Request for Proposal (RFP) Salesforce System Enhancement & Optimization at Umoja Community Education Foundation

United States

Request for Proposal (RFP) Salesforce System Enhancement &amp; Optimization<p></p><p>Introduction &amp; Purpose </p><p>UCEF is seeking proposals from a qualified Salesforce consulting firm or independent consultant to upgrade and improve its existing Salesforce environment. We currently use Salesforce as core infrastructure supporting program operations, reporting, and data management across the organization, and we are ready to invest in making the system more automated, better organized by department, and cleaner at the data level. This engagement is intentionally scoped to be a strong fit for a small firm or single person consultant with deep, hands-on Salesforce configuration and development experience. We are looking for a partner who can move efficiently, communicate clearly with non-technical staff, and leave us with well-documented, maintainable systems. </p><p>The work is organized into four primary objectives: </p><p>1. Build out automations and task assignments — reduce manual work and route tasks/records to the right people automatically. </p><p>2. Build out applications for department-specific use — give individual teams tailored tools, views, and access. </p><p>3. Clean up contact automation — resolve data quality issues and stabilize the automation tied to contact records. </p><p>4. Build executive and operational dashboards — give leadership a consistent, current view of performance across human resources, technology, performance management, communications, facilities, compliance, contracts, and agencywide initiatives. </p><p>About Umoja </p><p>Umoja, (a Kiswahili word meaning unity) is a community and critical resource dedicated to enhancing the cultural and educational experiences of African American and other students. We believe that when the voices and histories of students are deliberately and intentionally recognized, the opportunity for self-efficacy emerges and a foundation is formed for academic success. Umoja actively serves and promotes student success for all students through a curriculum and pedagogy responsive to the legacy of the African and African American Diasporas. Salesforce underpins much of how we track program data, generate reports, and support decision-making across our teams, including a Research &amp; Evaluation function that relies heavily on accurate, scalable data systems. </p><p>Current Environment </p><p>● Salesforce edition: Enterprise, Service, Marketing Cloud </p><p>● Approximate number of users: 20 Internal Users, 80 Customer/Partner Users </p><p>● Key existing objects / data model: Custom partner records, and program reporting objects replated to accounts, Marketing Cloud Growth, Einstein Activity Capture </p><p>● Existing automation in use: Flows, Process Builder </p><p>● Existing integrations: Campus Partner Portal, Eventbrite, Adobe Sign </p><p>● Reporting tools in use: Salesforce Reports, Dashboard, and Tableau </p><p>● Known pain points: duplicate contacts, manual task assignment, inconsistent departmental use and access </p><p>Project Objectives &amp; Scope of Work </p><p>The selected vendor will be responsible for the following four workstreams, as well as the cross-cutting requirements noted at the end of this section. </p><p>Workstream 1 — Automation &amp; Task Assignment (Primary) </p><p>● Assess current automation (Flows, Process Builder, Workflow Rules, Apex) and identify gaps, redundancies, and any deprecated tooling. </p><p>● Design and build automated task assignment and record routing — for example, assigning tasks or records to the appropriate staff member based on program, region, role, or other criteria. Umoja Community Education Foundation — </p><p>● Build notification, reminder, and follow-up automations to reduce manual tracking. </p><p>● Create or refine validation rules and approval processes as needed. </p><p>● Consolidate and migrate legacy or deprecated automation (e.g., Workflow Rules, Process Builder) into a scalable, Flow-based architecture. </p><p>● Document all automation logic and decision points. </p><p>Workstream 2 — Department-Specific Applications </p><p>● Work with each participating team (e.g., Research &amp; Evaluation, program operations, and other departments) to gather requirements. </p><p>● Design and build custom Lightning apps, objects, record types, page layouts, and tabs tailored to each department's workflow. </p><p>● Configure permission sets, profiles, and role-based access so each department sees the data and tools relevant to it. </p><p>● Build department-specific reports and dashboards to support each team's reporting needs. </p><p>● Ensure applications are scalable, maintainable, and consistent with organizational data standards. </p><p>Workstream 3 — Contact Automation Cleanup </p><p>● Audit the contact data model and all existing contact-related automation. </p><p>● Perform data cleaning, deduplication, standardization, and integrity checks across contact records. </p><p>● Repair or rebuild contact automation, including duplicate/matching rules, dataentry validation, and any flows that create or update contacts. </p><p>● Establish clear data standards and lightweight governance for contact data going forward. </p><p>● Document standards so internal staff can maintain data quality after the engagement. </p><p>Workstream 4 — Executive &amp; Operational Dashboards </p><p>UCEF leadership has identified a defined set of executive and operational dashboards as a required outcome of this engagement. The vendor will design, build, test, and document the eight dashboards below, together with the reports, objects, fields, and data-capture processes needed to populate them. Some of the data these dashboards require is not currently maintained in Salesforce. For each dashboard, vendors should propose a source strategy — building the data capture natively in Salesforce, integrating an external system of record, or supporting a defined manual-update process — and should note where a recommendation carries additional licensing, integration, or ongoing maintenance cost.</p> <p>5. Deliverables At minimum, the engagement should produce: </p><p>1. Discovery summary — findings from the assessment of the current environment, with a prioritized plan. </p><p>2. Automation &amp; task-assignment build — configured, tested Flows and routing logic (Workstream 1). </p><p>3. Department applications — configured apps, objects, layouts, permissions, and dashboards (Workstream 2). </p><p>4. Contact cleanup — deduplicated/standardized contact data plus repaired automation and documented data standards (Workstream 3). </p><p>5. Dashboard design package — recommended KPIs, data-source map, automated-vs-manual classification, integration recommendations, and UCEF approved mockups (Workstream 4). </p><p>6. Executive &amp; operational dashboards — the eight built and tested dashboards described in Section 4, with their supporting reports and refresh/subscription configuration (Workstream 4). </p><p>7. System documentation — data dictionary, automation inventory, and configuration notes. </p><p>8. Knowledge-transfer session(s) and a maintenance/recommendations memo. </p><p>*** Vendors may propose a milestone structure that groups these deliverables in a logical sequence.</p><p></p><p>6. Proposed Timeline (Adjust dates to your schedule)</p><p>RFP issued Target Date 7/23/2026 </p><p>Deadline for vendor questions 8/10/2026 </p><p>Responses to questions shared 8/13/2026 </p><p>Proposals due 9/02/2026 </p><p>Vendor interviews (if any) 9/03/2026 – 9/11/2026 </p><p>Selection &amp; notification September 15 </p><p>Project kickoff Umoja Community Education Foundation Late September 2026</p><p>Estimated project completion 6 - 8 months</p><p>7. Vendor Qualifications:</p><p>We are looking for a firm or consultant who demonstrates: </p><p>● Salesforce Administrator certification (required); Platform Developer I certification strongly preferred. </p><p>● Hands-on experience with Salesforce back-end configuration and development, including objects, fields, relationships, validation rules, and automation (Flows, and Apex where appropriate). </p><p>● Experience designing custom applications and configuring user permissions, profiles, and roles. </p><p>● Demonstrated experience with data cleaning, deduplication, and data-integrity work at scale. </p><p>● Strong knowledge of database concepts (relational data models, normalization, data integrity). </p><p>● Ability to translate operational needs into technical solutions and to communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders. </p><p>● Experience delivering scoped projects on time and within budget as a small firm or independent consultant. </p><p>● Demonstrated experience designing and building executive-level dashboards and KPI reporting in Salesforce, including custom report types, dynamic dashboards, and dashboard subscriptions; experience with Tableau or CRM Analytics is a plus. </p><p>● Plus: Experience in the nonprofit or higher-education sector, and/or with Nonprofit Cloud / NPSP, if applicable. </p><p>● Plus: Familiarity with SQL or related data tools.</p><p>8. Proposal Requirements </p><p>Please include the following in your proposal:</p><p>1. Overview of your firm or consulting practice, including years of Salesforce experience and relevant certifications. </p><p>2. Relevant experience — 2–3 examples or brief case studies of comparable work (automation, custom app builds, and/or data cleanup), ideally in a mission driven or education context. </p><p>3. Proposed approach and methodology for each of the four workstreams. </p><p>4. Dashboard approach — how you would approach Workstream 4, including your recommended source strategy for dashboard data that does not currently reside in Salesforce, and at least one example of comparable dashboard or KPI reporting work.</p><p>5. Project plan and timeline, including key milestones. </p><p>6. Team/staffing — who will perform the work and their qualifications (a single consultant is fully acceptable). </p><p>7. Cost proposal (see Section 9). </p><p>8. References — at least two client references for comparable engagements. </p><p>9. Assumptions and dependencies — anything you need from us to succeed (access, staff time, decisions, etc.).</p><p>9. Budget &amp; Contract Terms </p><p>This is a fixed-scope consulting engagement performed as an independent contractor; it is not an employment relationship and includes no employee benefits. </p><p>● Budget: Please provide your best cost proposal. </p><p>● Pricing format: Please provide a detailed cost proposal. A fixed fee by deliverable/milestone is preferred; an hourly rate with a not-to-exceed cap is acceptable. Itemize by workstream where possible. </p><p>● Payment: Milestone-based payment tied to accepted deliverables is anticipated. </p><p>10. Evaluation Criteria Proposals will be evaluated on:</p><p>Criterion and Suggested Weight (noted by percentage)</p><p>Relevant Salesforce expertise and certifications 30% </p><p>Quality and clarity of proposed approach 25% </p><p>Demonstrated experience with comparable projects 20% </p><p>Cost and value 15% </p><p>References and reliability 10%</p><p>*** (Weightings are suggested — adjust to your priorities.) Mission alignment and the ability to communicate well with non-technical staff will be considered throughout.</p><p>11. Submission Instructions </p><p>● Submit to: Dr. Ahmed Naguib – anaguib@umojacommunity.org </p><p>● Format: PDF Via Email </p><p>● Deadline: 9/02/2026 11:59 PST </p><p>● Questions: Direct all questions in writing to Dr. Ahmed Naguib by 8/10/2026. </p><p>Answers will be shared with all known prospective vendors.</p><p>12. Terms &amp; Conditions </p><p>● This RFP is not an offer or a contract and does not commit Umoja to award any agreement or to reimburse any costs incurred in preparing a proposal. </p><p>● Umoja reserves the right to accept or reject any or all proposals, to request clarification, to negotiate terms, and to modify or cancel this RFP at any time. </p><p>● The selected vendor will be engaged as an independent contractor and is responsible for its own taxes, insurance, and expenses. </p><p>● All organizational data, configurations, and materials accessed during the engagement are confidential and remain the property of Umoja. </p><p>*** We look forward to your proposal and to partnering on a stronger, cleaner, more automated Salesforce environment.</p>