REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: Pennsylvania Wilds Artisan Collaborative Marketing Consultant

The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship (PA Wilds Center) seeks a consultant to support strategic marketing planning for a new program called the Pennsylvania Wilds Artisan Collaborative, which will launch in July 2024 and run through December 31. The Artisan Collaborative will invest in rural entrepreneurs to support the development of new PA Wilds branded products and help bring them to market to meet growing consumer demand. Through this new program, four Professional Juried Artists in the Wilds Cooperative of PA (WCO) network will be selected through a competitive application process to receive funding to work with a local manufacturer to design and bring to market PA Wilds branded products that align with the brand’s values.

The WCO is a value chain network of more than 600 creative entrepreneurs, organizations and communities based in the highly rural Pennsylvania Wilds region, a premier outdoor recreation destination. Together, WCO members and the PA Wilds Center are addressing PA Wilds market demands by connecting and scaling the unique establishments and producers that are central to the region’s place-based tourism development. The goal of this project is to attain a comprehensive plan for marketing the Artisan Collaborative program to customers and to develop tools to consistently promote the program beyond its pilot phase. See “Project Scope” for more details.

Timeline:
RFP Issued: July 16, 2024
Responses Due: August 16, 2024
Potential Interviews: August 23 or 29, 2024
Notifications: August 30, 2024
Contract Period: September 2, 2024 – December 20, 2024
Final Deliverables Due: December 13, 2024

Budget: $20,000 (a separate budget is available for plan implementation)

Contact: Send questions and proposals to: [email protected]

Read the full RFP and submit proposals here.

ABOUT THE PA WILDS CENTER

The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to integrate conservation and economic development in a way that inspires the communities of the Pennsylvania Wilds. The Pennsylvania Wilds is a 13-county region that includes the counties of Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lycoming, McKean, Potter, Tioga, Warren, and northern Centre. The PA Wilds Center promotes the region and its 2+ million acres of public lands as a premier outdoor recreation destination as a way to diversify local economies, inspire stewardship, attract investment, retain population and improve quality of life. The PA Wilds Center’s core programs seek to help businesses leverage the PA Wilds brand and connect with new market opportunities, including: the Wilds Cooperative of PA, a network of more than 575 place-based businesses and organizations, and the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, a retail outlet primarily featuring products sourced from the WCO. For more information on the PA Wilds Center, visit www.PAWildsCenter.org. To learn more about the WCO, visit www.WildsCoPA.org. Explore the PA Wilds at www.PAWilds.com. Find regionally made products at www.ShopThePAWilds.com.