Volunteer and Mentor Marketing Campaign

The Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) is seeking to procure services to assist NEAFWA with a marketing campaign to encourage hunters and shooting sports participants to become mentors or volunteer instructors for their state fish and wildlife agency. This campaign will run in the summer and early fall of 2025. The goal of this campaign is to increase hunting and shooting sports volunteer instructors and mentors. The methodology, timeline, and metrics for this project will largely be determined by responses to this RFP. NEAFWA states will provide the vendor with customer insights for targeting during this campaign; these insights may only be used by the vendor for the development of this campaign. The Wildlife Management Institute will coordinate this RFP and administer contractual and financial agreements for the selected proposal.

Background

In-person R3 programs for hunting and shooting sports are important to help many participants build skills to feel confident enough to participate in the activity on their own. Most states offer R3 programing, however a common barrier is not having enough volunteer instructors and mentors to meet program demand.

It is also critical to make outdoor spaces more inviting to underserved audiences including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled, and the LGBTQ+ community. One way to do that is to ensure our volunteers are reflective of all audiences and create a sense of belonging for students.

The purpose of this marketing campaign is to increase not only the total number of volunteers in the Northeast, but to have at least 25% of instructors recruited through the campaign representing underserved, nontraditional audiences including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled, and the LGBTQ+ community.

The expected outcomes of this campaign will be an increase in volunteers for participating NEAFWA states, and an increase in mentor sign-ups on the learnhunting.org website.

Proposal Guidelines

Provide a description of your approach, timeline, examples of previous marketing campaigns you have developed, what’s included in the cost and budget to achieve the components listed in the Scope of Work section that follows.

Pricing

It is the desire of NEAFWA to provide a thorough and comprehensive marketing, analysis, and reporting process while exercising fiscal responsibility. Proposals may include a range of estimates based on a range of services within a single project approach, but total budgets should not exceed $200,000.

Timeline for Review and Decision

Submit proposals to Meghan Gilbart, WMI (mgilbart@wildlifemgt.org) by 5:00 PM EDT on May 26, 2025. NEAFWA anticipates decision making on proposals within 10 days.

How Award Decisions Will Be Made

A sub-committee of NEAFWA committee members and partners will evaluate the proposals, including timeline, budget, and previous work experience. Bid presentation and references may be requested if deemed necessary by the sub-committee.

For More Information:

Astrid Huseby
NEAFWA R3 Committee Chair 
Astrid.huseby@mass.gov

Scope of Work

The selected contractor will work with NEAFWA states to achieve three primary objectives:

1. Recruit at least 75 new volunteer hunting and shooting sports volunteer instructors in the Northeast region.
2. Increase the number of hunting mentors signed up for learnhunting.org. in the Northeast region by 50%.
3. At least 25% of instructors recruited through the campaign will represent underserved, nontraditional audiences including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled, and the LGBTQ+ community

The scope of work will include three sections which are described below:

1. Campaign Concept and Creative
   • Work with NEAFWA to develop campaign concept.
   • The NEAFWA marketing working group will provide background information on target audiences. It is the responsibility of the contractor to provide insights based on market research on effective ways to reach different targets audiences (ages, genders, race/ethnicity)
   • Develop recommendations on how to best reach target audiences connecting with their values/motivations and the platforms that are most effective.
   • Create engaging and informative content to highlight the benefits of volunteering/mentoring and how to get involved.
     • This could include digital ads, resources, handouts, brochures/flyers, printed ads, marketing messages, etc.
   • The content that is created will be developed into a marketing toolkit for recruiting volunteers and mentors that is available to NEAFWA states.
   • While an image library and some video files are available for ad creation, the vendor and NEAFWA might determine that additional creative must be produced or sourced for the campaign beyond what is already available. The vendor will present NEAFWA with additional creative ideas and specify the hourly cost to create any additional ads using video or still images. If new creative is developed, the vendor will provide NEAFWA with any digital files of new ad materials (images or video) so they can be used for other future promotional purposes.
2. Implementation of the Campaign
   • Develop a comprehensive marketing campaign to increase volunteers and mentors that reaches at least 8 of the NEAFWA states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia).
   • The paid campaign is intended to be held in the late summer and early fall of 2025.
   • The campaign will utilize the marketing toolkit for recruiting volunteers and mentors.
   • Campaign is implemented on multiple media platforms based on target audiences (email, social media, etc.)
   • Monitor and analyze campaign performance (with metrics established collaboratively with NEAFWA), providing regular reports and updates to NEAFWA. Adjustments can be made if needed based on ROI.
   • Placement of paid ads is coordinated with NEAFWA working group prior to placement.
   • If social media is deemed a beneficial ad location, the contractor will work with individual state social media accounts for ad placement. This could include the marketing firm placing the ad as well as the state placing the ad themselves.
3. Evaluation
   • Evaluation metrics must be defined and in place prior to the start of campaign.
     • For this campaign a conversion will be considered
       • Someone taking the action of filling out the online form to sign up as a volunteer on the state agencies’ websites
       • Someone taking the action of signing up as a mentor on learnhunting.org
       • Someone taking the action of signing up to attend a social event to learn about volunteering.
   • Must provide metrics for all ad placements including engagement, reach, conversions, and ROI.
   • Provide recommendations on how to measure number recruited that represent underserved, nontraditional audiences including women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled, and the LGBTQ+ community
   • Refine marketing toolkit for recruiting volunteers and mentors based on marketing campaign results.

Duration of Service

The services will commence upon execution of an agreement and shall terminate upon completion of deliverables. The project completion date is December 15, 2025, with some limited opportunity for adjustment if needed. NEAFWA will work collaboratively with the contractor to set priorities and definitions of acceptance criteria. The contractor shall work in an agile manner and focus on priorities as defined by the project leadership team.

Location

The company location can be anywhere in the continental United States and must be available during east coast business hours.

Budget

The contract will be administered through the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies contract agreement with Wildlife Management Institute.