REQUEST FOR INQUIRY FOR NEW WEBSITE DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT

Issued by: Young Audiences Arts for Learning New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania (YA)

Intro, Project Overview

YA’s website is more than 10 years old and it’s time for a complete overhaul and re-build. We’re a successful, but small nonprofit that brings arts programming to children in schools.

We are a turnkey solution for schools, we are easy to work with and the programs are easy to schedule, and fit into the current curriculum.

At the core of what we do, we are a B2B business. The website is a valued online catalog of our offerings, with 82 artists and more than 100 programs and pricing, in a searchable format. The customer must complete their purchase by connecting with staff. The website needs to prioritize being a commerce website. The other website users are connected to us as a nonprofit: donors and funders. We welcome ideas to find solutions that serve these different users. 

We are seeking requests for inquiry from qualified web design and development firms to create a modern, user-friendly, and accessible website that amplifies our impact, enhances our user experience, and better represents our organization.

We would like all requests for inquiry to be received by March 24 and a final decision on a web designer will be made by May 1. We are hoping to have the website launched by January 2026.

Our budget is $15-20k for website development. We are open for discussion on pricing.

Company Overview

View our mission, vision, history, and model of engagement

View our comprehensive effort to examine and improve our programming, leadership, and operations with a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access - Arts United

With YA artists, our aim is for students to imagine new possibilities for themselves and others, experience their own strengths and talents, foster a sense of community, and remove obstacles that prevent them from understanding and connecting with each other.

Request for Inquiries

Web designers interested in this project are asked to complete a questionnaire to help us understand you better, (questions and link below). Based on responses to the questionnaire, we will have follow-up 30-40-minute meetings with those most aligned, available, and interested. If necessary, we will have longer follow-up discussions to make our final selection. We will offer a $150 honorarium for the initial 30-40 minute meeting, and an additional honorarium for any other follow-up discussions.

Website Audience

PTO/PTA Parents: Volunteers who rotate from year to year. They make decisions about bringing programming to schools using fundraised dollars. This audience is always looking for a good deal and wants to schedule programs for schools that everyone will be talking about. 

School Leadership: Programs must have curriculum connections, and bring joy and excitement to schools

Teachers: Influence school decision-makers, and are drawn to programs that are easy to work with and provide connections to required curriculum.

Artists: We want to represent all artists with equity and have a way to showcase their talent using our website with photographs and videos

Donors/Funders/Nonprofit community: They are looking at the website to see how YA impacts the community. For this audience, we want to emphasize our impact as a nonprofit and make it easy to give/contact us

Website Objectives

The website should reflect a B2B format and be like an e-commerce site; however, in order for a school to schedule a program, they must contact someone in our office to discuss scheduling and pricing.

 - The sales team then works with the school to find the best fit and they consider many things such as size, space, grade level and availability of the artist. 

- We want to move people from browsing to calling or emailing us as efficiently as possible.

Secondary objectives

- Share our commitment to diversity and inclusion

- Showcase the work of artists equitably

- Highlight different awards, grants, and community impact; also honor those in the community who have made an impact

- Allow schools to apply for grants quickly and easily

New Website Wish List - Design

- Modern look

- Highlight artistry and student engagement

- Amplify and align with YA brand standard

- Reflect our focus on education without falling on cliche images

- Create a more consistent, intuitive website navigation

New Website Wish List - Functionality

- Search functionality

- Program/Artist search feature that is more robust and easy to navigate

- An easy foundation to make it manageable for multiple people to edit (no special skills or coding required)

- ADA-compliant (best practices)

Resources and Assets

- Dedicated director of marketing and a part-time marketing associate

- Full library of images

- Approved copy for most website pages

- Openness to collaboration across stakeholders

Budget

$15,000-$20,000

Submission Guidelines

Complete questionnaire

Email questions to AnnMarie Gervasio, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, agervasio@yanjep.org

Project Timeline

- Questionnaire received by March 24

- Virtual  interviews with top three companies March 31-April 15

- Decision made by May 1

- Start working on the website in July 2025

- Website launched January 2026