanding preparation of educators, and delivering exceptional programming for general audiences about the history of our state.
Our Values
The Georgia Historical Society remains firmly rooted in the belief that our commitment to teaching the full and complete story of Georgia’s and America’s past, and a balanced and thorough examination of our nation’s successes and failures, is essential for the well-being of our state and nation. GHS is committed to collecting, teaching, training, and facilitating research to provide the basis for a better understanding of Georgia and American history.
• WE BELIEVE our shared history is what binds us together as Americans.
• WE BELIEVE collecting, preserving, and creating public access to the
documentary legacy of the American people is an essential endeavor
that strengthens our democracy.
• WE BELIEVE examining and teaching history is a profound responsibility
that directly impacts the future well-being of our state and nation.
Guiding Principles
▪ Access – GHS makes our collection and programming widely accessible to corporate and
civic leaders, scholars, researchers, educators, students, and the public.
▪ Diversity and Inclusivity – GHS is committed to creating an inclusive environment where
diversity is valued, desired, viewed as a strength, and leveraged to ensure that the full
and complete history of Georgia and her people are collected, preserved, and shared for
future generations. GHS further values diversity in thought and believes diverse
viewpoints, when grounded in historical truth, make for rich, civil discourse which is
essential to the continuance and strengthening of our democracy.
▪ Excellence – GHS operates at the highest standards in all that we do to include care and
creation of access to an unparalleled archival and rare book collection; publication of a
peer-reviewed scholarly journal; development and delivery of relevant, timely, and
engaging programming; and through efficient operations and outstanding fiscal
accountability.
▪ Integrity – GHS has earned, and consistently works to maintain, public trust and serves
as steward of Georgia’s documentary legacy and an unbiased resource partner to all
those engaged in expanding and deepening public understanding of Georgia and
American history. Georgians in all fields, from both the public and private sectors, turn
to GHS for insight and perspective on our ever-changing world, fueling the institution’s
growing reputation as an “honest broker” and trusted source for historical knowledge.
2. Summary
GHS seeks proposals to redesign and refresh our current website at www.georgiahistory.com.
This RFP includes a background of our organization and describes the goals of the redesign, its
desired functionality, and specific requests relating to the proposal. We understand that details
may be subject to change upon vendor recommendation and/or research of a more optimal
solution. In your proposal, please feel free to suggest alternatives that follow best practices in
current website design and functionality.
3. Project Overview
The design of the current GHS website is very outdated and text-heavy, and its functionality is
clunky. We need a refresh to accomplish our strategic goals. We want our website to reflect our
brand of excellence and showcase our position (within Georgia and nationally) as a leader
within public history industry.
The current site is built in WordPress, and we would like to continue using this platform. We
make frequent edits to the copy of the website and need the back-end to be user-friendly.
4. Project Goals
1. Create a modern and fresh redesign of the GHS website
2. Strengthen GHS brand awareness
3. Increase donor and member engagement
4. Provide interactive, educational resources for history students, teachers, and researchers.
5. Provide a content management system that is user-friendly and intuitive
5. Audience
1. K-12 teachers
2. K-12 students
3. Researchers
4. Members
5. Current and potential donors
6. Current and potential board members
7. Media
8. General public
6. Website Requirements
1. Fresh look and feel: modern, clean, accessible
2. New, larger font set, adaptive to different displays (current font is hard to read)
3. Mobile-first, responsive design that looks great on big and small screens
4. Design that takes advantage of wider screens
5. ADA compliant
6. Page width not boxed in
7. Reorganized navigation based on visitor identity (ex. Researcher, Student, Teacher, Media, etc.)
8. Streamlined, uncluttered content – use more images
9. Consistent page elements—buttons, toggles, etc.
10. Improved search function capabilities
11. Better online pay and donation function, something that automates giving and that modernizes the
giving stricture on the backend.
12. Students need to easily navigate Education section of website, so the website needs to be simplistic,
stylized, clean, cohesive, interactive, and easily clickable.
13. Education content needs to be organized better by GA Standards of Excellence and topic
14. Fresh ways to highlight GHS collection of historic artifacts and documents
15. New Historical Marker App highly featured
16. Less content linked to PDFs
17. Brochure content as pages, not links to download print version
18. Easy newsletter subscribe function in footer
19. Print page feature/download as PDF
20. Less reliance on third-party plugins
21. Form builder with file upload
22. Seamless integration with GHS auxiliary websites: Georgia History Festival
(georgiahistoryfestival.org) and Off the Deaton Path blog (deatonpath.georgiahistory.com)
23. New way to feature and filter events
8. Timeline
RFP Release Date: January 10, 2023
Response Date: February 7, 2023
Vendor Selection: February 21, 2023
Project Kickoff: March 14, 2023
Delivery of website: June 30, 2023
9. Proposal Guidelines and Requirements
This is an open and competitive process.
Proposals received after 5:00pm EST, February 3, 2023, will not be considered.
The price you quote should be inclusive. If your price excludes certain fees or charges, you must
provide a detailed list of excluded fees with a complete explanation of the nature of those fees.
If the execution of work to be performed by your company requires the hiring of
subcontractors, you must clearly state this in your proposal.
10. Contract Terms
GHS will negotiate contract terms upon selection, and a project will be awarded upon signing of
an agreement or contract, which outlines terms, scope, budget, and other necessary items.
11. Submission Instructions
Please provide detailed information to accomplish the project scope outlined below. The budget and proposal must include all design, production, software acquisition, integration and necessary development and maintenance of the web site.
Proposals must address the following:
Executive Summary
• Describe your understanding of our current website challenges.
• Summarize your proposed solution, and how your solution will resolve our current
website challenges.
• Provide a summary of pricing for the proposed services and products.
Company Overview
Tell us about your company, your experience in web design and production for projects similar
to ours, and your experience in working with clients in higher education. Provide links to your
agency website, online portfolios, and social media.
Team
Identify the team who will work on this project. Include name and title/role. Include
subcontractors if applicable.
References
Provide a list of three references who can speak to services requested in this RFP.
Solutions Menu with Pricing
Include all project phases and tasks, along with a line-item breakdown of costs.
Deliverables
Outline the products and/or services that will be delivered.
Schedule
Provide the suggested project schedule detailing the time required for each major step or phase of the project.
User Training and Support
Provide details on any user training and support included for our content editors along with the training support format (i.e., on- site/in-person, live web, chat, email, phone-based, hard copy, other documentation, etc.).
Payment
Include any requirements or preferences regarding invoicing and payment. Include all terms and conditions.
