From Inside Philanthropy:

"Looking at the extraordinarily diverse group of ideas that came out on top in last year’s challenge, one thing is clear: Bridgebuilder is making progress toward reaching organizations from around the world. It’s encouraging to see a funder live up to its talk of diversity, and then go the extra mile by translating its materials into multiple languages.
​
While it’s not easy to keep track of the all grant competitions going on these days, Bridgebuilder is definitely one worth keeping an eye on..."
Read more...

With 690 ideas from participants in nearly every country, the Ideas phase of the 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge has come to a close! We called on our global community to submit ideas addressing urgent global challenges at the intersection of peace, prosperity and planet in radically new ways, and were blown away by the creativity, dedication and collaboration of everyone involved! Participants will no longer be able to alter ideas until the Beneficiary Feedback stage begins on June 21. You can, however, continue to review the ideas, comment on your favorites, make connections between organizations and participate in the Challenge community.
 
We believe new and existing ideas become better through collaboration, transparent feedback and iteration. Participants of the BridgeBuilder Challenge are encouraged to build on each others' concepts, collaborate, share insights and combine ideas to reach innovative new places. Throughout the various phases of the Challenge, we encourage everyone to continue engaging and pushing each other forward.
 
The Review phase has now begun, during which GHR and OpenIDEO are reviewing submissions based on our evaluation criteria. We encourage you to use this phase to leave and respond to comments, feedback or insights that may fuel idea development.
 
After the Review phase will be the Beneficiary Feedback phase, during which we’ll ask participants to get feedback from their communities, consider their end users and apply these learnings to their proposal. Though only shortlisted ideas will be required to complete this step, we encourage the entire BridgeBuilder community to continue through the refinement process—even if your idea is not selected, collecting and applying beneficiary feedback will improve your idea.
 
Shortlisted ideas will have the opportunity during the Expert Feedback phase to be matched with experts who will provide feedback and additional insights, helping inform the evaluation of their proposal. Last, during the Improve phase, each shortlisted idea will have two weeks to apply feedback to their proposal. We encourage all participants to incorporate constructive feedback from the BridgeBuilder community to make your idea the best it can be.
 
View the ideas and participate in the BridgeBuilder community!

From The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

"Grant-seeking usually goes something like this: A nonprofit hears about a request for proposals and works feverishly to cobble together a grant application. Then it waits. Sometimes, according to Sol Anderson, executive director of LIFT Chicago, a response doesn’t come for half a year.

GHR, which is in the early stages of its second open challenge, operates one of the most radically transparent grant-making processes. But other grant makers are opening up their selections, too..."
Read more

In collaboration with open innovation platform OpenIDEO, GHR Foundation is inviting social innovators to come together to address urgent global challenges at the intersections of peace, prosperity and planet in radically new ways. The second annual BridgeBuilder Challenge is a five-month collaborative process that aims to identify promising ideas that promote meaningful engagement, greater social cohesion, and sustainable, community-led change. The top iterative ideas will each receive a share of $1 million and benefit from ongoing collaboration among the cohort and GHR’s global development experts.
 
The first BridgeBuilder Challenge in 2017 collected more than 650 ideas from social innovators in 185 countries, all building bridges in unique, innovative ways. ​These were narrowed down to five Top Ideas, which convened in Rome for a design-build workshop with GHR and OpenIDEO. These wide-ranging approaches are already resulting in meaningful change, with project scopes between 12 and 36 months.
 
The 2017 Top Ideas include:

• Ethical gold mining as a pathway to peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- Peace Direct
• Tree-planting drones for restoring mangroves and livelihoods in Myanmar -- BioCarbon Engineering
• Creative skills for peace among youth violent offenders in Cameroon -- Local Youth Corner Cameroon
• Lifting up and empowering families on Chicago's Southside -- LIFT Chicago
• Connecting displaced persons with Arabic language learners around the world – NaTakallam

 
“The challenges our world faces today are complex and interwoven,” said Amy Goldman, chief executive officer and chair of GHR. "BridgeBuilder is teaching us a lot about how communities far and wide are designing innovative solutions, and the power of building bridges to create lasting change. Through this second Challenge as well as the work of our current cohort, we hope to continue ‘bridging’ between people and communities to support and unleash the promise of locally-rooted ideas and assets.”
 
Whether working to advance peace, ensure prosperity, or protect our planet, successful BridgeBuilders design and build approaches that incorporate multiple perspectives, keeping pace with the speed at which the global community is moving and evolving.
 
“The response to our inaugural BridgeBuilder Challenge was amazing,” said Jason Rissman, managing director of OpenIDEO, of the 2017 BridgeBuilder Challenge. “The collaborative, transparent nature of last year’s Challenge inspired social innovators from nearly every country to offer insights and connections that brought value to submitted ideas, even if they weren't ultimately selected as Top Ideas. It’s exciting to consider the world-changing potential of our community of BridgeBuilders in this second Challenge.”
 
OpenIDEO Challenge Process: During the Ideas phase, GHR and OpenIDEO will call on the global community to share ideas that address urgent challenges at the intersections of peace, prosperity and planet in radical new ways. The ideas do not need to be perfect or fully polished—GHR encourages entry early in the Ideas phase to allow for community engagement and iteration to improve ideas. GHR will then select a shortlist of submitted ideas to move into the Beneficiary Feedback phase. During Beneficiary Feedback, contributors will test ideas in their communities and apply feedback to their project idea.
 
During the Expert Feedback phase, shortlisted ideas will have the opportunity to interact virtually with experts from various fields to gather feedback and additional insights. After expert feedback is the Improve Phase, during which each idea will have two three weeks to apply the expert feedback to their project idea. After these phases, GHR will review the shortlist, evaluate the ideas and announce the Top Ideas—a cohort representing promising approaches that best reflect the spirit of BridgeBuilder.
 
Selected top ideas will:

• Receive a share of $1 million in seed funding from GHR Foundation
• Join a BridgeBuilder cohort of innovative organizations working to address urgent needs
• Take part in a kick-off workshop, during which they will meet other social innovators and further design and build their approaches with tools and expertise from GHR and OpenIDEO
• Receive ongoing partnership support from GHR, potential connection to other funder networks, and media exposure

 
Eligibility: Submissions are welcome from registered nonprofit, civil society, community-based and for-profit organizations working anywhere in the world. Ideas must touch on two or more of the topic areas (peace, prosperity and planet). Ideas should strive to create unique encounters between people, issues and beliefs that promote meaningful engagement, greater social cohesion and sustainable, community-led change. Ideas must center on action and tangible results in their communities of focus rather than research, convenings, policy development or advocacy. Last, BridgeBuilder is seeking ideas with timelines up to 36 months and budget requests of less than US$500,000.

The first annual BridgeBuilder Challenge blew past our expectations, drawing in more than 650 participants and delivering five amazing Top Ideas. This year's BridgeBuilder Challenge is set to begin on May 1, 2018. After that date, participants will be able to create and refine their idea using OpenIDEO's open innovation platform.  We encourage participants to enter the Challenge as soon as possible—the more time you have to use the platform, the more you can benefit from the feedback and connections the community has to offer.

The 2017 Top Ideas are already implementing their projects and have been drawing attention. The March print issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy includes a feature article on the BridgeBuilder Challenge, titled Foundation Uses Radical Transparency in Grant Making. "I wanted to open up our windows and get some fresh air into our own thinking and learning at the foundation," said GHR CEO Amy Goldman for the Chronicle. "Seeing all of these ideas has really been an opportunity to do that." Read the full story (PDF).

If you're interested in what it's like to be a BridgeBuilder Top Idea, check out the new video below, which features the 2017 cohort's experience as they convened in Rome this fall.
​

Learn more about the BridgeBuilder Challenge here.

From Design-Build Institute of America:

"Recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Design Build Institute of America in 2007, the Opus Group founder Gerald Rauenhorst pioneered the idea that streamlined project funding/purchasing and integrated cross-functional teams deliver elaborate projects faster, more smoothly and with more effective outcomes. He challenged industry norms beginning in the 1960s to benefit his clients while growing the Opus Group into one of the largest multidisciplinary real estate development design and construction firms in the world.

Rauenhorst's legacy in design-build extends far and wide--as far as Zambia, Cambodia, the Central African Republic and beyond--through the family foundation he and his wife Henrietta founded in 1965, GHR Foundation. At first blush, the design-build approach to delivering university residence halls, corporate campuses and sports stadiums may seem to have little application to philanthropy and global development. Looking deeper, however, one can see many of the same principles in play creating models, forming symbiotic teams, sketching a plan of action, consulting on plans and helping shape the results..."
Read more
Download PDF

From Devex:

“Donor agencies are hyper transactional, whereas faith-based organizations are hyper relational,” [Mark Brinkmoeller the former director of the Center for Faith Based-and Community Initiatives at USAID] said, noting some of the pain points that stand in the way of potential partnerships, and the need for dedicated efforts such as the USAID initiative to bring these two sides together. Brinkmoeller also talked about a group he feels is often overlooked: “Faith-motivated business people doing innovation in the workplace with humanitarian impulses.” He mentioned GHR Foundation—a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based philanthropic organization with the stated mission of working toward a just, peaceful, and healthy future—as one example of giving that grew out of faith.

“We don’t consider ourselves as a faith-based foundation, but because of our legacy and long-term partnerships, we’ve developed a comfort and competency working with faith-based groups, and that has allowed us to get deeper links within communities and directly with people,” Amy Rauenhorst Goldman, CEO and chair of the foundation, told Devex. “In most of the world, faith is a key component of someone’s identity, either an individual or a community, and it’s what fuels conflict around the world and what fuels hope and development as well.”
 
She said that through partnerships such as USAID’s Central African Republic initiative, to which GHR Foundation is a donor, the goal is not only to have a direct impact but also to generate more evidence around the power of partnering with faith-based organizations. “When I think of innovation, I am always thinking about a new and better way to do something. I often think of innovation as building: new systems, new platforms.”
Read more
Download PDF

From Pioneer Press:

"St. Thomas and the foundation spent more than a year designing the fellowship. [Amy] Rauenhorst Goldman said they wanted to raise the university’s profile and encourage others to give.

“We really want to have this gift inspire other gifts,” she said.

The fellowship is based on merit, but Rauenhorst Goldman said first-generation students will get preference. Financially needy fellows can also get grants for room and board..."
Read more

Education is a powerful tool for changing lives and strengthening communities. The education our founders received shaped them, and we continue their commitment to providing hope and opportunity through education by investing in innovative, values-based institutions.

Today, the University of St. Thomas announced a scholarship drive to infuse $200 million into support for students over the next eight years.  GHR Foundation has committed $50 million as the lead gift designated entirely for scholarships.

With GHR’s gift, St. Thomas will establish a pre-eminent four-year endowed scholarship program for business majors called GHR Fellows. This highly competitive program is designed to attract future business leaders who embody the mission of the university and model GHR values: globally-minded, ethics-oriented changemakers who seek create enduring value for society.

Each year, fifteen GHR Fellows will be selected to receive scholarships providing them with full tuition for four years, a fully funded J-Term study abroad experience, individualized career coaching, customized social entrepreneurship opportunities and more. By offering this scholarship, the university will be able recruit and retain excellent students who might not otherwise have access to such an opportunity.

GHR Foundation believes education can transform an individual as it did Gerry Rauenhorst, one of our founders, a first-generation college student and a St. Thomas alum. We are proud to help educate students to be principled leaders who think critically, work skillfully and act wisely to advance the common good. To learn more about GHR's Higher Education funding, contact us.

From Star Tribune:

The hope is to attract more exceptional students like sophomore business major Madison Morehouse. Morehouse, 19, grew up in Rosemount, the daughter of a plumber and a loan officer. A standout high school student, she’s the first in her family to attend college. She visited St. Thomas several times while in high school and it was her first choice for college, but the high price tag initially made it seem out of reach.

“I loved how I felt when I was there. When I was there, I felt important,” Morehouse said. “My parents were very up front with me. I could go wherever I wanted, but that loan would be taken out.”

When she got the e-mail from St. Thomas offering her $29,000 in a renewable annual scholarship, Morehouse squealed in the middle of her high school study hall.

“I would not have been able to go to St. Thomas [without the scholarship]. That is the reality of it,” Morehouse said.
Read the full story (PDF)