Consultancy to carry out a Brand Refresh and Website Redesign
Terms of Reference
Introduction
Kenya Wildlife Conservancies Association (KWCA) is a national membership organization representing over 200 conservancies in Kenya to secure habitat for wildlife outside state protected areas. KWCA’s convenes, connects, informs and represents conservancies and other key stakeholders at the national level in a shared effort to make wildlife conservancies thrive in Kenya. KWCA has adopted the conservancy model as a strategy for communities and landowners to address biodiversity declines, climate change impacts and governance challenges to achieve social, environmental and economic development goals.
Project Background and Objective
KWCA website www.kwcakenya.com was last developed in 2017 and since then the organisation’s mandate has grown with new programmes and the demand for information and data from conservancy members, partners and the general public has increased hence the need to consider a robust website with new layout and structure to meet their information needs.
KWCA requires the services of suitably qualified and experienced firm, organisation, company or individual to refresh KWCA brand and develop a user- centred website design with updated content that will align with its new strategic plan and to reflect an information hub and resource centre for community led conservation in Kenya.
Scope of work
The consultant will perform the tasks as per the schedule below to support the process of creating a brand refresh and redesigning website to align with its new strategic plan, increase functionality and user experience, enhance data security, mobile responsiveness and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). It is expected that the project will commence with an inception meeting with KWCA communication team to further understand its requirements.
Phase 1: Review, Consult and Recommend a Brand Refresh
The consultant will conduct a review of the current brand positioning, audiences and attributes, as well as a strategic brand plan to streamline brand usage. The consultant will use insights and recommendations from the audit to inform the brand refresh process and to achieve the following deliverables;
- Refresh KWCA logo and the brand colours
- Detailed brand package to standardise the use of fonts including brand assets, other graphic elements, and color palettes for a host of collateral materials
- Brand usage guide
The brand refresh process is expected to seamlessly inform KWCA’s website redesign which will begin together with the rebranding. The development of standards and usage guide should be developed with that in mind.
Phase 2: Content Development
The consultant will be expected to develop a content plan and layout for the website before redesign to guide the structure, functionality, user experience and SEO. To ensure that the website design is aligned to its content, the consultant will achieve the following deliverables;
- Hold a content workshop to define the key messages and content strategy targeted to meet the information needs of its intended audience below.
- Edit, proof read and update new content for the new site and ensure new content reflects KWCA’s voice and maintains consistency.
- Recommend additional plugins required for full functionality of the website
- META tags for each web page for SEO
- Provide at least 3 different layouts versions for approval
Phase 3: Design
The consultant will ensure the website redesign is resourceful, informative and serves as a communication and fundraising asset that will reach its primary users as follows;
- Conservancies, Communities in conservancies and Landscape Conservancy Associations
- Current and potential donors/supporters
- Conservation NGOs interested in community led conservation
- National government especially line ministries of environment, forestry, tourism, wildlife and Lands
- County Governments
- Local, national and international media who report on wildlife conservation,
- Students and researchers of wildlife conservation
- Private sector partners
- KWCA staff
To enhance the website features and enhancements, the consultant will achieve the following deliverables;
- Easy to use, interactive, adaptable, highly usable, responsive and architecturally sound website that will remain viable for a minimum of five years.
- create independent sub-pages/microsites for different programs such as 10 years impact report, Kenya Conservancies Fund, Strategic Plan etc sharing a common branding and linking strategy.
- Visually appealing – The site must have an attractive mix of photos, videos, graphics and text.
- For ease of use, the website must provide consistent orientation and navigational aids, such as hierarchical menus that tell users how deep they are into a topic or subtopic as well as a homepage link or icon on each page in the same position.
- Updated content
- Drive users to actions such as: Support, Join, Attend, etc.
- Integrate ArcGIS, online donations platform, campaigns, e-newsletters, digital library, etc
- Ensure optimal integration with social media platforms i.e. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Flicker, WhatsApp, and others
- Allow for interactivity. Includes e-mail responses, surveys, feedback, online forms, online payments, and access to events. The designer must incorporate the ability for users to complete interactive online forms for membership registration etc.
- Form Printing. Several static forms will be available for printing. Website must have links or embedded plug-ins for opening and viewing these documents.
- Optimized for mobile-use.
- Compatibility of HTML pages with W3C standards
Phase 4: Test and migration
- Transfer and integrate the data from the old website including archived content
- Check bugs and problems, diagnose and fix them
- Check W3C compatibility and scripts of the entire site
- Initiate user testing (create a Beta website) and incorporate feedback
Phase 5: Finalisation
- Develop a user guide for the website and CMS
- Review KWCA web style guide to help ensure our content is consistent in grammar, tone and style.
- Train KWCA communication team on how to manage the new website CMS
- Provide maintenance support for the first three month after website handover.
Required Skills and Experience
The consultant should demonstrate and provide examples of previous experience in the performance of similar services as follows:
- Be a reputable firm with at least 7 years of prior experience designing visually appealing and navigation friendly websites;
- Familiarity and relevant experience in using different Content Management Systems (CMS), particularly WordPress;
- Have a broad knowledge of current web development technologies and design tools in the field, and new software and other web programming languages and programs including use of HTML, XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, Macromedia Flash, Java;
- Have excellent knowledge of recent trends in graphic design, web sites, including online video publishing, and social media networking;
- Demonstrate the ability to create innovative and visually appealing design
Expected duration of the assignment
This assignment should not exceed a period of 5 months.
Copyrights
KWCA will hold exclusive rights to all design and other work products contained on the website.
Proposal Structure
Interested consultants are invited to make submissions through a proposal detailing both technical and financial aspects to include the following aspects:
- Understanding and interpretation of the TORs and scope of work
- Proposed methodology/approach, workplan and detailed timeline with deliverables
- Company profile summarising rebranding and website design experience illustrating the process from building structure to launching the site live.
- Profiles of key personnel
- A clear detailed cost breakdown
Submission of Proposal
The proposal should be emailed to [email protected] indicating clearly on the email subject the title of the consultancy by Close of Business Friday 4th March 2025.