RFP/Caging Services

Background Information and Statement of Purpose
The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is a nonprofit charitable organization dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively edited reference projects in the world, including [//www.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia], a top-ten internet property.

Supported by an annual giving campaign that runs from November to January, the WMF raises most of the funds to cover program, operating and administrative costs throughout the year during this short period of time. Most of the donations during this campaign are made online, but a growing number are sent via check. From November 1, 2009 to January 31, 2010 the WMF received 2,780 checks. During that same period the following year, 6,680 checks were received -- almost 3 times the amount as the previous year. In addition to recording and processing all checks, acknowledgement letters are sent to donors that give $50 or more.

The WMF is looking for an organization to help support the growing number of offline donations that are received from donors in the United States and abroad. Timely deposit and processing of these checks would be key, as well as entering all relevant donor information into a transmission file for WMF staff to import into our donor database. Additionally the WMF hopes that this organization will be able to provide processing of all acknowledgement letters below $500.

Scope of Work
Duties include, but are not limited to the following:
 * Engage with the WMF during conversion period to outline business rules and best practices to provide clean data, customized reporting, and caging of checks. Include comprehensive “exception” list for high dollar donors, donors of interest, and foundations.
 * Provide lock box services.
 * Timely deposit of all checks and cash sent to lock box, including all foreign currencies.
 * Provide ability to view full check and remittance information on a daily basis.
 * Appropriate handling of all remittance materials including matching gift forms, letters, cards, etc.
 * Entry of information from donor checks/remittance based on business rules established during conversion period.
 * Transmission file of donor and check information available to WMF for import into CiviCRM, our donor database.
 * Weekly processing of donor acknowledgement letters.
 * Communication on a regular and recurring basis with key WMF staff.

Preference given to organizations that:

 * demonstrate an understanding of the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia movement
 * can handle the processing of foreign currencies (as allowable by US law)
 * cage/process checks as well as produce acknowledgement letters
 * adhere to all WMF privacy policies: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_policy and http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donor_Privacy_Policy
 * are licensed and bonded

Point of contact for future correspondence
Joshua VanDavier, Development Associate

rfp@undefinedwikimedia.org 415-839-6885 ext. 6730

Further Background
Ways to Give Information http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Ways_to_Give/en

Frequently Asked Questions http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Frequently_Asked_Questions

2009-2010 Annual Report http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/AR_web_all-spreads_24mar11_72_FINAL.pdf

2010 Fundraiser http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_2010

Wikimedia Blog http://blog.wikimedia.org/