Top Idea team TIMBY works with a community representative at the GHR workshop.

​In 2018, the second iteration of GHR’s BridgeBuilder Challenge focused on transparency and accessibility, translating the Challenge criteria and materials into seven languages. Interest and engagement grew, with more than 675 ideas and 6,000 comments on the platform. From these, GHR selected five promising, creative, and game-changing ideas to each receive a share of $1 million.
 
In early November in Rome, GHR hosted a workshop with OpenIDEO to enhance tangible and intangible skills that will accelerate their work and learning. For three days, our five Top Idea organizations worked alongside GHR, OpenIDEO and each other to find opportunities to learn, share and amplify their potential.
 
The workshop was designed to allow the cohort to learn about each other’s work and “build bridges” across projects; provide tools and knowledge that will help carry impact further; dig into the learning they hope to achieve through the projects; and foster a community of allies who will challenge and support each others' work. Drawing on the shared BridgeBuilder guiding principles which GHR developed with the help of the 2017 cohort, the group refined their ideas and forged meaningful new relationships based on values, ambition and collaboration. This year’s teams will learn alongside GHR – and each other – using principles-based evaluation over the duration of their 12-36 month projects.
 
Later, at a dinner with 40 funders, the Top Ideas cohort had the opportunity to pitch their ideas and engage in critical conversations around their areas of work. In the spirit of BridgeBuilder, attendees made new connections as they explored intersections in their collective work to address urgent challenges in communities around the world.
 
Each of our Top Idea organizations has devoted time, creativity and effort into building bridges and making the world a better place.
 
GHR looks forward to growing its partnership with the 2018 cohort and learning more about the power and impact of principles-based bridge building in meeting complex global challenges.
 

The second iteration of the BridgeBuilder Challenge used a principles-based approach to evaluation, using input collected from the 2017 cohort of Top Ideas. These Guiding Principles serve to drive and align GHR and the Top Idea grantees as they develop and grow their projects.

This year’s teams will learn alongside GHR – and each other – using principles-based evaluation over the duration of their 12-36 month projects.
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GHR looks forward to growing its partnership with the 2018 cohort and learning more about the power and impact of principles-based bridge building in meeting complex global challenges.

From Reuters:

"Kenya’s Sengwer people will have hi-tech help fighting forced evictions in their forested homeland - an app that will share a $1 million prize announced on Monday by a U.S. philanthropic organization.

Dubbed “This Is My Backyard” (TIMBY), the app was created in Kenya and is being customized with the Sengwer in mind, although it is being used in 25 more countries and works in 11 languages, the developers said.

TIMBY was among five winners of a global competition that awards ideas that address urgent community challenges, according to the Minneapolis-based GHR Foundation, which runs the yearly contest. The winners will share the cash prize."
Read more...

BridgeBuilder Challenge 2018 Top Ideas are working on solutions that span harnessing technology to help preserve ancestral land from illegal use; employ low-income bilingual women as medical interpreters while improving healthcare outcomes; address future global food demands while supporting youth leadership in agriculture; develop market-based opportunities for youth in fragile economies; and empower women to prevent domestic abuse and connect victims with services.

The five 2018 BridgeBuilder Top Ideas will receive a share of US$1 million and ongoing collaboration with GHR Foundation. The Challenge seeks ideas addressing urgent global concerns at the intersections of peace, prosperity and planet in radically new ways. Participants from 185 countries responded with more than 675 ideas.

The 2018 Top Ideas cohort announced today include:

1. Equipping indigenous peoples with mobile technology to protect land rights. TIMBY (This Is My Backyard) is an app being deployed in Kenya for the Sengwer people to protect their ancestral lands with geostamped and evidence-based reporting, including uploading encrypted videos and photos of land use issues. The Sengwer community will own a growing database about their lands—maps, evictions and court rulings—which can be shared with stakeholders to increase transparency and effective dialogue.
2. Empowering low-income bilingual women as medical interpreters to fight healthcare disparities. An organization founded by an immigrant, Found in Translation is helping other immigrants and bilingual speakers in the Boston area by training them as medical interpreters to bridge the gap between immigrant communities and the health care system. The expanded program will train and employ more low-income women as medical interpreters, who in turn help families navigate the healthcare system, meet hospitals’ needs for medical interpreters, and improve medical outcomes.
3. Unleashing the potential of rural youth to drive sustainable small-scale agriculture. Producers Direct will support youth careers in farming by providing access to financing, youth exchanges and training in digital tools while offering reciprocal mentoring relationships with older smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Helping youth to see agriculture as a viable economic path will help address future employment shortages in countries with young populations, while also promoting sustainable food systems.
4. Investing in young peace-building entrepreneurs in South Sudan via cash transfers and start-up grants. War Child Canada aims to promote peace and collaboration among small groups of multi-ethnic youth in South Sudan. Youth from diverse backgrounds will work together to assess local market opportunities and initiate group businesses and community savings groups. Their learning and entrepreneurial efforts will be supported by direct cash transfers to assist in meeting basic household needs and small business start-up grants.
5. Mobilizing women-led community transformation for families facing domestic violence. My Choices Foundation is training local women in a neighborhood near Hyderabad, India that faces acute domestic and child abuse to serve as PeaceMakers, providing free counseling, rights education and legal aid to women and families. The program is empowering local women to help other women and children in a culturally-focused way.

“It’s humbling to support this group of innovators who are local in their work, but global in their ideas and ambitions to shift the development paradigm,” said Amy Goldman, chief executive officer and chair of GHR Foundation. “The BridgeBuilder Challenge seeks out and elevates promising ideas, providing them with seed funding to test new approaches and prove out solutions to some of the world’s most urgent needs.”

The 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge was developed in partnership by GHR and OpenIDEO, the open innovation practice from global design firm IDEO. OpenIDEO enables people worldwide to come together and create solutions for societal problems that are too big to solve alone.

“We believe there’s incredible value in how open innovation enables anyone, anywhere to join efforts to address critical problems,” said Jason Rissman, OpenIDEO's managing director. “Through BridgeBuilder, GHR and OpenIDEO are deeply engaging the global community, learning and iterating to help the social sector become more open and innovative.”

What Happens Next for 2018 Top Ideas: Convening and Collaboration 
The 2018 Top Idea winners will participate in their first cohort convening in Rome in November to meet each other, share ideas, and continue the open collaboration and cross learning approach of the BridgeBuilder Challenge. In addition to sharing learnings as a group throughout the duration of their projects, the winners will be supported by GHR and its network of experts and partners to continue to refine and build out their individual ideas.

Learn more about what's new in the 2018 Challenge and watch the video to learn more about this year's BridgeBuilders.

As the 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge comes to a close, we reflect on how the Challenge—like the ideas it funds—has continued to evolve based on community input, benefitting from its open innovation approach.
 
What was new about the Challenge this year:
 
Principles-based evaluation. For the 2018 Challenge, GHR Foundation deployed a principles-based evaluation of idea submissions that increased transparency. To improve and evolve the Challenge, GHR worked with the 2017 Top Ideas to identify and develop principles that would inform the evaluation they used in the 2018 cycle. Rather than focus on metrics and outcomes, a principles-based approach focuses on how an innovation addresses a problem.
 
“Using principles-based evaluation allowed us to focus on the question of ‘How do you work?’ more than the question of ‘What do you do?’ said Mark Guy, GHR Foundation senior program officer. “It’s the difference between cooking with a ‘season-to-taste’ approach and following a recipe. It allows for adaptability, which is important for projects that are operating in complex, dynamic environments.”
 
Increased global engagement. Building on its first year, the 2018 Challenge saw more than 675 ideas and participants from 195 countries and territories engage in the open innovation process, with a total of more than 6,000 comments on the platform, increased from 2,500 in 2017.
 
Translated materials and diverse experts. In 2018, the BridgeBuilder Challenge enhanced inclusion and accessibility by translating materials into seven languages and adding diverse experts to the process—nine volunteer OpenIDEO coaches from around the world were assigned to work with the group of 55 Shortlisted ideas as they advanced to the Refinement phase, helping them improve their concepts.
 
“The broad response to BridgeBuilder in just its first year was truly inspiring, but we recognize a need for resources to reach even deeper into communities around the world,” said Chris Berger, GHR Foundation director of communications. “Guided by the engagement principles we developed with the BridgeBuilder community, we’re striving to ‘meet people where they are,’ so that every individual feels included and supported. That’s why we translated our social posts, brief and criteria into seven languages and expanded our global support team.”
 
Not winning doesn’t mean losing. While one 2018 Top Idea is a returning challenge participant, teams who weren’t selected describe value in the process itself. Several participants who ultimately did not win the Challenge said the open innovation process attracted them to BridgeBuilder, where they’ve made new connections, received feedback from experts and beneficiaries and improved their idea for consideration by other funders.

The 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge Top Ideas will be announced on Oct. 1, 2018. Learn more about the Challenge here.

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.
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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!

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.
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Learn more about the BridgeBuilder Challenge here.

Responding to urgent needs takes more than just strategy—it takes creativity, collaboration and shared values. To this end, GHR Foundation is investing in five BridgeBuilder Challenge Top Ideas with more than just financial support. Earlier this month in Rome, we hosted a workshop with OpenIDEO to enhance tangible and intangible skills that will accelerate their work and learning. For three days, our five Top Idea organizations worked alongside GHR, OpenIDEO and each other to find opportunities to learn, share and amplify their potential.

The workshop was designed to allow the cohort to learn about each other’s work and “build bridges” across projects; provide tools and knowledge that will help carry impact further; dig into the learning they hope to achieve through the projects; and foster a community of allies who will challenge and support each others' work. By identifying shared principles that guide the cohort and drawing energy from the potential of these ideas, the group managed to leave with new relationships based on values, ambition and collaboration.

Each of our Top Idea organizations has devoted time, creativity and effort into building bridges and making our world a better place. This convening marks the celebration of how far they've come and the start of their journey as the first BridgeBuilder cohort. We appreciate their thoughtfulness and ingenuity as they push us to think differently. Together, we hope to keep learning and building as we chart the course for this community’s continued impact.

Learn more about the BridgeBuilder Challenge and each of the 2017 Top Ideas