REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL FOR: PROGRAM EVALUATION - INTERNATIONAL MARKET ACCESS GRANT

Description: The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to obtain proposals for a comprehensive evaluation of WEDC's International Market Access Grant (IMAG) program to assess its past effectiveness, understand its impact on the export preparedness of Wisconsin businesses, and identify opportunities to strengthen the program's design for greater future economic benefit. Interested proposers need to prepare and submit a proposal for the following: I. SCOPE WEDC is seeking an in-depth program evaluation and analysis of its International Market Access Grant (IMAG) program in order to: x Better understand the reach of the program and how it is most effectively supporting export development for the recipient businesses; x Explore other innovative types of support from other state export development programs; and x Inform the design of the program going forward to provide the highest economic benefit to the State of Wisconsin. Greater detail regarding the program can be found in Appendix A. The evaluation should be considerate of all awards (grants) contracted across fiscal years 2021 through 2025 (235 awards) and include both an assessment of the program's awarding trends and project outcomes, as well as a diagnostic and comparative analysis of the program's current structure and most recent awarding. WEDC is not seeking a rudimentary summary of its awarding activities or an analysis that is purely rear facing; rather, WEDC seeks to identify where the program has been most impactful and what potential changes could increase its effectiveness going forward. 1. EVALUATION OF THE EXISTING PORTFOLIO: A. How do trends in recipient types correspond to the business segment that the program intends to reach, and are there underrepresented business segments that would fit well in the program? This should be in consideration of the structure of the overall Wisconsin economy and the export characteristics of the state. B. Does receiving multiple IMAG awards correlate with stronger export growth or export barrier removal for certain types of businesses more than others? C. From business outcomes and project reporting data, what types of businesses (by subsector, business stage, or other) benefit the most from the program? This should also consider prior WEDC assistance to businesses from its other export development programs. D. How can the project outcomes for IMAG recipients be effectively described in terms of business growth? E. What are the trends in projects with significant award amount lapsing which may be used to help inform future contracting decisions? 2. PROGRAM BENCHMARKING: A. How does the IMAG program fit into Wisconsin's business landscape, i.e., what is the economic need that the program fulfills, and what are the other alternative sources of assistance for businesses looking to begin exporting internationally? B. Provide a comparison of the IMAG program to other states' business export development programs with a particular focus on states that have similar export characteristics to Wisconsin. This should be inclusive the programs' goals, supported activity types, budget, and eligibility criteria. C. Based on evidence from other state or federal programs, are there activity types that the IMAG program should be supporting which it is currently excluding? 3. PROGRAM STRUCTURE ANALYSIS: A. Is there a more effective structure for tailoring the program more closely to businesses at different stages of exporting preparedness or by the business' product or service type? B. What aspects of the IMAG program fit particularly well or poorly for the business types that the program is trying to reach, specifically, small to medium sized businesses across the state that are trying start off or advance in exporting a product that they manufacture, assemble, or distribute? C. Do award sizes (both for businesses that did and did not participate in WEDC's ExporTech program) provide an appropriate amount of support? D. Given the limited relationship between WEDC and the contracted recipients, are there recommended improvements that can be made to project or program impact reporting? E. What aspects of the IMAG program do not seem to fit the Wisconsin and/or national economy of 2026 (such as the growth of service exports and international tourism) or are there recent market developments (such as the exporting of digitally traded services or software products) that should be considered for incorporation into the program? 4. RECOMMENDATIONS A. WEDC is seeking recommendations, both in terms of program data collection and structure, based on the above evaluation, analysis, and benchmarking, in addition to designing a model incentive program with clear evaluation criteria that will provide a high economic impact to the State of Wisconsin. WEDC requests a recommendation as to best practice on timing & frequency of future internal and 3rd party evaluations. An expectation of this evaluation is that a review of pertinent internal and external research and analysis will be performed, and the evaluation will proceed in line with generally accepted best practices. At a minimum, the contracted evaluator will provide progress reporting to our steering committee through bi-weekly meetings. Expected Timeline RFP Issued 11/4/2026 Deadline to Submit Questions 11/13/2026 Final Answers to Submitted Questions Posted 11/16/2026 Proposals Due 11/24/2026 Proposal Selection 12/2/2026 Contracting 12/2/2026 - 12/23/2026 Project work 12/23/2026 - 4/16/2027 Draft report due to WEDC 4/16/2027 Final evaluation report due to WEDC 5/7/2027 * Vendor shall present the final evaluation report to WEDC Leadership in-person