The Rockefeller Foundation s Use of Competitions

The Rockefeller Foundation s Use of Competitions

Examples of Competitions Innovation Challenges AshokaChangemakers G-20 SME Finance Challenge Sustainable Urban Housing: Collaborating for Liveableand Inclusive Cities The InnoCentiveInitiative $1 Million Prize for Most Innovative Job Solution

Competitions: Lessons Learned Appropriate for the front-end: problemidentification, ideation, prototyping. Create energy and momentum (headlines). Surface actors that could be your partners in execution. Spotting trends among applicants. Rarely is a competition good for implementation. NOT effective for sustaining, diffusing or systemic impact. Competition is a METHOD, not an end-goal. It must be complemented by other methods.

AshokaChangemakers G-20 SME Finance Challenge Goal: To unlock private financing for the missing middle businesses that are too large for microcredit but too small for traditional banking. Leveraged over $500M in investments. The open-source competition platform was open for 4 months. Sourced 345 SME finance solutions from 80 countries. G20 s recognition and investment.

AshokaChangemakers G-20 SME Finance Challenge Examples of winners Capital Tool Company: The first system for increasing financing for SMEs by their suppliers. Root Capital: Fixed-price contracts a loan collateral. Medical Credit Fund Africa: Provides primary health SMEs with a combination of affordable lending for upgrading and expanding medical practices and customized, performance-based technical assistance for expanding business practices.

AshokaChangemakers G-20 SME Finance Challenge What worked: 1. Not complicated. 2. It scaled up Ashoka Changemakers. 3. Showed crowdsourcing is acceptable. Made it commonplace. 4. One RF grantee explained that the award gave them the imprimatur to talk to governments.

AshokaChangemakers G-20 SME Finance Challenge Challenges and Lessons Learned 1. Few entries addressed how to overcome barriers related to issues of policy, infrastructure and the under-representation of women. Due to framing around SME financing itself. 2. Traditional banks and other large-scale players in the SME finance field had limited involvement in the competition. Due to IP publishing policies. 3. The competition did not source any one comprehensive transformative approach to SME financing that had yet to be fully tested. 4. The lack of detailed financial reporting inhibited thorough evaluation of the entrants.

2012 Innovation Challenge Decoding Data Collaborative data collection and use of mobile phones for community bldg. User-generated and open-source data. Well-represented: North America Farming Now Focus on training and advocacy. Formalized education. Well-represented: Africa Irrigating Efficiency Improvements or additions to existing technology pumping and irrigation. Focused on making financially accessible to farmers so that they could be scaled. Well-represented: Asia (especially India), the academy in the U.S.

2012 Innovation Challenge For 15 challenge finalists, 7received $100,000 in funding each, including marketing and positioning support from Context Partners Recognition/publicity at the Innovation Forum Collaboration with and/or membership in the Global Engagement Network Jury of leaders in the field

2012 Innovation Challenge Open for 7 weeks 1,762 ideas submitted from 6 continents, 112 Countries How participants heard: Context Partners partnered with local, community managers worldwide to create the Rockefeller Foundation Innovation Challenge Network. Africa Web & RFIC Network Asia RFIC Network Europe Web & RFIC Network Latin America & the Caribbean RFIC Network South East Asia RFIC Network Asia most Twitter-oriented North American most website-oriented

2012 Innovation Challenge Criteria: Catalytic Impact Context Spark

2012 Innovation Challenge Examples of winners Farming Now MobidoCoulibaly Farm Quest (Mali): Reality radio series, competition to start the best farm. Irrigating Efficiency John Duxbury Layering Raised Bed and Furrowing Technology (USA): Replace flood irrigation of flat fields to improve water and fertilizer use efficiency, addresses labor shortages and provides agribusiness opportunities. Decoding Data ChelinaOdbert WATSAN Portal: An online & phone-based platform for improving water & sanitation in slums (Kenya)

2012 Innovation Challenge Worked Well: Strong on-the-ground representation of international, local context Equity Size of prize ($100,000) Community Outreach Managers 4x higher level of participation than anticipated Rich body of data Built and now maintaining a network Mentorship

2012 Innovation Challenge Next Time: Better resource Community Outreach Managers Because the winners are new discoveries, to whom do we make the grant? Size grant amount to recipient s capacity Seed idea development, pilot, evaluation, feasibility study. Most defaulted to pilot. How best to evaluate impact? The need to frame challenges is time-intensive A longer time frame is needed

$1 Million Prize for Most Innovative Job Solution Contingent upon demonstrated success New jobs that serve disconnected young people Small businesses Challenges: Design New activity Creation of jobs How do you measure? Partner for design