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Friends of the Verde River (Friends) is requesting proposals for a Consultant to update indicators and scores for the 2025 Verde River Watershed Report Card. Click here to read the full job description and request for proposals.
Instructions to Bidders
Please email your proposal no later than 5:00 pm MST on July 8, 2024, to jobs@verderiver.org.
Information Requested
If interested in the project, please provide a proposal and cost for the statement of work. Please also include your capacity for this project and experience on similar projects, if any.
This is a request for proposals only and quotations furnished are not offers. This request does not commit Friends to pay any costs incurred in the preparation or submission of the quotation or to contract supplies or services.
Organizational Background
Friends of the Verde River, is a 501(c)(3) corporation located in Cottonwood, Arizona working collaboratively for a healthy, flowing Verde River system. Friends is strongly positioned as a local non-profit that implements on-the-ground projects, facilitates regional coordination, and informs policy from the local perspective.
Our work is centered around the Verde River, one of the last remaining healthy, perennially flowing rivers in the arid state of Arizona. The Verde River system, including its connected streams, creeks, and groundwater resources, supports the economies of Verde Valley communities and businesses as a vital water supply and a driver of tourism and recreation.
Over the past decade, Friends has grown from a small group of volunteers doing site-specific conservation to an organization with a professional staff implementing conservation at a landscape scale. Within this context, Friends of the Verde River is seeking an insightful, experienced, and organized consultant to update indicators and scores for the 2025 Verde River Watershed Report Card update, as outlined in the Scope of Work. This position reports directly to the Program Director. The Consultant is a short-term, contracted position.
Project Background
The first Verde River Watershed Report Card (Report Card) was released in February 2020 and provided a timely, transparent assessment of Verde River Watershed health as of December 2019. The Report Card is a tool for understanding problem areas in need of improvement and as an outreach tool for use by managers, organizers, and others to highlight particular issues of importance when communicating with the public. The 2020 report card was produced by The Nature Conservancy, Friends of the Verde River, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, with the assistance of many federal, state, and local stakeholders. Primary funding came from the U.S. Forest Service.
The report card was designed following the methods developed by the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (2020 Verde River Watershed Report Card Methods – Attachment A). Stakeholder meetings held in November 2018 and April 2019 guided the selection of indicators and metrics. Reports and materials from the preparation of the 2020 report card are found here. The printed version is available here.
The inaugural report card was published in 2020 to provide a transparent assessment of the health of the Verde River Watershed. Friends of the Verde River and The Nature Conservancy issued a 2022 update for some of the indicators and have begun the process of a full update to be released in 2025.
Friends recently held two planning workshops to re-engage stakeholders in the Verde River Watershed Report Card 2025 update and is incorporating input from the workshops in the development of the 2025 Report Card.
Scope of Work
The Consultant will work with Friends staff to update scores for the 2025 Verde River Watershed Report Card using the methodology described in the development of the 2020 Report Card. The Consultant will also develop updated methodology and scores for certain indicators. A list of the indicators that will be updated is provided in Exhibit A.
The Consultant will:
- Host a kickoff meeting with Friends staff to gather information and set expectations
- Work with Friends staff to gather all data from partners to update indicator scores
- Analyze all data to develop updated scores for each indicator
- Scores will be calculated for each Report Card region and the entire watershed
- Provide regular updates to Friends staff including
- Host monthly progress meetings or more frequently if needed
Expected outcomes from the project:
- Updated scores for Report Card indicators by January 31, 2025
- Updated methodology for each indicator by April 1, 2025
- All deliverables will be completed by April 1, 2025
Submission Requirements
All proposals should be submitted electronically to:
Tracy Stephens
Program Director
307-690-8084
jobs@verderiver.org
Proposals should be succinct and to the point, with a ten-page maximum, not to include resumes and references.
All proposals must include:
- Description of the experience and qualifications of the consultant and all personnel who will work on the project, including resume(s);
- A narrative that addresses how the Scope of Work described herein will be accomplished, including a timeline with benchmarks;
- A clear demonstration that the consultant has familiarity and knowledge of the sector in which Friends operates and supports its mission and vision;
- Clear outline that differentiates the responsibilities of the consultant and Friends of the Verde River throughout the project;
- Project budget, with all the costs payable by Friends;
- Three references from clients and others who can attest to the Consultant’s ability to conduct the work described herein.
Schedule
RFP Release – June 14, 2024
Vendor Submits Clarification Questions to Jobs@verderiver.org – June 28, 2024
FVR Response to Questions – July 3, 2024
Proposals Due – July 8, 2024
Consultant Selected – July 12, 2024
Execute Contract – July 17, 2024
Kick-off Meeting – July 24, 2024
Selection Process
Friends of the Verde River will review all complete proposals received by the due date and may conduct interviews with the top two proposers.
Invoicing
Billing will coincide with reaching set goals which should be identified in the proposed timeline.
Terms and Conditions
The successful consultant may be awarded a limited-term professional services contract for the services identified in this RFP as offered by Friends of the Verde River.
The issuance of this RFP does not commit Friends of the Verde River to award a contract or to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of any proposals related to this RFP. Click here to read the full job description and request for proposals.
