Snow City Arts is requesting proposals from consultants to assist in developing a strategic plan.

Timeline

Summary

Snow City Arts seeks a consultant to facilitate and produce a three-year strategic plan for the organization. This plan will be based on an assessment of key organizational documents, and qualitative data gathered from internal and external stakeholders. The action-oriented plan will guide the organization into its next phase of growth.

About Snow City Arts

Snow City Arts (SCA) inspires and educates children and youth in hospitals through the arts. SCA is unique in the Chicago area with our focus on arts education for children and youth in pediatric hospitals. However, we compete with our in-hospital peers for attention, funds, and physical space. In the broader funding world, we are seen as filling a unique gap, but our in-hospital placement and our inability to serve children for a consistent, set period of time makes us exceptions to how most arts education organizations function. SCA is unique among our national peers in the Arts in Health field because our focus is on arts learning and education. SCA’s artists are on our staff and have set days and hours--we see this as a firm commitment to artists and a demonstration of our focus on education. Further, we provide consistent and regular professional development for our team. SCA has a Theory of Change, Assessment Tools, and Best Practices. SCA began its Racial Equity journey in 2017 and is a current and active cohort member of Enrich Chicago.

During the pandemic, we expanded our programs to include virtual learning, allowing us to continue to engage our students amid restrictions on in-person programs. Since then, our team has further developed our virtual offerings to reach beyond hospital walls for the first time in our history, allowing students, most often in groups, to continue to learn with us after they leave the hospital, and expanding opportunities for the public to experience the impact of our work. In 2023, we launched Art Breaks, wellness-focused artmaking workshops for healthcare workers, which were recognized with a Cam Busch Arts-in-Health Award by the National Organization for Arts In Health.

Scope of Work

Historically, SCA developed 3-year strategic plans and our last plan ended in 2021. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, SCA pivoted from our plan and shifted to developing virtual offerings and initiating partnership conversations with organizations outside healthcare. As such in 2022, we developed an 18-month bridge plan as the future of our programming and delivery was still uncertain. In light of our current post-pandemic environment where we have resumed in-person work with our hospital partners and continue to maintain a suite of virtual offerings, we would like to develop a 3-year strategic plan to guide our team and maximize our impact in the community.

Objectives

The objectives of the strategic planning process are to identify/ answer the following questions to galvanize resources against our vision and work:

• What are our goals for expansion in the next three years? If so, what partners should we focus on (e.g., hospital-specific, other healthcare related spaces, virtual, other settings, deeper into current partners)? What does a successful model look like – long term potential partners or short-term, fail fast partnerships?
• What are our goals for the future of programming? Should we move into the area of Social Emotional Learning? Should we continue to do virtual programming? Are we going to continue curating and/or selling artwork? What are our programming priorities across these areas?
• What will we need internally across funding model, staffing, infrastructure, and budget to support the planned level of expansion with partners and programming (e.g., update staffing model for Teaching Artists, how do we get to a break-even budget)?

Strategic Planning Phases

Phase 1: Discovery

The consultant will research and develop an assessment report to inform the strategic planning retreat. This includes activities such as:

• Review previous and current strategic plans and other SCA organizational information
• In partnership with SCA’s ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee, identify critical issues or questions to be addressed in strategic planning
• Conduct stakeholder analysis through a combination of interviews, surveys, and/or focus groups with SCA staff, board members, hospital partners, students and families, and other SCA councils/groups such as the Youth Leadership Council of former students and the Snow Citizens Circle comprised of key influences/donors
• Document the stakeholder analysis and feedback received during the discovery phase
• Share the discovery findings with the Strategic Planning Committee and the ED and incorporate feedback

Deliverables: Assessment report that provides a summary of the information gathered and feedback received during the discovery phase

Proposed timeline: November 2024 - February 2025

Phase 2: Strategic Planning Session

The consultant will facilitate an in-person or hybrid one-day strategic planning retreat with SCA staff and board members to identify strategic goals and priorities for the next 3 years. This includes activities such as:

• Develop the agenda for the strategic planning retreat
• Prepare facilitation materials for the strategic planning retreat
• Share the facilitation materials with the strategic planning committee and the ED and incorporate feedback
• Integrate key themes from assessment results into planning process and/or retreat facilitation
• Facilitate the strategic planning retreat, focusing on the critical issues or questions identified during discovery and agree on future priorities, goals, and specific objectives

Deliverables: Retreat agenda, facilitation material, and notes/ summary documents from the strategic planning retreat

Proposed timeline: March 2025 with the strategic planning retreat on March 1 or March 8, 2025

Phase 3: Final Strategic Plan Development

The consultant will work with SCA to create an actionable 3-year strategic plan. This includes activities such as:

• Create a draft of the strategic plan including goals, objectives, actionable strategies/tactics, timeline, responsible leader, and key performance indicators (or the consultant’s best practice-based view of this)
• Present the draft to the Strategic Planning Committee for review
• Update the strategic plan with feedback provided by the Strategic Planning Committee and SCA staff
• Present the draft to the Board
• Support the ED and Board during the adoption and rollout of the strategic plan

Deliverables: Strategic plan, including an executive summary and monitoring tools

Proposed timeline: April-May 2025

Budget and Timeline

Our total budget for the strategic planning process, including fees and expenses, is $33,000 which includes the facilitation and development of an actionable 3-year strategic plan for Snow City Arts. Based on our grants, $6,000 is available in 2024 and the rest in 2025. We envision a 7-month commitment, ending no later than May 31, 2025, with the bulk of the work taking place remotely and an in-person strategic planning retreat at a downtown Chicago location in mid-March.

Submission Requirements

Proposals must consist of the following information in the order indicated below:

1. Cover letter stating interest in the strategic planning project, including a statement of understanding and an approach to the objectives set forth in the general requirements and deliverables.
2. An overview of the individual and/or company responding, including:
   1. A brief history of the organization
   2. Contact information (name, title, email, phone number) and areas of expertise of the primary contact for this project
   3. Ownership status/certifications: women owned, minority (what type), disabled veteran, etc.
   4. Current business relationship with Snow City Arts
3. Technical qualifications and experience with similar projects in scope and scale within the last seven years including appropriate reference contact information.
   1. Overview of experience in providing deliverables similar to those described in this RFP
   2. 2-3 professional references and contact information from past strategic planning clients, ideally similar organizations in mission and scope
   3. Qualifications and/or bios of staff who will work on this project
4. An approach and work plan, including any proposed changes to the Scope of Work. Please include any proposed changes to the timeline and deliverables stated in this RFP.
5. Proposed fees and expenses with a breakdown by the phase of work and/or deliverables

Please submit a proposal and any other relevant information to carrie@snowcityarts.org by 5pm Central Time on September 27, 2024.

Snow City Arts is committed to building a culturally diverse and pluralistic vendor portfolio. BIPOC-owned and identified firms and individuals, trans and gender nonconforming people, people from poor and working-class backgrounds, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.