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THE GIVING CHALLENGE PRIZES
INTRODUCTION The Giving Challenge Prizes were designed and delivered by Nesta’s Centre for Challenge Prizes to stimulate social innovation in the giving of time, skills and resources to tackle two distinct social issues: reducing isolation of older people and reducing waste. Funded by the Cabinet Office, the Giving Challenge Prizes were launched in July 2012 with a combined prize pot of £210,000. £10,000 was given to each of five finalists to test their idea and a final award of £50,000 was given to the winner of each challenge prize.
We want to make it easier and more compelling for people to get involved in their communities. That’s why we set up these Challenge Prizes to give organisations an exciting opportunity to come up with ideas to solve social issues such as tackling isolation in older people or helping reduce waste in our communities. We want to hear about ideas that make a difference but also mobilise people to get involved. Nick Hurd MP, Minister for Civil Society, Cabinet Office
The challenge prize model was staged (outlined on pages 10–11) – inviting ideas from a wide range of organisations, enterprises and community groups. Twenty–five semi–finalists developed detailed business plans and then the five finalists piloted their concepts to determine whether they could achieve impact in tackling these social issues. This report provides an overview of the prize model and the ideas that were piloted by finalists of each Challenge.
