01 January 0001 Request for Proposal Philanthropy

Laudes Foundation seeks proposals from organisations to create of a philanthropic knowledge hub

Introduction

Laudes Foundation seeks to commission a consultancy to support the creation of the Laudes Learning Lab, a branded, user-friendly philanthropic knowledge hub. The Lab will serve as the home for Laudes’ learning products, methodologies, evidence, and insights.

The selected consultant(s) will design, build, populate, and support the public launch of the Laudes Learning Lab as a live knowledge hub within the existing Laudes Foundation website and  Content Management System (CMS) - Umbraco. The consultancy includes end-to-end responsibility for information design, learning design, and content production, alongside digital platform development. This includes the hands-on development of the Lab’s information architecture, user experience (UX), content structure, and visual identity, as well as the creation, curation, and publication of 4–5 complete, launch-ready learning products that will anchor the initial release of the Lab.

Full proposals must be submitted by 21 January 2026 to Denise Brennan, Head of Impact & Organisational Learning, Laudes Foundation d.brennan@laudesfoundation.org

 

About Laudes Foundation

Laudes Foundation is an independent foundation here to advance the transition to a just and regenerative economy. We do this by supporting brave action that will inspire and challenge industry to harness its power for good. We support action that inspires industry to work collaboratively to create solutions, and action that challenges industry, holding it to account and incentivising change.

Founded in 2020, Laudes Foundation is part of the Brenninkmeijer family enterprise and builds on six generations of entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Thereby we advance the work of C&A Foundation. Learning from these experiences, we work persistently and collaboratively to influence capital and transform industry, focused on the built environment, fashion, food and finance and capital markets industries. 

About the Laudes Learning Lab

Laudes Foundation is a learning organisation, investing significant time and resources to continuously strengthen how we work. The Laudes Learning Lab will enable us to externally share the knowledge and insights we generate as a philanthropy, which will strengthen Laudes positioning as a learning organisation and as an expert in collecting evidence, building and sharing knowledge to help advance philanthropy.

The Lab will position itself as both a creator and curator of knowledge. It will:

  • Embrace transparent learning, including lessons from complexity, uncertainty, and backsliding.
  • Provide sector-rooted content aligned with real dynamics in fashion, food, finance and capital markets and the built environment.
  • Curate high-quality external resources to situate Laudes’ work within the wider ecosystem.

The Learning Lab goes beyond a traditional online library. Its purpose is to create a practical, honest, and interactive learning experience rooted in Laudes’ real work in industry transformation. It should blend how we think with how we work, sharing not only insights but also the tools, templates, methods, and lessons (including failures and backsliding) that shape our approach to systems change. The Lab should reflect Laudes’ commitment to transparency, sector-level complexity, and practical learning that can be applied by funders, partners, and practitioners.

 

Priority audiences and intended use

To ensure the Learning Lab meets real user needs, diverse audiences will be considered. These may include:

Philanthropic practitioners and grant makers

  • Measurement Evaluation and Learning (MEL) and learning professionals.
  • Systems-change practitioners and coalition partners.
  • Laudes programme partners.

 

Brand identity

The Lab will have a distinct brand identity and report design templates aligned with, but not identical to, Laudes’ visual guidelines. These will be co-designed with Laudes' Effective Philanthropy team and Communications team.

 

Learning design and approach

The Learning Lab will:

  • Be grounded in evidence-based learning design, user-experience principles, and neuroscience of learning.
  • Serve the learning needs and journeys of philanthropy practitioners, partners, and the broader field.
  • Package and disseminate learning from both a content perspective (what we know) and a process perspective (how we work).
  • Present multimedia content in accessible, user-friendly, and interactive formats.
  • Operate primarily as a self-serve hub.
  • Be future-proof and scalable, allowing Laudes to add new content easily.
  • Integrate practice-based tools and templates (beyond written insights).
  • Offer guided learning pathways and short-form micro-learning.
  • Include interactive elements.
  • Embrace transparent learning, including lessons from complexity, uncertainty, and backsliding.
  • Provide sector-rooted content aligned with real dynamics in fashion, food, finance and capital markets and the built environment.
  • Curate high-quality external resources to situate Laudes’ work within the wider ecosystem.

 

Global accessibility and inclusion

The Learning Lab must: 

  • Follow a mobile-first design approach.
  • Perform well in low-bandwidth environments.
  • Meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards.
  • Support offline or downloadable formats where feasible.
  • Provide a roadmap for future multilingual expansion.

 

Consultant Requirements

Proposals should demonstrate strong capability across information design, learning design, content creation and curation, in addition to digital platform and UX/UI development. 


The selected consultant or team must demonstrate:

  • Learning Design: Experience designing and developing engaging, practice-based learning experiences, including guides, toolkits, playbooks, and multimedia content.
  • UX/UI Capability: Experience building user-friendly digital platforms with strong navigation and accessibility standards.
  • Visual Identity and Branding: Ability to develop distinctive yet aligned brand identities.
  • Knowledge of Philanthropy & Learning Ecosystems: Familiarity with the needs of funders, systems-change practitioners, and learning-oriented organisations.
  • Channel and Dissemination Capability: Understanding of social media strategies, content amplification, SEO, and partnerships to ensure Learning Lab resources reach diverse audiences.
  • Technical Integration: Experience advising on platform requirements, hosting, security, content management systems (CMS), accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1), analytics, and long-term maintainability.
  • Strong communication skills, written and verbal, in English.

Scope and deliverables 

This RFP covers strategy, design, and launch of the Learning Lab, to be carried out between February 2026 and June 2026.  

Deliverables include:

  • Conceptual design and positioning of the Learning Lab.
  • Distinct brand identity and content templates aligned with Laudes visual guidelines.
  • User experience (UX) design, including content architecture, navigation, and tagging logic.
  • Audience personas and learning journeys.
  • Learning product and content packaging templates.

Configured and populated Learning Lab section within the Laudes Foundation website and CMS, including:

  • Page templates and layouts.
  • Navigation and browse/search logic (within CMS capabilities).
  • Metadata and tagging implementation.
  • Upload and formatting of all launch learning products.


Four to five complete, publication-ready learning products, each including:

  • Clear learning objectives and target audience.
  • Structured learning flow.
  • Final written and edited content.
  • Visual design.
  • Interactive or practice-based elements.
  • Accessibility checks (WCAG 2.1).
  • Downloadable assets and CMS-ready formatting.
  • Dissemination and launch plan, including channel recommendations.
  • Basic analytics and success metrics framework implemented at launch.
  • Content governance, maintenance, and scalability model


Laudes Foundation will identify and prioritise which existing materials or initiatives should be developed into launch products. Laudes will provide access to relevant reports, evaluations, tools and internal expertise. The selected consultancy will translate these materials into complete learning products, conducting interviews with Laudes staff and partners as needed. Each product may blend existing material with newly created content.

Technical recommendations should cover:

  • Tools and requirements to be implemented into the current CMS, including recommendations on:
    • Security and privacy considerations.
    • Accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1).
    • Mobile-first and low-bandwidth optimisation.
    • Multilingual readiness.
    • Metadata and tagging standards.

Content governance recommendations should include:

  • Update cycles.
  • Maintenance workflows.
  • Approach to adding and retiring content.
  • Scalability suggestions.
  • Taxonomy, metadata, and categorisation structures.