Editor’s note: If you live in Southern Arizona and apply for the “Under 30 Change-the-World” prize, please contact the AJP and tell us about your project.
NEW YORK, July 24 – Calling all young Jewish and Israeli social entrepreneurs: here is your chance to help change the world while competing for $1 million in total prizes to realize your dreams. Forbes magazine, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, Case Foundation and other partners today announced the Under 30 Change-the-World Competition, a global social-impact challenge for social entrepreneurs under 30 to advance solutions to global issues.
The Under 30 Change-the-World Competition’s $1 million prize pool is the largest-ever of its kind. Five semi-finalists will win $100,000 cash grants, and the overall winner will receive $500,000 in cash and in-kind grants. The competition will take place during Forbes’ secondUnder 30 Summit, from Oct 4-7 in Philadelphia, where 2,000 young entrepreneurs and game changers are expected to gather.
“We have brought together an amazing coalition of good for a historic competition that we hope will inspire and accelerate a generation of social entrepreneurs,” said Randall Lane, Editor of Forbes magazine, who oversees the Forbes Under 30 Summit and The Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy.
The competition—open to both for-profit and non-profit enterprises already operating—will focus on groundbreaking ideas that can be replicated and make a wider impact worldwide in six categories: education, healthcare, sustainable development, poverty, girls and women empowerment, and inclusivity, equality and coexistence. Applications will be submitted using the HeroX incentive prize platform and then screened by the Social Impact Program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Six semi-finalists will be announced in early September, before competing on the main stage at the Forbes Under 30 Summit in October.
The Under 30 Change-the-World Competition is part of the Schusterman Family Foundation’s broader strategy to invest in social entrepreneurs and influencers who are developing new approaches and partnerships to tackle longstanding global challenges in the Jewish world, Israel and beyond.
“Whenever great minds intersect with great ideas, the potential for positive impact is immense,” said Sandy Cardin, president of the Schusterman Family Foundation. “With the Change-the-World competition, young people in our community will have an incredible opportunity to infuse this inspiring international dialogue with a distinctly Jewish and Israeli dimension—and potentially to gain the support they need to realize their visions for change. We hope to see many Jewish and Israeli social entrepreneurs apply.”
The partners for the Under 30 Change-the-World Competition, each of whom will help select and fund the semi-finalists, are Forbes, Schusterman Family Foundation, Case Foundation, Pratt Foundation, Keywell Foundation and entrepreneur Bob Duggan.
Submissions for the Under 30 Change-the-World Competition will be accepted from July 22 until August 26. The application can be found here: herox.com/Under30.
This year’s Forbes Under 30 Summit is built on the success of a $400,000 entrepreneurs contest at last year’s Under 30 Summit. The winner, socially conscious online marketplace Enrou, quintupled its traffic since winning the contest and credits its exposure at last year’s Summit to its rapid growth.
The Forbes Under 30 Summit will take place October 4-7, 2015, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and other venues in Philadelphia and will feature a full agenda of panels, TED-style presentations, keynotes, as well as mentorship from successful business leaders. For more details on the Forbes Under 30 Summit, please visit www.forbesunder30.com. On Twitter, follow #Under30Summit.
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About the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation
The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation (Schusterman) is a global organization that seeks to ignite the passion and unleash the power in young people to create positive change. Schusterman pursues its mission by working collaboratively with others to support and operate high-quality education, identity development, leadership training and service programs designed to help young people cultivate their growth as individuals and as leaders. Schusterman’s work emphasizes efforts to improve public education in the United States and strengthen the global Jewish community and Israel. For more information, visit www.schusterman.org and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
About Forbes Media:
Forbes Media is a global media, branding and technology company with a focus on news and information about business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership and affluent lifestyles. The company publishes Forbes, Forbes Asia, Forbes Europe and ForbesLife magazines as well as Forbes.com and ForbesLife.com. The Forbes brand reaches more than 75 million people worldwide with its business message each month through its magazines and 37 licensed local editions around the globe, Forbes.com, TV, conferences, research, social and mobile platforms. The Forbes magazine iPad app merges print storytelling with social sharing and the Web. Forbes Media’s brand extensions include conferences, real estate, education, financial services and technology license agreements.
About Wharton Social Impact Initiative (WSII):
The Wharton Social Impact Initiative leverages Wharton’s strengths to develop and promote business strategies for a better world. We use core business competencies to spur strategic and systems-level positive social impact in Philadelphia and around the world. Through our research, consulting, hands-on training and outreach, we are advancing the science and practice of business social impact and developing business leaders who are equipped to lead in an increasingly and interconnected complex world. Established in 2010, our work focuses on impact finance, entrepreneurship, impact analytics and strategic corporate social impact, and incorporates research that leverages Wharton’s analytic horsepower. For more information, visit www.socialimpact.wharton.upenn.edu and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
About HeroX:
Founded in 2013, HeroX exists at the intersection of crowdsourcing, competition and collaboration, using each to drive positive change. A suite of tools and services to help spark and build awareness for new solutions to social and economic challenges, the HeroX incentive prize platform connects funding companies and individuals with problem solvers. For more information, visit http://herox.com.
