This document is a request for proposal from [NAME] for an online client community solution. It provides details on project scope, requirements, timeline, and instructions for submitting proposals. Key requirements include hosting the site, custom branding, user profile management, discussion forums, groups, blogs and other collaboration features. Vendors are asked to describe how their solution meets each requirement.

1. [NAME]
Online Client Community
Request for Proposal
Response from:
[NAME] Confidential Page 1 of 20

2. Table of Contents
1. Introduction [NAME] ..............................................................................................................3
2. Project Overview ......................................................................................................................4
2.1. Scope of Work ................................................................................................................................. 4
2.2. Statement of Need ............................................................................................................................ 4
3. How to Respond to this RFP ...................................................................................................6
3.1. Important Dates................................................................................................................................ 6
3.2. Questions About the RFP................................................................................................................. 6
3.3. Instructions....................................................................................................................................... 7
3.4. Cost of Proposal Preparation ........................................................................................................... 7
4. Terms Used in this Document .................................................................................................8
5. Requirements and Questions ..................................................................................................9
5.1. About Your Company ...................................................................................................................... 9
5.2. Hosting and Security ........................................................................................................................ 9
5.3. Branding........................................................................................................................................... 9
5.4. Access Management and Usage Guidelines .................................................................................. 10
5.5. Administrator Group Management ................................................................................................ 10
5.6. Network Group Management ........................................................................................................ 10
5.7. Member Profile Administration ..................................................................................................... 11
5.8. Member Profile Self-Management ................................................................................................ 11
5.9. Content Management ..................................................................................................................... 11
5.10. Subscription Management ............................................................................................................. 12
5.11. Member Communication ............................................................................................................... 12
5.12. Forums ........................................................................................................................................... 13
5.13. Groups............................................................................................................................................ 14
5.14. Blogs .............................................................................................................................................. 15
5.15. Libraries ......................................................................................................................................... 15
5.16. Calendar ......................................................................................................................................... 15
5.17. Search............................................................................................................................................. 16
5.18. Accessibility................................................................................................................................... 17
5.19. About Hosting, Security and Disaster Recovery ........................................................................... 17
5.20. About Support and Upgrades ......................................................................................................... 18
5.21. About Deployment, Training and Account Management .............................................................. 18
5.22. Costs [Omitted] .............................................................................................................................. 19
6. Appendix .................................................................................................................................20
[NAME] Confidential Page 2 of 20

3. 1. Introduction [NAME]
[NAME] Confidential Page 3 of 20

4. 2. Project Overview
2.1. Scope of Work
[ADD]
2.2. Statement of Need
We would like to provide our clients with online tools that enable and encourage interaction not only with
[NAME] but with one another. We want to create a single online destination for our clients that will support
their use of [NAME] products and services as well as create a strong sense of community. We refer to this
online destination site as the “[NAME] Client Community” (aka “Community”).
Purpose
The Community has several primary functions:
 Facilitate ongoing support and product information sharing. Enable members to assist each
other in using [NAME]’s products. Enable [NAME] to effectively share information with members.
 Serve as a gathering place for networking and relationship building. Enable members to
meet and develop relationships with their peers at other organizations, participate in multiple
groups, and form their own groups.
 Support a distributed community of practice. Enable members to share best practices and
experiences about strategies and tactics for online marketing, fundraising and constituent
relationship management. Enable [NAME] to effectively share information with members.
Objectives
The objectives for our Community are to:
 Improve client satisfaction, reduce support costs and improve responsiveness. Provide a
client-to-client support system and more client self-service options.
 Encourage on-going dialogue, collaboration and sharing. Create a positive forum for sharing
ideas and information, meeting others, and having a “voice” within the community at large. Create
a meaningful way to continue the dialogue and collaboration in between [NAME] offline events
and conference calls.
 Improve the online client experience. Create a single online destination that is interactive and
intuitive and meets our clients’ needs.
 Improve client loyalty and evangelism. Enable members to form positive relationships with us
and one another. Enhance our relationships with our clients.
 Strengthen brand. Solidify [NAME]’s brand as a thought leader and an ally in client success.
 Improve client communications. Provide a clear information dissemination point.
 Gain insight into client needs. Allow [NAME] to observe conversations clients are having about
[NAME] products and services and to proactively solicit input via surveys and polls.
Based upon a preliminary review, we have selected your company to receive this formal Request for
Proposal (RFP). We are looking for the following general capabilities from a software-as-a-service vendor:
 “Social network” capabilities for group management
 Member profile self-management
[NAME] Confidential Page 4 of 20

5.  Discussion board
 Groups functionality
 Blogs
 Wikis
 Libraries
 Email Listservs
 Calendar
[NAME] Confidential Page 5 of 20

6. 3. How to Respond to this RFP
The purpose of this document is to solicit proposals for supplying an online community solution to
[NAME]. You must enter an answer to all requirements and open questions within section 5 of this
document or your response may be considered incomplete.
3.1. Important Dates
All deliverables must be received by 5:00pm Eastern on the date indicated below. You must email your
responses to: [NAME]

Phase Description Timeline
Phase 1 Selection Schedule
RFP Response Due to [NAME]: ______________, 2011
Notify Selected Organization: ______________, 2011
Contract Finalization: ______________, 2011
Project Kickoff: ______________, 20011
Final Product Delivery: ______________, 2011
Send Responses via Email to: [Email address]. Please direct all
questions about the RFP to [NAME] via phone at [PHONE].
Phase 2  Design and plan Community Website _________, 2011
 Implement:
 Groups functionality
 Forums
 Blogs
 Wikis
 Libraries
 Email Listservs
 Calendar
Phase 3  Beta Launch of Community Website _________, 2011
[NAME] reserves the right to modify these dates as conditions warrant. [NAME] also reserves the right to
reject a vendor for any reason at any time in the evaluation process.
3.2. Questions About the RFP
We want to provide you with all of the information you need in order for you to present the most complete
response to this RFP as possible. If you have any questions about the RFP or the project itself, you may
contact the following people:
[OMITTED]
[NAME] Confidential Page 6 of 20

7. 3.3. Instructions
1. Respondents must submit a soft (electronic) copy of the completed proposal (MS Word or .PDF
format) as a single document. You must enter an answer to all requirements and open questions in
section 5 or in the Appendix provided at the end of this document, or your response may be
considered incomplete. Please also enter your company and contact information on the cover page of
this document.
Respondents must also submit a signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Please print and sign the
NDA provided and fax it back to the attention of [OMITTED].
2. Respondents must also include a copy of their standard software and services agreement as part of
their response.
3. Respondents may be requested to provide a formal presentation of their proposal and/or a
demonstration at [NAME]’s offices or remotely, as needed. Scenarios for the demonstration will be
provided when this event is scheduled.
4. For any of the sections below with “Requirements” in the title, please use the following key for your
responses:
SF Standard Functionality – currently available “out of the box” or can be configured by
administrator.
AE Application Enhancement – to be included in a future release. In the Comment section,
provide the expected delivery date.
CM Customization or Configuration by Vendor – requirement can be met on proposed solution
with development by Vendor. In the Comment section provide an estimate of the level of
effort and cost needed by Vendor.
rd
3P 3 Party Support – requirement can be met by third party vendor with a service/solution
that is wholly integrated with Vendors. Use the Comment section to describe the third party
vendor’s offering, terms and fees.
NA Not Available and not planned for any future releases.
Note that some items listed in the “requirements” sections are actually open questions, and the
column for the key above is grayed out. Please place your answers in the Comments sections or use
the Appendix section of this document.
3.4. Cost of Proposal Preparation
Any costs incurred by your company in preparing and providing a response to this RFP are solely the
responsibility of your organization. In addition, should you be asked to provide an onsite demonstration of
your software, the costs associated with that process will similarly be the sole responsibility of your
organization.
[NAME] Confidential Page 7 of 20

8. 4. Terms Used in this Document
The following terms are used in the Requirements section of this document.
Term Definition
Discussion A collection of multiple forums, threads and posts
Board
Forum Top-level categorization for threads, may also have sub-forums
Thread A series of messages on a particular topic
Post A single message within a thread
Administrator An [NAME] employee with oversight for forum structure, groups, content and processes
for the discussion board
Moderator An individual with a subset of Administrator permissions that manages only the content
in some or all of the forums or groups
Member An individual with permission to manage only their own content in some or all of the
forums. Administrators and moderators are also referred to as members.
[NAME] Confidential Page 8 of 20

9. 5. Requirements and Questions
5.1. About Your Company
5.1.1. Provide a brief overview of your company, including when founded, number of employees by
business unit, nature of business, and number of clients.
5.1.2. Provide a summary of your company’s short-term and long-term goals and strategic vision.
5.1.3. What do you consider being your competitive differentiators against your competitors?
5.1.4. Where is your company headquartered? Where are the office(s) located that will be providing
sales, deployment and support for the System?
5.1.5. How many active clients do you have? How many of those clients have fully implemented
systems that are similar in scope to that which you recommend for [NAME]? How many are
integrating with [NAME of CRM/AMS System]?
5.1.6. How many of your active clients have been clients for more than 2 years?
What form of ownership (e.g. corporation, private) exists for your company?
5.1.7. Is your company currently involved in any litigation with a client or other entity? Within the past
three years? If yes, briefly describe.
5.2. Hosting and Security
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.2.1. System must be hosted, i.e., provided
as “software-as-a-service”
5.2.2. Ability for members to access permitted
content within any application (including
Vendor’s) in the [NAME] Community
with a single sign-on. Please use the
comments section to describe at a high
level how this would be implemented.
5.2.3. Will we “own” the information hosted on
our community site? In the event we
move off of your System, how is the
migration of data handled?
5.3. Branding
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.3.1. Ability to create Web page header and
footer employing custom HTML,
including CSS, JS, images, etc.
5.3.2. Ability to use custom images or plain
text for any buttons employed in
member-viewed user interface
5.3.3. Ability to use CSS to customize
[NAME] Confidential Page 9 of 20

10. elements such as fonts, colors, borders,
link behaviors, etc.
5.4. Access Management and Usage Guidelines
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.4.1. Ability for individual to request
membership by completing a
customizable online form
5.4.2. Ability for System to allow either open
registration or require a community
passcode.
5.4.3. Ability for System to automatically send
confirmation email containing login
credentials
5.4.4. Ability to create and require members to
“accept” a Terms of Use statement
when they first attempt to access the
Community
5.4.5. Ability to create an FAQ list, Guidelines,
Privacy Policy and other documentation
for members
5.5. Administrator Group Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.5.1. Ability to create a “default” group into
which all new members are initially
placed
5.5.2. Ability to create groups into which
members can be manually assigned
5.5.3. Ability to create private and public
groups
5.5.4. Ability to assign permissions by group
5.5.5. Ability for members to be included in
one or more groups
5.6. Network Group Management
5.6.1. Ability for Administrators and
Moderators to send mass emails or
“personal messages” (PMs) to all
members of a group for which they have
permission to do so
5.6.2. Ability for members to view list of all
Semi-Public and Public groups, with the
capability to request to join or
immediately join the group
5.6.3. System shall include capability for a
Group Moderator to extend an invitation
to a Private group to a member and for
the member to accept or decline that
invitation
[NAME] Confidential Page 10 of 20

11. 5.7. Member Profile Administration
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.7.1. Ability to customize fields in member
profile
5.7.2. Ability to decide which profile fields are
required or not to save profile
5.7.3. Ability to edit any value in a member
profile
5.7.4. Ability for administrator or System to
automatically generate unique member
display names, e.g., [First Name] [Last
Initial], rather than allowing member to
select display name
5.7.5. Ability to search member database
against any value in profile
5.7.6. Ability for administrator to allow
members to determine if a profile field
value should be visible to other
members, e.g., Email Address
5.8. Member Profile Self-Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.8.1. Ability for member to create and
manage their own profile
5.8.2. Ability to include a photo as part of the
profile.
5.8.3. Ability to change member password
5.8.4. Ability to mask last name and email
addresses from other members
5.8.5. System shall display a list of all emails
send by member.
5.8.6. System shall display a list of all Groups
of which member is a member, including
permissions attributed to each group.
Ability for member to remove self from a
Group.
5.8.7. System shall automatically create a
member homepage that displays select
profile data, photo, list of all Groups of
which member is a member, etc. A
5.8.8. System to permit member to add tags,
and to create a tag cloud automatically
5.9. Community Directory
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.9.1. Member profiles shall automatically be
added to Community Directory
5.9.2. Community Directory tag cloud rolls up
all individual profile tag clouds
[NAME] Confidential Page 11 of 20

12. 5.9.3. Community directory shall be
searchable by last name, key word
and/or tag cloud
5.9.4. Search result reflects specifically where
in profile search term was found.
5.10. Content Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.10.1. System shall include WYSIWYG and
HTML editor for content creation/editing
5.10.2. WYSIWYG shall include a spell check
5.10.3. Ability to switch between entering
content via WYSIWYG editor and
source HTML
5.10.4. System shall provide multi-lingual
content support
5.10.5. Ability to translate content into other
languages
5.10.6. Ability to create links to any other
internal or external Web pages
5.10.7. Ability to create links to email addresses
5.10.8. Ability to upload and/or embed multiple
images (e.g., GIF).
5.10.9. Ability to upload and attach multiple
documents and files (e.g., PDF, WMV,
DOC)
5.10.10. Ability to perform global search-and-
replace for keywords or phrases
5.10.11. Ability to edit style sheets directly
5.11. Subscription Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.11.1. Ability to subscribe to any discussion
board forum, thread, or blog
5.12. Member Communication
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.12.1.1. Ability for members to send each other
“personal messages”, or PMs
5.12.1.2. Ability for member to access PM
mailbox to read new, saved and sent
PMs
5.12.1.3. Ability for member to delete PMs
5.12.1.4. Ability for member to create a list of
members that are blocked from
sending s/he PMs
5.12.1.5. Ability for administrator to view any
member’s PM mailbox and messages
5.12.1.6. Ability for administrator to send mass
[NAME] Confidential Page 12 of 20

13. email or mass PM to all members
5.12.1.7. Ability for administrator to display
messages on the login page, site
homepage, member personal pages,
application homepages (e.g.,
discussion board), group home pages,
or any forms. Ability to set auto-publish
and auto-removal dates for messages.
5.13. Forums
5.13.1. Forum Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.13.1.1. Ability to view, create, edit, archive,
delete, or move infinite and infinitely-
nested forums (based on group
permissions)
5.13.1.2. Ability to arrange forums and sub-
forums in a desired order
5.13.1.3. Ability to assign one, some, or all
groups to a forum, such that a member
of that group has the permissions of
that group with respect to that forum
5.13.1.4. Ability to restrict forum access by
password
5.13.1.5. Ability to assign and display one or
more moderators per forum
5.13.1.6. Ability to set maximum number of
threads in a forum, and once met,
automatically paginate
5.13.1.7. Ability to create a private forum
5.13.1.8. Ability for members to see
forums/threads that have new posts
since their last visit
5.13.1.9. Extensive administrative control tools
5.13.2. Thread/Post Management
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.13.2.1. Ability to view, create, edit, archive,
delete, copy/move, lock/unlock, or
stick/unstick threads (based on
permissions)
5.13.2.2. Ability to create, edit, or delete posts
(based on permissions)
5.13.2.3. Ability to stick/unstick a post so that it
appears at the beginning of a thread
(based on permissions)
5.13.3. Member Tools
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.13.3.1. Quick reply tool with minimal
[NAME] Confidential Page 13 of 20

14. WYSIWYG editor
5.13.3.2. Detailed reply tool with extensive
WYSIWYG editor, smilies, and the
ability to attach documents to a post
5.13.3.3. Simple search
5.13.3.4. Advanced search including ability to
search by forum, keyword, person who
posted, date of posting, etc.
5.13.3.5. Ability to subscribe to forum or thread
via RSS feed or email
5.13.3.6. Ability to add a poll to a thread
5.14. Groups
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.14.1. Ability for members to create unlimited
groups
5.14.2. Ability for administrators to create
groups.
5.14.3. Ability of administrator to configure
community so that members cannot
create groups
5.14.4. Each group shall have its own:
 Homepage
 Participant List
 Email Listserv
 Blog
 Wiki
 Library
5.14.5. Each group’s privacy and access
settings shall be configurable by
moderator
5.14.6. Privacy and access settings shall permit
moderator to determine who can view
each group feature, who can edit each
group feature, whether moderator has to
pre-approve emails before they’re
delivered, and whether or not to archive
emails
5.14.7. A group can be made private so that its
existence is not visible to members
other than invited members of the group
5.14.8. Each group shall be capable of having
one or more moderators
5.14.9. Search shall permit finding groups by
name or description
5.14.10. Email listserv shall permit member to
use multiple email addresses
5.14.11. Email listserv shall permit member to
select delivery mechanism on a group-
by-group basis: a) sent to selected email
address immediately or b) as a daily
digest; or, c) view on web.
[NAME] Confidential Page 14 of 20

15. 5.15. Blogs
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.15.1. System shall include standard blog
capabilities, including ability for
members to leave comments for blog
entries, WYSIWYG editor for blogs,
ability to link to blog, and to create
categories and assign specific blog to a
category.
5.16. Libraries
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.16.1. System shall include a community
library and libraries for each group
5.16.2. System shall permit upload of all types
of electronic files
5.16.3. System shall permit upload of hyperlinks
5.16.4. Ratings and commenting are available
for all library items
5.16.5. Members with access to a library can
add folders and folders can be nested
5.16.6. Down to how many levels can folders be
nested?
5.16.7. Upload functionality shall permit one-
step designation of a content item to
reside in multiple, specific libraries.
5.16.8. Items in library shall be marked with
member who uploaded the item and the
date of upload
5.17. Calendar
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.17.1. System shall include a calendar at the
community and at the group level
5.17.2. Calendar shall be capable of displaying
Google calendars and providing links to
subscribe to or download calendars
5.17.3. Calendar shall permit search for events
containing keywords
5.17.4. Calendar shall permit generation of a
variety of RSS feeds to provide events
to other websites
5.17.5. Event creation interface shall include
WYSIWYG editor, spell check and
ability to upload/embed images and
[NAME] Confidential Page 15 of 20

16. other media.
5.18. Search
SF/AE/CM/ Comments
3P/NA
5.18.1. Ability to select which objects to search
against, e.g., only member directory, or
only one or more selected forums
5.18.2. System shall search within entire object,
including title, body, and metadata
5.18.3. System shall filter search engine results
based on group permissions of searcher
5.18.4. Search results shall indicate where
within the element searched the search
term was found.
[NAME] Confidential Page 16 of 20

17. 5.19. Accessibility
5.19.1. Does your end-user interface meet
accessibility standards?
5.19.2. Does your administrative interface meet S
accessibility standards?
5.20. About Hosting, Security and Disaster Recovery
5.20.1. Can we maintain the "[NAME].com" domain for the hosted services, and use our DNS as that
authoritative source?
5.20.2. Where is the System hosted? Please provide exact data center locations and the names of your
data center/Internet providers.
5.20.3. What operating system(s) is the System running on?
5.20.4. What database and application server(s) is the System running on?
5.20.5. Is any information in the database automatically archived? If so, after what timeframe? How
does this impact reporting?
5.20.6. Does the System use any standard architectures or applications? If so, which ones?
5.20.7. What is the average latency period between activity data collection and the ability to report on
that data?
5.20.8. What is the guaranteed service uptime and response time? Does that include maintenance
windows? How much notice do you give prior to maintenance downtime?
5.20.9. How do you handle outages, planned or unplanned? How are these events communicated to
clients?
5.20.10. What is the backup/recovery schedule for our data? In the event of data loss or corruption, how
long will a restore of our data take from request to completion?
5.20.11. Can we obtain a copy of the backups electronically?
5.20.12. What is the escalation procedure in case of emergency?
5.20.13. How does the System scale to allow more users hitting the site than originally envisioned?
5.20.14. How does the System scale to allow the site to have more content than originally envisioned?
5.20.15. Do all clients share the same database, storage and/or server resources? If so, how do you
prevent one client from consuming more than their share of the resources and impacting other
clients?
5.20.16. Does the System allow for https and SSL transactions?
5.20.17. How are user logins and user profile information kept secure in your product? What other
[NAME] Confidential Page 17 of 20

18. security measures do you have in place to protect our service and its data?
5.20.18. Describe the default security model (users, groups, roles, policies/privileges, etc.) used by the
System. What types of actions can be restricted among users?
5.21. About Support and Upgrades
5.21.1. What personnel and qualifications do we need to support and administer the System? On
average, how long does it take for an administrator to be able to independently administer the
System? How many full-time/part-time administrators do your clients have that have
implementations similar to [NAME]?
5.21.2. Describe your support structure (available support options, support center hours, fees, response
times, SLAs, etc.). Indicate which option you would recommend for [NAME]’s needs.
5.21.3. Is in-context help available within the System application? Are complete manuals available? If
so, in what format?
5.21.4. Describe your support models (process, resources, timeline, fees) for bug fixes and
enhancement requests.
5.21.5. What is the current release number of the System? When was it released? When is the next
major upgrade planned for the System? Briefly, what will be new?
5.21.6. Describe how upgrades are managed. How do you communicate new features and how far in
advance on the upgrade? How much System downtime is typically involved? How often do
upgrades occur? Can we delay an upgrade for any reason? What happens if an upgrade causes
a breakage to a customization? Are there additional costs for upgrades or upgrade training?
5.21.7. Do you communicate known bugs to clients? If so, how?
5.21.8. Describe any pre- or post-deployment consulting services you would recommend for [NAME].
Include any associated fees.
5.22. About Deployment, Training and Account Management
5.22.1. Describe the expected deployment process for [NAME]. What are the major milestones and
anticipated timeline? What staff will be provided by your company? Will you provide a dedicated
project manager? What staff will be required from [NAME] and what percentage of their time will
be required?
5.22.2. What training do you provide that you recommend for [NAME]? Where is the training typically
held? What costs are associated with training?
5.22.3. Describe how your company manages client accounts post-deployment. Provide a detailed
description of the role of an account manager.
5.22.4. Do you provide clients with benchmark data from other clients’ programs? If so, how is this
offered?
5.22.5. From your experiences working with other clients, we would like you to provide information in the
following areas:
 Best practices for launching and maintaining a successful community (design, usability,
communications, user engagement, moderating, etc.)
[NAME] Confidential Page 18 of 20

19.  How to grow the community and encourage more participation (contests, recognition,
ratings, engaging client moderators, etc.)
 How to staff our community appropriately (administrators, moderators, observers, etc.)
 How to determine the overall investment in staff and budget we should expect to make in
our first year and each year following.
5.23. Costs [Omitted]
[NAME] Confidential Page 19 of 20

20. 6. Appendix
Please use this space to add any additional materials needed to complete your response.
[NAME] Confidential Page 20 of 20