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30/05/2012 - Nesta Launches Round Two of Innovation in Giving Fund
Nesta and the Office for Civil Society have launched the second "call for ideas" for the £10 million Innovation in Giving Fund. Any organisation in England, in any sector, may submit a proposal.
The Innovation in Giving Fund is focused on increasing giving and exchange of time, assets, skills, resources and money in England to achieve social goals and public benefit.
In the first instance, grants of up to £50,000 are available for proposals at any stage of development, from an early stage idea to something with a proven track record and the possibility of going to greater scale. There will also be an opportunity to secure further stages of funding, with additional awards to be made from autumn 2012.
Ideas and proposals are welcome from all sources and sectors and all types of organisations, including the voluntary and community sector, charities, social entrepreneurs, businesses, academia, public services or other organisations. Funding will only be awarded for projects that have an identifiable public benefit related to the aims of the Fund.
Nesta's first call for ideas last autumn brought in 440 applications. Of those proposals, 32 innovative ideas were selected and received £2.5 million. The ideas ranged "from crowd-funding platforms that help social projects connect with supporters to new online tools to organise personal care networks".
Nesta is particularly interested in this round in the following:
- Harnessing the potential of collaborative and networked technologies.
- Platforms and mechanisms that promote reciprocity - such as the use of time credits, points systems or other complementary currencies.
- Making use of idling capacity - for example ideas that enable people or organisations to share, exchange and redistribute assets, skills and resources.
- Increasing the number of people that make donations to charity and stimulating new audiences.
- Improving the targeting of pro bono support from commercial organisations.
This is not an exhaustive list, and proposals of all kinds are welcomed that meet the objectives, core criteria and eligibility of the Fund.
To apply, organisations need to complete a short application form and publish a video of no more than three minutes which will then be published on Nesta's Innovation in Giving Vimeo channel. All the video pitches will be publicly available.
The deadline for submissions is 22 June 2012 (12 noon).
The Fund is managed by Nesta, the UK's Innovation Foundation. Further information can be found on the Nesta website (opens new window).
Source: NESTA, 30/05/2012
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