Google’s giving away 10 million dollars to fund 5 good ideas. The ideas came out of more than 165,000 submissions from all over the world and are combinations of many submissions, highlighting that a lot of people have the right idea and the whole is stronger than just its parts. I like this instead of making it about having just 5 individual winners, because really, most of those contests are too small scale and not movement focused.
The criteria Google used in narrowing the pool seems like good program evaluation to me.
Reach: How many people would this idea affect?
Depth: How deeply are people impacted? How urgent is the need?
Attainability: Can this idea be implemented within a year or two?
Efficiency: How simple and cost-effective is your idea?
Longevity: How long will the idea’s impact last?
Very realistic, very impact-driven, and very pragmatic.
Why do they even bother to give? They simply explain that part of it is that
helping helps everybody, helper and helper alike.
I appreciate the realness of that statement. When we embrace how helping and giving make us – people in a global society – feel, how can we not be a little more generous with our time and resources? Corporations like Google get it, and hopefully more groups can be motivated to do the same.
Jen Bokoff 