Request for Proposals: Disbursement Vendor Services Delivered to the City of Philadelphia Division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health
THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOW CLOSED.
Questions about this RFP should be submitted to cityfund@phila.gov and nia.coaxum@phila.gov by October 20, 2023. Answers to questions can be found at the bottom of this page.
Proposals must be received no later than 11:59pm Philadelphia, PA, EST, November 13, 2023. A pdf version of the proposal must be emailed to: cityfund@phila.gov and nia.coaxum@phila.gov.
The Philadelphia City Fund and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health seek qualified vendors to distribute funds to participants in the Philly Joy Bank, a guaranteed income pilot that will provide $1,000 of monthly guaranteed income to participants throughout pregnancy and through 12 months postpartum, with the goal of improving financial stability for participants and reducing the risk of infant prematurity.
PDPH’s objective for this project is to provide 250 Philly Joy Bank participants with monthly funding for up to 18 months. The selected vendor will be expected to manage the following:
- Disburse $1000 to participants every month for up to 6 months in pregnancy (depending on gestational age at enrollment) and through 12 months postpartum
- Disburse these funds to the participants via reloadable debit card, direct deposit, or money transfer app (e.g. Paypal, Venmo, CashApp).
- Support the initiation of banking for individuals who are not banked
- Provide technical support to clients who experience issues with fund disbursal
- Track the disbursal of funds
- Provide accounting of funds through aggregate report of spending
- Adhere to industry standards on data security
- Protect client privacy
- Communicate and troubleshoot concerns with the Maternal, Child, and Family Health Division and the Philly Joy Bank Steering Committee
Further details on the scope of work and process for submitting proposals can be found in the full RFP.
Questions about this RFP
Q: Have you already selected 1) a research partner and 2) a platform for collecting data for this pilot?
A: We have selected a research partner and are currently working with them to develop an evaluation plan which will include identifying a platform to collect data.
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Q: Have you run any similar programs in the past? If yes, what vendor(s) have you used to administer these programs?
A: This is our first time implementing this program.
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Q: Is the City seeking payment disbursement services only or full administration of the program funds?
A: We are only seeking disbursement services.
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Q: What is the number of anticipated clients to be served by this program?
A: 250 participants will be enrolled.
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Q: Is there any software that the winning bidder is expected to use?
A: Specific software has not been identified but we are open to suggestions from the disbursement vendor.
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Q: Is the prime contractor required to be a nonprofit organization?
A: No, the selected vendor does not need to be a nonprofit organization.
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Q: Do you anticipate a need for the disbursement vendor to support any part of the participant selection process pre-enrollment? For example, to provide the technical infrastructure for the identification, eligibility document collection, or verification of potential participants?
A: The selected vendor will not be expected to support pre-enrollment processes, only disbursement processes once participants are enrolled.
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Q: Will funds be disbursed to awardees by the City or by the vendor? If by the vendor, will the funds be released in tranches for the vendor’s use, or will the vendor be invoicing the City for reimbursement following disbursement?
A: The funds will be paid by the Philadelphia City Fund to the selected vendor to then pay on a monthly basis to the individuals enrolled in the program.
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Q: Is the vendor limited by the restrictions in Section E. Budget? Does this account for end-to-end administration of the program (i.e. program design, application intake, processing, support, etc.)?
A: Yes, the selected vendor will be expected to complete all deliverables within the proposed budget. The vendor would be responsible for administering the cash assistance disbursement. There’s no expectation for end-to-end administration but the selected vendor may be involved in application intake, processing, support, etc. to the extent that the vendor’s platform allows.
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Q: Please specify any data reporting, data tracking or data metrics you would like to see?
A: We expect the vendor to be able to provide data reporting on applicants, participant enrollment, and aggregate data on categories of spending. Additional data metrics might be identified during the finalization of enrollment and disbursement processes with the Steering Committee.
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Q: Please clarify if you have a list of preferred vendors you have previously worked with?
A: We do not have a list of preferred vendors for disbursement.
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Q: Can you disclose your anticipated “go live” date?
A: We are anticipating a late Spring 2024 launch.
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Q. Under Section II – Proposed Services, Part A. Scope of Work – there is a reference to: Provide accounting of funds through aggregate report of spending. Under Part B. Services and Tangible Work Products, the RFP has written: aggregate data on categories of spending of program participants. Under Part C. Milestones, the RFP has written: Report summarizing aggregated use of funds. Can you confirm that all of these refer to aggregated data on categories of spending by program participants? As in, data which shows the categories that participants are using to spend the $1,000 monthly payments (i.e. grocery stores, clothing, etc.)?
A: Yes, all of these refer to aggregated data on categories of spending by participants.