Tender for evaluation

23 Nov 2010

Tenders are invited for the purpose of evaluating Marriage Equality's work for the period from October 2010 to the end of 2011 and assisting with our strategic development with real-time evaluation for that period.

Background
Marriage Equality was launched formally in February 2008 supported by the publication of a position paper containing the key arguments for supporting access to civil marriage for gay and lesbian people.

Since then Marriage Equality has continued building a movement of support seeking equality for all lesbian and gay people, organising events, supporting other allies with their events, working to influence politicians, supporting couples to "Share your Story", making the case for equality for lesbian and gay families and friends and influencing public representatives and publicising this initiative widely. Marriage Equality is at the centre of an active coalition of individuals and organisations influencing legislators to open up civil marriage and thereby introduce equality for same sex couples.

Marriage Equality has taken part is an intensive external evaluation process for the last 18 months and the reports furnished throughout have been enormously helpful with informing strategic decisions and activities. The final report will feed into the 3 - 5 years strategic planning process for the organisation which is currently underway.

The next 15 month period will be an intense period of activity with the commencement of Civil Partnership registrations, the hearing of the Supreme Court Appeal of the Zappone and Gilligan case and a possible general election.

Overall aim of the evaluation process
The aim of the evaluation process is to evaluate our activities under the key strategy headings and find out whether they are moving Irish society closer to the introduction of equal civil marriage rights for lesbian and gay people? What strategies and actions have worked in achieving this? What new strategies should it take to achieve this goal? What are the key indicators or interim outcomes that show that out work is having an impact? What processes are working best for us?

Deliverables

• An interim short report setting out key findings - achievements to date and key stakeholders' current perception of us, along with advice for the future.
• A final Report summarizing in bullet points advice for future work and activities
• A case study of the 'Out to your TD' project so that we may share our learning with other allies.

Methodology

• The preferred methodology would include use of the Bellweather Methodology, as developed by Harvard Family Research Project to gather information from key target audiences and in particular policy and law makers.
• We would like the evaluation to be more process focused than long term focused.

Timescale
The Evaluation process will take place from December 2010 until the end of December 2011 - the end of the funding period to facilitate the Evaluator feeding into our Progress/Final Report to our funders. The interim report should be available within 6 and the final report and case study by the end of January 2012.

Budget

• The project has a maximum budget of €10,000 inclusive of VAT
• Payments will be made to the evaluators on a quarterly basis upon submission of appropriate invoices as agreed with Director of MarriagEquality.

Tender requirements
Tenders should include:

• Detailed Evaluation Framework Design & Methodologies.
• Proposed Products and Deliverables.
• High-Level Project Plan.
• Data Collection & Analyses plans
• Communication Plan & Links to other studies
• Qualifications.
• Staffing Plan (or others you will partner with on this project).
• Professional Fees and Proposed Total Costs.
• References.

Evaluation of tenders

The following assessment criteria will be used to score tenders:

• Understanding of the brief for evaluation, knowledge and understanding of the context for MarriagEquality, familiarity with the Policy contexts for civil marriage for lesbian and gay people in Ireland and elsewhere (20)
• Approach outlined in the Tender to Meeting the Requirements of the Evaluation, including timeframe (20)
• Experience of consultant(s), in particular in relation to social change evaluations, and work in the lgbt sector and issues and previous Formative Evaluation work (25)
• Mix of Skills of consultant(s) in relation to different types of tasks required in the Evaluation (15)
• Cost (20)

Closing date
Tenders (electronic versions only) should be sent to moninne@marriagequality.ie by 5pm on Friday the 10th of December, 2010

Interviews will be held on 14th of December

For further information, contact Moninne Griffith at Marriage Equality on (01)8734183 or at moninne@marriagequality.ie