The Skoll Foundation, founded in 1999 to generate change large scale change by aiding innovators, is partnering with The Huffington Post to launch a crowdfunding challenge entitled “Skoll Social Entrepreneurs Challenge”. The partnership is working with charity crowdfunding platform Crowdrise. The competition runs until November 22nd.
The competition has the potential to leverage up to $1 million in prize funding from the Skoll Foundation, including $250,000 in dedicated prize money through daily and weekly challenges and up to $750,000 in additional matching funds to be shared by all participants as fundraising thresholds are reached during the campaign.
The prize funding will go to the groups that raise the most through the Challenge. The top fundraising organization will receive$50,000; the runner-up will receive $40,000; and the organizations in third place through fifth place will receive $30,000,$20,000 and $10,000 respectively. Plus, an additional $100,000 in bonus prizing will be awarded throughout the Challenge.
Organizations participating are recipients of the “Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship” and represent some of the most successful entrepreneurial organizations in the world. Working on the frontlines, social entrepreneurs fight disease, poverty, and injustice with their innovative approaches, proving that health care, education, and basic needs can be delivered efficiently and equitably, that sustainability trumps depletion, and that large-scale impact is possible.
“This Challenge gives individual donors the opportunity to support high-impact social entrepreneurs working in countries around the world through a healthy dose of competition that still promises to reward all participants,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “We’re pleased to provide funding that will not only leverage donor gifts but also deliver an important capacity building exercise in crowdfunding, which is a critical tool for social entrepreneurs who want to maximize their impact.”
“Usually when people think of how smart non-profit organizations get funded they assume that most of the money comes from foundations and major philanthropists and that a smaller percentage comes from grassroots efforts,” said actor and CrowdRise co-founder Edward Norton. “What CrowdRise Challenges have clearly demonstrated is that we can flip the equation. The smart use of networking technology and smart game-theory can take funds from major philanthropists like our friends at the Skoll Foundation, and use these funds to activate the power of crowdfunding and leverage the initial donation 8x, 10x, even 13x. We think this is really exciting.”
“Our partnership with CrowdRise on the JobRaising Challenge raised more than $1.2 million to help put Americans back to work, a demonstration of just how powerful a tool crowdfunding can be for raising money, raising awareness, and inspiring others around the issues that matter most,” said Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group. “So we are really excited to be collaborating with CrowdRise again for the Skoll Social Entrepreneurs Challenge, to further empower the boldest and most creative social entrepreneurs already at work solving our biggest problems, and at the same time inviting them to tell their stories on HuffPost’s platform.”
The Skoll Foundation has used crowdfunding to support important social issues twice before. In March, the Skoll Foundation and The Huffington Post committed $250,000 in prize donations for the “Job Raising Challenge” to leverage more than $1.2 million in donations for domestic job-creating nonprofits. In June, the Foundation and Huffington Post committed $75,000 in prize donations for the “RaiseForWomen Challenge,” which raised more than $1 million in donations for women’s causes.
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