Transition Custom Website to WordPress

See attached file for complete RFP. I. Project Summary. Wild Equity’s current website has many useful features: • A clean, well-branded design; • a built-in content management and content editing function; • password-protected Wild Equity-branded groups with project management tools like communication forums, document databases, and event scheduling functions; • Ability to manage users, including providing access to confidential, password protected portions of the website to certain users, and the ability to block other users from posting content to our site; • a donation page to solicit memberships; • a web store to sell Wild Equity products; • an ‘action item’ function that allows individuals with [login to view URL] accounts to take actions like contacting public officials; • a project-specific function for our Endangered Species Big Year program that allows individuals to enter their results from the program and populate their “score” for doing so, and includes a program “leaderboard” that shows which participants have done the most to complete the project. However, the website has several limitations, including: • The Ruby on Rails version the website was built on is outdated and no longer supported; • The user interface is counterintuitive, and many users have cited its clunky requirements as a reason why they do not participate in our projects; • Generating content requires knowledge of the textile programing language, and the site does not support WYSWIG content creation; • The homepage is beautiful but contains no content. • The “search” function does not work properly. We would like to redesign our website in a way that will retain as many of the site’s useful features as possible, while addressing the site’s limitations. Based on our existing budget, we believe that we may have to separate the site’s project management functions and utilize an independent platform like Basecamp or perhaps Google Sites/Apps if we wish to continue supporting those functions. However, we believe that the remainder of the functions should be possible to implement using off-the-shelf technologies or custom templates that would fit within our budget for this project. . . . . V. Specific Needs. • Responsive design; • Built-in search engine; • Multi-level functions for different roles such as Super Admin, Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber/public user; • Calendar system that integrates with iCal, and Google Calendar, and allows users to RSVP for trips for free; • On-site photo galleries; • Shopping cars for donations and merchandise as well as trip sign-up; • Homepage redesign that includes both a featured content section as well as donation, take action, and volunteer sections; • Data collection forms that are customizable; • Integration with social media platforms; • Integration with CRM/member email platforms (currently Vertical Response) so website users can automatically sign-up for our e-mail list. . . . . IX. Content Migration. Our website has about 300 articles and hundreds of other archived messages, comments, and documents. This information will need to be migrated to the new website as part of this project. However, we may triage some of this contents, such as user comments, if it is not feasible to automate the migration process for specific categories of content.