Americans alone spend approximately one billion dollars a day on charitable donations. In a single year, Americans collectively contribute over 400 billion dollars a year toward healing problems and making the lives of others better.

On average, Americans donate slightly over two percent of their disposable income. Two percent may seem like very little, but it results in about $1050 annually per person or $2030 per household. Most charitable giving comes from individuals, but foundations and corporations give sizable amounts as well.

With so many causes to choose from, where do the charitable dollars end up? It turns out religious organizations get nearly a third of them with the rest of the 400 or so billion going to the following:

• Education
• Human Services
• Health Services
• Public Sector organizations such as The United Way
• International Affairs
• Arts and Cultural organizations
• Environmental and Animal Rights

It turns out environmental causes, and those concerning the welfare and protection of animals only receive about a tenth of what churches and other religious organizations pull in every year.

Let’s Define Fundraising

The term fundraising refers to the organized efforts of raising funds for charities, nonprofits, political campaigns, and organizations, or other enterprises. It turns out most people need some encouragement to give up their charitable dollars. Fundraising may take on the following forms:

• One on one in-person- Approaching people one on one represents the first form of fundraising. This eye contact type of fundraising may involve a door to door canvass, or a person with a clipboard engaging people on the street to share information and ultimately get a donation.
• Letters and emails- The written form of fundraising requires significant skill to grab the reader’s attention and prompt them to reach for their checkbook. 
• Telefunding- This type of fundraising may involve bustling phone rooms or high powered executives, making carefully scripted calls. Much of the time, high-level donors first receive an email or letter requesting funds.

The Fundraising Mindset

Whether you choose to fundraise as a life-long career or take it on as a part-time job for extra money, you won’t reach your full potential as a fundraiser if you don’t possess the right mindset. 

First of all, it truly helps if you believe in the cause as you request funds. Your passion will come through in person, in writing, or over the phone. 

Secondly, you must not feel as though you pose an inconvenience asking for money. Just remember how much money people will spend on an annual basis for charitable causes. You present an opportunity for them to take part in a worthy cause by getting out their credit card or sending in a check.

The Reasons People Donate

• They care about their community. The term community may refer to the donor’s immediate neighborhood or the entire planet.
• They trust your organization. 
• The impact that the community receives from your nonprofit measures in tangible ways.
• The member or candidate feels a personal connection to the cause. 
• They want to participate. Perhaps the donor doesn’t possess the time to knock on doors for their political candidate, but writing a check represents another form of activism.
• People respond to the bandwagon effect. If they know that most people in the area contributed to getting rid of the toxic waste dump, they will want to help out as well.
• Many people will also give either for a primary or secondary reason to receive the tax deduction or benefit. 

One of the most critical points to remember about successful fundraising is that you will raise very little money if the donor doesn’t know how much of the funds will go to the actual cause. It’s important to obtain statistics on administrative costs versus the money that makes it to the actual cause. 

The Fundraising Formula that Works

Most successful fundraising stems from a well-constructed script. The script may serve only as a guideline as the fundraiser incorporates their personality and style into the delivery, whether it takes place over the phone, in person, or through the mail. Here is a suggested structure for a fundraising script or letter that will bring results: 

• 1- Greeting and rapport building- The greeting will involve a hello and identify yourself and your organization. Many fundraisers never utter the phrase, ‘how are you?’ Asking someone how they are will give them an opening to tell you they’re not feeling well or too busy. Save the open-ended questions for the rapport building. ‘What is your biggest concern about climate change?’ 
• 2- The Victory- Give them some good news, especially if they donate regularly. Tell them what wonderful things their past donations accomplished. And, as for new donors, no one wants to come on board a sinking ship. 
• 3- The Problem- Let them know the latest challenges your cause or organization faces and put a human spin on it. 
• 4- The Solution- Tell them what kind of action needs to happen to alleviate or solve the problem.
• 5- The Soft Ask- Let them know you need their support, but follow it up with some bonus information or a benefit. ‘Our gold-level members receive a beautiful coffee mug with our logo.’
• 6- The Ask- Let them know you need their help and ask for a specific amount. Ask for twice the amount you expect to receive according to their giving history. They may surprise you!
• 7- Additional Asks- Depending on the organization, you may do one or two more asks. Before asking for a lower amount, make sure to return to the importance of the issue.

Closing Thoughts on Fundraising

Though some may possess personalities more geared to fundraising than others, fundraising represents a learnable skill. Just about anyone who wants to learn it will experience success. But it all starts with a healthy mindset. 

It’s important to point out too that not everyone will say yes. Your organization will point out expectations and goals to help you measure your success.

The post Start with the Right Mindset for Successful Fundraising appeared first on Verblio.

While it’s easy to recognize the need for a nonprofit, starting and keeping a nonprofit going is becoming increasingly difficult. Communities continue to turn to nonprofits to fill their needs. The problem is that finding the resources a nonprofit requires to fill those needs often seems impossible. Most nonprofit directors report that they struggle with finding funding, volunteers, and support. The sheer effort to handle the challenges is why the National Center on Charitable Statistics reports that approximately 30% of nonprofits dissolve within ten years.

Creating and managing a successful nonprofit requires creative thinking, outstanding management skills, and solid management skills. If you’re considering starting a nonprofit, creating a solid foundation for the organization is the key to its future success.

There are several things you can do to make sure your nonprofit starts with a bang.

Approach Your Proposed Nonprofit Like a Business

Failing to treat a nonprofit like a business is a common mistake. Many people have fallen into the trap of thinking that because their nonprofit is doing something good, such as providing a free service, they don’t need to think with a business mind. As a result, the organization fails.

It’s not enough to have an idea for a nonprofit, you need to have a plan that looks just like a business plan.

Before officially launching your nonprofit you must:

• Identify a need in your community
• Know who your future nonprofit will serve
• Create a business plan

Having this information on hand accomplishes two things.

First, drawing up a business plan and exploring demand drives home the reality of how much effort goes into launching and running a successful nonprofit. It helps you dig deep into yourself and determine if you’re really ready to commit a large portion of your time to the cause. 

The second benefit of treating your nonprofit like a business does is make it possible to approach potential investors. Researching the community not only helps you show investors the need for your proposed nonprofit, but it also helps the investors see how donating to your nonprofit benefits their business. Your business plan identifies how much funding launching your nonprofit and keeping it going for a single year requires.

Once you’ve created a business plan for your nonprofit, you need to secure its nonprofit status by filling out and properly filing 

Create a Board

Putting together a group of people to serve as board members for your nonprofit is a project is an interesting challenge. You want your board members to be as passionate about your future nonprofit as you are, but they also need to be the type of people who will rein you in if you start going overboard. It’s important that you get just the right mix of people to serve as board members. 

During the creation phase of the nonprofit, the board will vote on an assortment of things that shape the nonprofit’s future, including:

• The mission statement
• The bylaws
• Drafting the Articles of Incorporation
• Filling out vital tax information including filing Tax Form 1023 

The nonprofit’s board should be a minimum of three people. Each of the board members must be enthusiastic about the nonprofit and be willing to dedicate a great deal of their personal time to the project. Board members must communicate well and be dedicated to the nonprofit’s future.

Set Up the Nonprofit

The type of nonprofit organization you’re creating changes the amount of work you need to dedicate to the setup process. If the organization requires a brick and mortar facility, this is the point you set about securing the location and making sure it’s equipped to handle the needs of your nonprofit. The same is true even if you plan to operate out of a mobile unit. If your nonprofit is the type that does pop-up type events in parks or at local businesses, the set-up phase is when you acquire the necessary permits and licenses.

If you plan on hiring staff for the nonprofit, you’ll do this during the setup stage. Your staff needs to be in place and fully trained before your nonprofit opens to the community. Make sure each staff is properly versed on the bylaws, who board members are, and how they should handle the press. 

Last, but not least, make sure all of your supplies are fully stocked. When you finally open your nonprofit, you want it to appear organized, clean, and ready for any challenge the world throws its way.

Market your Nonprofit

Plan on marketing your nonprofit as vigorously as you would a start-up. The only way the community benefits from your organization is if they know it exists. The extent of your marketing depends on your budget, the size of your organization, and your target market. At a minimum, you should have multiple social media accounts that attract your target market. As your organization gets closer to opening, it’s a good idea to contact local television news networks. Most newspapers, radios, and television channels are happy to promote a new nonprofit, particularly when the nonprofit has a clear mission statement and fills an obvious community need. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other nonprofits to explore the possibility of joint marketing efforts.

When putting together a marketing program for your nonprofit, remember that you don’t just want to promote its opening. Like a business, the nonprofit should grow and you’ll want to constantly market to both current and new clients. Many nonprofits find that their marketing improves so does their ability to connect with donors.

Starting a nonprofit shouldn’t be a whim. It takes an enormous amount of planning and effort. The good news is that you’ll be rewarded for all of your hard work. You’ll love the sense of pride you get once you’ve established an organized nonprofit that does an excellent job filling a community need.

The post Tips for Creating a Highly Successful Nonprofit Organization appeared first on Verblio.

Recent reports by the United Nations reveal that the world’s population could reach 8.4 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion by 2050, and 10.4 billion by the 2080s. This exponential growth is expected to reach 11.2 billion people by 2100.

As governments work to mitigate the impacts of climate change and the subsequent increase in food insecurity caused by Covid-19, an unanswerable question is emerging; how can we get ready to feed 9.7 billion people by 2050?

Although the food cycle still falls short in satisfying human and natural needs, there are several reasons to remain optimistic about the future. Opportunities to revamp our food and farming infrastructure are increasing as new technologies become widely popular. Legislators, scientists, and business owners can capitalize on these opportunities if they:

1. Uncover the benefits on health, nutrition, the environment, and economies that we ca reap from these technological advances.
2. Identify the downsides, benefits, and knowledge gaps associated with these technological advances.
3. Think about how polished and practical each technology is
4. Pick out the ones with the most revolutionary potential.

Let’s talk more.

The Current Nature of Our Food System

Since the end of World War II, global food and agricultural output have expanded drastically due to population growth, economic development, technological advances, and cultural influence. The increasing global population, income, and urbanization trends have contributed to a rise in the demand for food, which has shifted people’s eating habits.

There is little doubt that the Green Revolution significantly impacted the dominant beliefs and practices now used in agriculture around the world. More food is produced today than in the 1950s, as global yields continuously heightened.

Despite the Green Revolutions’ widespread successes in preventing catastrophic food shortages following World War II, many people still criticize its associated intensification practices. Some people believe that they contributed to environmental ruin, unsustainably high resource consumption, and ingrained reliance on non-renewable resources like fossil fuels.

Intensive practices dominate the current food system. A handful of production, processing and retail players control most of the system and significantly sway policy decisions. For more powerful countries, taking advantage of trade agreement loopholes means providing an unfair competitive advantage over less developed countries. This often breeds dependency and threatens domestic food security.

Meeting the Needs of the Growing Population without Negatively Impacting their Health or the Environment

According to WHO, the proportion of the overweight population currently exceeds the number of malnourished people, and land resources are increasingly being used for other purposes; not for food production. These system shortcomings must be met so we can reorient the food system to fully satisfy the needs of people without infringing on key constraints such as their health.

Moving toward a resilient and sustainable food system requires great research. We must consider the impacts it would have to the current food system, and avoid severe and irreversible impacts at all costs. It’s important we consider preserving global biodiversity, reducing the effects of climate change, managing soil conservation, preserving culture, and protecting human health. If we don’t address and work to modify the core root factors that lead to food shortages, we might face continued negative impacts.

Opportunity in Emerging Technology

The new wave of cutting-edge technologies has enabled us to vastly enhance our food production practices, boost access to health facilities, produce high-quality food, and eliminate food waste in the twenty-first century.

The availability of data fuels the rise of precision technologies that are transforming the agricultural sector. For example, satellites survey and manage crops from space, while robotics and computer vision eradicate weeds from the ground. These innovations allow farmers to use less harmful pesticides, boost soil health, and increase the nutritional value of their produce.

Our food system will undergo dramatic shifts due to biotech developments like new gene editing techniques. This paves way for improved food production quality that is more nutritious and withstanding to harsher growth conditions. Moreover, unlike genetically modified organisms (GMOs), recent gene editing techniques are based on a process that can occur in nature, offering numerous benefits to producers and consumers. For instance, the world’s supply of chocolate would benefit from safeguarding cacao trees from harmful viruses.

Other novel technologies, such as plastic-free and smart packaging, strive to protect the environment and enhance people’s health. This type of packaging is also called biodegradable packaging. It’s made from polymers that microorganisms or bacteria can break down. Thus, consumers who opt not to eat edible packaging will not negatively impact the environment by dumping them because they’ll decompose over time.

Due to their low cost and widespread availability, plastics have been utilized in food packaging across the globe for many decades. In light of recent successes in the fight against climate change, consumers are looking to producers to implement environmentally friendly innovations.

New, innovative approaches to feeding the world have also been developed. For example, food is now being grown in computer-controlled vertical farms. Meat is grown in labs, and eggs are hatched without using chickens. These innovations suggest a deep desire amoungst innovators to improve how we feed the world by giving people more choices and making it less necessary to raise animals for food.

Thus, these and other alternatives entering the market will keep improving, and eventually, they’ll be suited to everyone’s unique tastes and preferences.

Progressing With a Purpose

The decisions that governments make now will be very crucial in the future. Investments in basic science and research and development need to be made to help innovators. New infrastructures must be built to make it possible to scale up new ideas. All over the world, agricultural sectors will need to find new ways to make changes and create new opportunities for farmers at the center of the agenda for change.

Because of the universal nature of technological change, discussions regarding the future of food should be at the forefront of our political discourse. Politicians can sit back and do nothing while this change occurs, or they can take charge and use it to benefit society. If used rightly, the technological revolution can aid in global food production.

The post New Technologies Support Global Food System Changes appeared first on Verblio.

And since content plays a huge role in the growth of your nonprofit organization, it’s crucial to put up some time and thoughts into how to develop the best content. This is what’s referred to as content strategy. Here’s what you should learn about creating an effective nonprofit content strategy.

What is Content Strategy?

A content strategy is a plan that lays out what you’ll be telling people about your organization. It includes everything from how you’ll run your search-engine optimized blogs, what kind of images to post, your social media strategy, and so on. It’s crucial to understand that content does not only refers to written copy but also includes everything from photos, infographics, and videos. Therefore, a content strategy should consist of all these elements to be successful.

When an organization puts up an effective content strategy, it’s easier to undertake the next step of content marketing, which is the “doing” phase of all your plans. In that case, your content strategy should aim at answering the following vital questions:

• What are you trying to accomplish?
• Who is your target audience?
• What type of content will help you reach out to your target audience?
• How will your content support your mission?
• How will your audience differentiate your content?
• How will you promote or amplify your content?
• How will you define your success?

If you can answer these questions, you will be able to build content that aligns with your organization’s goals. Otherwise, you may spend much of your time writing and publishing content that won’t help you achieve your mission.

Why is Content Strategy Crucial for Nonprofit Organizations?

A nonprofit content strategy will help you improve your marketing efforts and attract more supporters. Here are four ways that this can help you achieve these goals:

Boosts Awareness 

Content marketers who set up and implement a content strategy achieve their intended success through improved distribution. A good content strategy defines what kind of channel an organization will use to distribute specific content. Therefore, you can reach out to more places with the right content to meet different audiences. This results in a better awareness of your mission.

Maintains Donors Engagement 

One of the main goals of having a nonprofit content strategy is building a sustainable relationship with your donors. Therefore, simple steps like sending them emails and replying to their comments on social media avenues go a long way toward building meaningful connections.

A content strategy will help you target specific audience segments with particular content they care about using their preferred platforms. Once you’ve established a good relationship, this will steer your donors into long-term giving.

Improves Fundraising Efforts 

An excellent nonprofit content strategy can support your fundraising effort. If your content team can identify the type of fundraising your donors may use, they can easily create content that supports it throughout the year. Adding this with improved engagement and awareness will create a large, trusting, and primed audience ready to give.

Saves You Money

A well-thought-out content strategy ensures that your time, budget, and staff are utilized efficiently to achieve the best results for your organization. It also helps you fine tune your processes over time, considering that you have established a strategy to track and measure data.

3 Tips That Will Help You Develop the Best Nonprofit Content Strategy

The approach you establish for your content strategy defines your chances of success. Here are three major tips that will help you develop an effective content strategy:

Know How to Craft Your Message 

The way you put your message across matters a lot in a nonprofit organization. You must ensure that every piece of content you produce conveys the right message to your audience. Messaging for nonprofit organizations follows three strategies inspire-activate-experience. Inspiration comes from crafting messages that would leave the supporters inspired to be active donors to your organization. It “activates” the donors’ effort into your charity cause. This includes establishing ways to help them raise awareness about your mission and attract other donors.

Once your donors are inspired and activated, giving them an experience is the final step. The best way to do this is by publishing content that shows the actual effect of their donations from photos and stories posted online. This includes using creative ways to post your content, such as posting a series of videos highlighting your cause.

Focusing on the “experience” will help build a strong relationship with the donor and inspire them to begin the process again.

Ensure That Your Organization’s Priorities are Clear 

Your organization’s internal priorities and goals significantly influence your content strategy. You must establish that your organization has authority on a cause to drive people to donate. Therefore, your content strategy should revolve around explaining the needs you intend to impact and how you will impact them. Remember, donors, want to give to a cause they believe is clear with its objectives and has clear strategies to meet them. Otherwise, it won’t be easy to convince potential donors to give to your cause.

Understand Your Intended Audience 

Every nonprofit organization targets specific audiences. Understanding your audience will help you determine what kind of content to create, how to share, and where to post. For instance, if you’re building content that targets young people, your content should be young and trendy. For an older generation, you should expect clear, precise, and thoughtful content highlighting your cause. You should also look for avenues that are easy to reach out to.

Understanding your audience also includes giving your target audience creative ways they can use to raise donations for your cause.

Build Your Nonprofit Content Strategy the Right Way

Establishing a content strategy is undoubtedly the first step to the success of your nonprofit organization. However, it requires knowing how to craft your message, understanding your audience, and ensuring that your audience knows your priorities. It’s easier to meet your content strategies with the help of a professional. We can help you meet your organization’s goals through our top-notch content creation and marketing strategies. Contact us to learn more.

The post 3 Tips For Developing An Effective Nonprofit Content Strategy appeared first on Verblio.

Coloradoans experiencing financial emergencies often find themselves in a position where they need to make severe cutbacks to their budgets, far beyond skipping vacations and trimming back visits to the coffee shop. When savings run out and bills stack up, and it comes down to choosing between paying for kibble and keeping the lights on, many pet owners go to extremes to keep their animals at home. Others have no choice but to surrender their beloved animals to shelters because they’ve exhausted all other options.

Did you know that municipal and private animal shelters can spend more than $400 to place an animal in a new home, but Colorado Pet Pantry can provide food security for a pet—in its owner’s home—for as little as four dollars a month?

Here’s how you can help Colorado Pet Pantry keep pets at home with their families and out of overcrowded shelters.

1. Shop for your pet supplies on our HoundAbout page.

Looking for a snazzy new collar for your pooch? Are you looking for pet gates that don’t make your home look like a set from Orange Is the New Black? 

When you make a purchase on our HoundAbout page, you get great prices on high-quality, name brand products. Everybody wins because 50% of the sale proceeds directly benefit Colorado Pet Pantry! Hundreds of items qualify for free shipping, too.

2. Donate pet food.

Next time you pick up a bag of dog or cat food, consider buying a second bag to donate at any one of 40 locations throughout the state.

Or, has your finicky cat rejected the new food you purchased for her? We provide easy instructions for donating previously opened packages.

3. Purchase pet insurance.

Are you in the market for pet insurance? Consider Healthy Paws Pet Insurance & Foundation. Rated the best pet insurance company in 2015, Healthy Paws covers veterinary care at any licensed vet clinic. When you purchase coverage, Healthy Paws will donate $50 to Colorado Pet Pantry.

4. Chip into our CPP wishlist at Amazon.

We go through a lot of resealable bags when we’re packaging donated pet food, and donation barrels and bins are spendy. With just a couple clicks, you can help stock our distribution and collection materials. You’re saving us valuable time and money, and hey…who doesn’t love finding an unexpected Amazon package on their doorstep?

5. The tried and true…donate funds.

Donations to The Colorado Pet Pantry are tax-deductible, as we are a fully credited 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Please consider signing up for scheduled monthly donations, as a small donation each month can be much easier on your budget than a big one every year, and scheduled donations allow us to better plan ours.

Does your company have a corporate matching program? If they’re not listed here, please ask your employer if they’d be interested in signing up.

6. Volunteer your time.

Volunteers are the heart and soul of CPP, and we’re always looking for help as we expand our service areas. Can you commit to at least three hours each month? We could use a hand at our pet food banks, with transporting donations and with showing your enthusiasm at fundraising events.

We’re also looking for natural-born leaders, willing to manage our growing number of food banks and the outstanding volunteers who step up to staff them.

If you have marketing, event or writing skills, your expertise can help us share our story and promote our fundraising efforts. You may even have mad skills we haven’t realized we need, so if you’re excited to make a difference and work with a great group of people, please reach out to us on our volunteer page!

7. Spread the word.

Do you like what you’ve read so far? Reach out to people who might share your enthusiasm. We’re always looking for new sites for food donation bins, and locations for food banks. You may know of a potential volunteer or donor, or you’ve just learned that a friend or acquaintance member is struggling to keep their family—their whole family—fed.

Thanks for learning about Colorado Pet Pantry!

Food pantries and nutrition programs go a long way to providing stability for our citizens and communities. It makes sense to help our pets, too, when we have so much research supporting the positive benefits animals have on our mental and physical health.

During the most stressful times in our lives, our pets provide stability and companionship. Please help give back by supporting Colorado Pet Pantry, and together we can keep pets out of shelters and at home with the people who love them.

The post 7 Ways To Support Colorado Pet Pantry appeared first on Verblio.

You’ve been telling stories for years — stories of success and triumph, and plenty of hardship and struggle. You know that the most important story for your members, donors, and volunteers to hear is that their efforts and contributions are making an impact.

The best storytelling medium today? Blogging. 

The best medium to get your message out efficiently and consistently is through a blog. Telling your story, building trust, fostering compassion, empowering community, and spreading the word are all powerful uses of a nonprofit’s blog. You can grow your reach and impact by sharing stories this way.

Because of storytelling’s integral role in your nonprofit’s work and narrative, the time is now to share this story with others. With the proliferation of blogging platforms, social media, and nonprofit communities, your story has greater reach than ever before.

Here’s how to do it most effectively as a nonprofit organization:

1. Tell the origin story (if it hasn’t yet been told).

Your origin story is the first step. The motives and passion behind a nonprofit organization’s beginnings can speak volumes about your mission, purpose and show how much you’ve accomplished since.

Sharing your experience shows potential donors, constituents, and volunteers that you have what it takes to succeed and thrive as a nonprofit. The future you see gives people an understanding of where they can help today to reach the organization’s goals of tomorrow.

2. Build trust.

Trust is essential in building your nonprofit’s community. Donors need to trust that their gifts will be used judiciously and volunteers want to know that their work contributes to the organization’s mission.

Your blog can tell the stories of donors and volunteers. For donors, you can share fundraising success stories: how much was raised, profile key community members, where the money went—your community will be appreciative of such transparency. For volunteers, you can showcase previous volunteering efforts: who your volunteers impacted, their role, and exactly how their work contributed to the organization’s success.

And most of all, you share stories of those people who you work tirelessly to assist, advocating the value of your efforts and calling on potential contributors to join the cause, which brings us to…

3. Flex that pathos.

As trust is built, emotion and loyalty will follow. You don’t need us to tell you that pathos and compassion are highly motivational, no doubt, and blogs have the ability to tap emotions in ways few other mediums can.

The stories alone can move others to action. The people and communities your nonprofit impacts can grip and move your audience to action. Oftentimes, simply raising awareness and putting faces to those in need are enough to mobilize potential contributors.

From a practical perspective, the stories and general information in your blog cultivate a specific, emotionally powerful voice unique to your nonprofit, essential for branding. Developing a consistency with your nonprofit’s brand and message will only aid in your efforts.

4. Foster community & empower evangelists of the cause.

As you build trust and passion for the cause on your blog, you can then leverage your blog as the means to grow and rally a community of supporters and partners in spreading the word.

Strive to create an active, engaging, and transformational resource through your blog. Encourage community members to bring their own stories and contribute. Your blog’s community-building efforts will help evangelize your mission and vision while motivating others to do the same.

The post 4 Storytelling Ideas For Nonprofit Organizations To Make An Impact appeared first on Verblio.

The heraldonline reported on the winners and described the competition, launched in 2012, as

an opportunity [for students] to develop solutions for challenges faced by nonprofit organizations. Selected students are paired with Accenture management consultants who work with the students on a pro-bono basis to implement ideas.

Now in its third year, the competition saw a major increase in interest, with over 1,200 applicants across fifteen universities applied. This may be because the program is at a point where it can show off results. Accenture’s 2014 Innovation Challenge partnered with Goodwill Industries International and Usher’s New Look Foundation. The project demonstrated that non-profits can benefit from taking on innovative thinkers still in school.

The winners of this year’s contest will divide into two teams, organized by degree level. Each team will work with a different organization.

Undergraduate students will work with Ashoka, a nonprofit that focuses on bringing together the resources needed to catalyze social change. The students will help this organization develop a model that will work best to fulfill the demands of Ashoka’s mission statement.

The graduate students will work with World Vision International in their goal to fight the root causes of worldwide poverty. The winning students already began developing an education model called Pillars of Clouds, which aims to bridge the learning gaps of impoverished children.

Accenture’s Innovation Challenge applicants demonstrated competency beyond the theoretical. The winners showed a capacity for creative thinking that lead to actively bettering our world.

The post The Innovation Challenge Betters Our World Through Creative Thinking appeared first on Verblio.