Measuring & Evaluating CPB’s Collaboration Initiatives

New applications are no longer being accepted. Check this page for updates about this initiative.

Focus:

Analysis, Assessment, Collaboration, Consulting

Eligibility:

See guidelines for specific qualifications.

Deadline:

October 13, 2021

Request for Proposals

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) seeks the services of an organization or individual (“Consultant”) to measure and evaluate CPB’s support for strategic collaborations among public television and radio stations, its impact on the public media system’s sustainability, and the retention or expansion of public media services. Additionally, the consultant will analyze the effectiveness of CPB’s Collaborative Operations and Services (COS) grant program and provide recommendations on how to enhance it based on the consultant’s findings.

To ensure the analysis is objective and balanced, applicants must not be currently consulting, or have consulted in the past three years, directly or indirectly, on any of the public media collaborations being analyzed. If applicant has consulted on any collaboration or merger for public media at any time in the past, please list the projects in your proposal response.

CPB will compensate the Consultant on a fixed fee basis for the initial analysis. At its discretion, CPB may choose to engage in additional analyses at an hourly rate. Of the 37 collaboration grants, the Consultant will analyze a sample. CPB estimates up to 25 grants will be selected for analysis, requiring a maximum of 2,000 estimated hours. The contract term is expected to be for 6 to 8 months. CPB will have the option to extend the term of the agreement for two additional 3-month terms, at its sole discretion, for any additional assistance CPB may require for continued or related work.

Please download the Request for Proposals below for detailed information, including application requirements.

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Request for Proposals	287.17 KB

Questions from Potential Respondents, with CPB Answers:

FAQ Topic:

General

FAQ:

The RFP indicates consultants are to evaluate the impact on sustainability, retention or expansion of public media services from the projects. Does this evaluation include compliance related issues either under general broadcast guidelines or rules specific to CPB?

No, CPB does not anticipate the project to include compliance-related issues.

Could you provide some scope on the length of the grant cycles involved? How many years are the grant terms for projects being evaluated?

While the term of the grant projects varies from 1 – 3 years with an average of 1- 2 years, the consultant will be required to analyze their impact for a period extending beyond the grant term. The specific term will be depending on the grant and agreed upon with the consultant.

To evaluate the impact on CPB may require access to internal CPB metrics. Can you provide any information on what metrics are available for performance evaluation and impact? Is there some summary of the service array?

The consultant will not be evaluating the grants’ impact on CPB but rather their impact on the station(s)/entity. Currently, very few metrics are captured and CPB is looking for the consultant to recommend metrics going forward.

Do the projects and collaboration being evaluated conduct annual or regular periodic reporting? And, as evaluators do we have access to such reports? For example, there are Benchmarking Surveys and Local Content and Service reports. Will evaluators have access to all of these?

For the collaborations, grantees provide CPB with periodic reports and various deliverables including but not limited to a narrative report, financial report and any other reports produced during the reporting period. Yes, the selected consultant will have access to these reports and CPB will provide the consultant with the relevant Benchmarking Surveys and Local Content and Services reports as well as financial information that grantees submit to CPB about their stations, such as their Annual Financial Reports (AFR) or an annual Financial Summary Reports (FSR) and audited financial statements.