January 7, 2025
City Manager's Office
DATE: February 4, 2025
TO: Mayor Martinez and Members of the City Council
FROM:
Patrick Seals, Administrative Chief
Subject:
Contract with Submittable Grants Client Relations
Management System
FINANCIAL IMPACT: The proposed $210,395 expenditure (which includes a 15 percent contingency of $27,442,), is included within the approved Fiscal Year 2024-25 budget for the Richmond
Department of Children & Youth (13371018-400209).
Subsequent fiscal years will also be budgeted and
allocated accordingly. The initial expenditure for the first year shall not exceed $82,950, and all subsequent years shall not exceed $49,500.
PREVIOUS COUNCIL
ACTION:
None
STATEMENT OF THE
ISSUE:
The City currently facilitates multiple grant programs
including, the Richmond Fund for Children & Youth, ECIA Competitive Grant Program, Love Your Block Grant,
Neighborhood Public Art Mini Grant, and the Veolia
Mitigation Grant. Across all grant programs there can be well over 300 applicants and well over 150 grantees.
Annually, staff are required to coordinate, the drafting, release, receipt, reviewing, scoring, reporting, and
tracking of metrics. Furthermore, this process is time
intensive and requires authentication with state and
federal agencies including the California Secretary of
State, California Department of Justice, and United
States Internal Revenue Service. Incorporating a grants management software will expedite review and scoring,
AGENDA
REPORT
January 7, 2025
provide for ease for both applicants and grantees, ensure compliance with laws governing not-for-profit applicants, while enhancing reporting, data collection, analysis and evaluation supports as set forth in the City of Richmond Charter Article 15 Section 2, Article 15 Section 4(d), and Article 15 Section (d)(ii)(4-5).
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
APPROVE a three-year contract with Submittable
Holdings, Inc. for $210,395 with two one-year extension options for $49,500, annually to provide a grant client relations management services software to the Richmond
Department of Children and Youth, Community Services
Department, and Economic Development Arts and
Culture Division, with an initial expiration date of June 30, 2028 – City Manager’s Office (Patrick Seals 510-307-
8016).
DISCUSSION:
The City of Richmond seeks to hire a vendor software application to develop and deliver: (1) Grant Application and Review System and (2) Grant Management System.
The software will support Departments and programs that serve or provide grant funding including the: ECIA Competitive Grant, Love Your Block Mini-Grant, Community Services Department Mini-Grant and the Neighborhood Public Art (NPA) Mini-Grant, etc. The long-term vision is for a unified data management system across the City of Richmond that will simplify the grant application and reporting process for grantees.
Furthermore, the solution will allow staff of various City of Richmond departments and programs to manage the entire life cycle of grants from application to review and award, to ongoing management until the end of the grant term.
The Richmond Department of Children & Youth (RDCY) released a Request for Proposals (RFP) on March 8, 2023, via the City’s BidsOnline system, in which 537 vendors were notified, and 38 vendors downloaded the RFP (Attachment 2).
Selection of Vendor
The RFP was due on Aprill 10, 2023, and proposals were received from the following 13 firms: Amplifund, Bonterra, City Data Services, Crowe, FLUXX, Integrated, Polus, Simple Solutions, SmartSimple, Software, Sumittable Holdings, Inc.(Submittable), Valsa, WhizHive.
A six (6) member review committee was composed of City of Richmond staff from Community Service - Recreation, Information Technology, City Manager’s Office, Department of Children & Youth. The vendors’ RFP submittals were evaluated on the following criteria:
January 7, 2025
Background and Summary: Understanding of Service (10 points) Methodology: Ability to meet the Needs of City (25 points) Staffing & Timeline: Project Schedule Depth of Staff (20 points) Firm Qualifications: Experience of Firm and Key Individuals (15 points) Budgeting and Narrative: Cost Information (20 points) References (5 points)
Quality, Clarity, and Responsiveness (5 points)
The review committee rated and scored all proposals and selected the top six (6) scoring proposal to participate in interviews, including: Amplifund, Fluxx, Submittable, Crowe, City Data Services, and SmartSimple (Attachment 3). Fluxx and Submittable were rated highest following interviews and were subsequently invited to perform a scripted demonstration. A scripted software demonstration is one in which the organization has documented a series of key business processes that it wants to see all potential vendors demonstrate, including customer-facing, operational, compliance and control. Following the scripted demonstration Submittable was ranked highest by the review committee (Attachment 3). Consequently, the review committee and RDCY are recommending entering a three-year contract with Submittable for a total contract amount of $210,395, which includes a 15 percent contingency (Attachment 4).
Qualifications of Firm
Submittable is the industry leader in providing grantmaking services in the government space, with over 18,000 customers in all sizes and sectors. The platform was developed with innovation at the forefront of customer base, providing them with the tools they need to make grantmaking equitable, reportable, and easy to use so that team can focus on their mission.
Submittable was founded in 2010 and has 218 employees. They have offices in Seattle, WA, Bend, OR, Conshohocken, PA,395 and Missoula, MT and have been providing software solutions to businesses and municipalities in California for over 3 years.
Most recently, they have leveraged their grant making and management platform to support the:
Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz) – California Film Commission (CFC)
City of Sacramento - Office of Innovation & Economic Development City of Berkeley - Office of Economic Development
SYNERGISTIC POLICIES:
City of Richmond Charter - Article 15 Richmond Fund for Children & Youth Chevron Environmental and Community Investment Agreement - Section 3 (F) Competitive Grant
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED:
Attachment 1 – Bid Summary Report
January 7, 2025
Attachment 2 – Request for Proposal (Grants Management System) Attachment 3 – Scoring and Rating Matrix
Attachment 4 – Contract (Proposed) with Submittable