LIVE UNITED Y’All!

By Howard Mason

The LIVE UNITED Social Innovation prize, presented by Ernst & Young, was designed for change makers in Kentuckiana who are prepared to put their ideas into action. The winners were picked by the public making credit card contributions to the eight finalists. Contributions were accepted through November 10, 2009.

Here are the finalists and their totals:

The competition closed at 9:00 a.m., November 10, 15 hours earlier than expected, due to an issue with the web donation technology.  Because the totals of the innovators in fourth and fifth place were virtually the same and it is not known what amounts would have been donated in the last 15 hours, fourth place was determined to be a tie and the award split among the two.

And the winners are…

The prize recipients and the amounts awarded will be:

1^st Place         $10,000 Grand Prize — Breaking New Grounds

2^nd Place        $5,000 Prize — Weber Gallery

3^rd Place         $5,000 Prize — Steward’s Staff

4^th Place         $5,000 Prize — Tie

• $2,500 Prize — Americana Family Literacy for Immigrants
• $2,500 Prize — Muscle Mover Clinic

Next steps:

December - Convene winners and finalists to launch learning community. Assess needs for support, learning, incubation.

January through June - Conduct monthly meetings of learning community with mentoring/education activities selected by participants.

Read about the finalists and their innovations at liveunitedyall.org/innovation

Education, General, Giving, Income Social Entrepreneur, Social Innovation, Social Innovation Prize

By Howard Mason

In May of this year, Metro United Way announced the LIVE UNITED Social Innovation Prize presented by Ernst & Young and opened the competition for submissions. A total of 46 completed submissions were received by the entry deadline, July 8, 2009. Metro United Way Community Change Incubator volunteers reviewed these submissions and found 18 to be ineligible for judging, primarily due to not being aligned with our Education, Income or Health Building Block(s) and/or not sufficiently innovative.

The remaining 28 proposals were scored by three-judge panels, using an online survey scoring tool. The average score of all judges for each proposal was determined for these items:

• Statement of issue/problem
• Innovation and benefits connected to selected Education, Income, Health Building Block(s)
• Finances and implementation
• Ability to grow, sustain and contribute learning
• Overall attractiveness

Judges also recommended whether to advance a submission to finalist.

Eight innovations emerged as the clear leaders and were selected as the finalists. See them on liveunitedyall.org/innovation.

I had the pleasure of calling each finalist to let them know that they had been selected to advance in the competition. I also asked them to come to a meeting at Metro United Way to meet the Community Change Incubator volunteers and social innovation prize judges, tell their story, hear about the plan for creating a learning community, and get briefed on the deliverables that were required of finalists.

It was a great meeting and everyone was touched and energized by the passion and creativity of the innovations. Most of the finalists were at least a little intimidated by the deliverables.

Each finalist had three weeks to provide:

1.      Innovation name or title.

2.      Innovator name.

3.      Still photo.

4.      Resume for individual innovator or organizational description, contact information and three references.

5.      Headline description of the innovation.

6.      Description of the innovation with a one-sentence summary, a paragraph on how the innovation is unique, and another paragraph on how it would work.

7.      A short video pitching the Social Innovation.

8.      An account to receive credit card donations.

This was a tall order, but these are the kind of things our volunteers have learned were first steps to go from idea and discussion, to action and accomplishment.

To be a successful social innovator, it takes a burning idea that has magnetism-that draws excitement, people, resources to it. It also takes the energy and commitment to dig in and do the work that is needed to make the idea come to life.

Now it’s up to YOU to vote on which innovations will win. You cast your vote by making a contribution in any amount up to a maximum of $250 from any individual donor through the innovation’s ChipIn widget, displayed on the innovation’s web page on this site: liveunitedyall.org/innovation.

No matter how much money each finalist receives in this competition, it will not completely fund their innovation. The work they did to prepare for the finalist round of the LIVE UNITED Social Innovation Prize will help them be more effective by getting them recognition, opening doors, and practicing the skills to become the magnet.

Next steps for the LIVE UNITED Social Innovation Prize:

November–Announce winners and award prizes.

December–Convene winners and finalists to launch a Community of Social Innovation. Assess needs for support, learning, incubation.

January through June–Conduct monthly meetings of the Community of Social Innovation with mentoring/education activities selected by participants.

Special thanks to the Community Change Incubator volunteers whose efforts made the prize happen: Doug Lowry, Deborah Boyer, Michelle Wyrick, Rob Kaplan, Merv Antonio, Jud Hendrix, and David Allgood.

Many thanks to Lynn Smith for organizing the entries and the surveys-a huge task with many tight deadlines.

And extra special thanks to Erin McMahon for her tireless work and unflagging enthusiasm and good nature in developing the web sites.

Don’t forget to donate to your favorite and encourage others to do the same!

Education, General, Giving, Health, Income Add new tag, Social Entrepreneur, Social Innovation, Social Innovation Prize

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Howard Mason. I am the Director of Community Building at Metro United Way. In many ways, I may have the best job in the community. But that’s going to be our secret for now.

My work is about finding, connecting and supporting the people and organizations that are working to advance the common good in this community. I mean the innovators, social entrepreneurs, neighborhood heroes—the ones who are close to both the problems and the solutions.

Metro United Way can’t do everything, but we can play a key role as a leader and a partner to those who are trying to do the right things—the community leaders and social entrepreneurs who are trying to solve the 21st century problems with 21st century solutions. If you yearn to change the world, then I am writing for you.

By the way, I yearn to change the world too, so I’m writing for us.

Let’s face it: if doing the same things we have always done in the same ways were all we needed to change the world, I probably wouldn’t be writing this today. We might already live in the most vital caring community in America.

So let us also face the fact that we are going to have to try new things, go about our efforts in new ways if we are going to get the new results we seek. I want to help us look at new ways of doing things.

Our conversation will not be about getting somebody else involved or what some other group needs to do. It is now about what each of us can do. The time has come.

In this blog I’m going to be writing about us—who we are, what we do, where we get our strength, what it takes to be successful.

I hope you will read and comment and add your experience and perspective.

Education, Health, Income, Volunteering Change the World, Community, Education, Health, Income, Innovator, Social Entrepreneur, Volunteer