Everything You Need To Know About The Google Impact Challenge #GICAfrica

Overview

On Wednesday 23 May, Google will be launching the 2018 Africa Global Impact Challenge, an Africa-wide competition to find the most innovative not-for-profit African organisations using technology to solve societal problems in Africa.

 

At Google for Nigeria, Google CEO, Sundar Pichai announced a $20M commitment from Google.org over the next 5 years to support nonprofits who are working to improve lives across the African continent. As part of this commitment, Google.org will invest $6M to run three Google Impact Challenges in Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya, as an open call for nonprofits and social enterprises. Together with the grants to be awarded, awardees will also be getting training and mentorship to help them push their ideas to the conclusion.

 

In each country, there will be 4 winners receiving a $250k grant each: 3 of these winners will be selected by a judge panel made up of high level policy targets and KOF’s in each market, one winner will be selected through a public vote. Additionally, 8 runners-up will receive a $125k grant each. The final winner selection / award ceremonies will be held during the week of November 26th inLagos, Johannesburg and Nairobi.

 

Why this matters to Google?

Many African innovators are doing great work with real impact and Google is keen to shine a light on their work, and also give a financial boost to their projects and ideas. We believe technology can help local and national organisations to better reach their goals and solve some of the continent’s most pressing challenges, and Google is eager to provide support to individuals and organizations using technology in new ways to make a positive difference.

 

Timelines and dates

• May 23  – Applications open
• July 4 – Applications close
• July 5 – Application review starts
• Oct 15 – Finalists selected and notified
• Nov 5 – Public voting opens
• Nov 25 – Public voting closes
• Week of Nov 26 – Final event & judge winners selected

 

How to apply:

Application sites available from May 23rd can be found as follows. After the twelve finalists are selected, the site will feature them and encourage the public to vote for their favorite.

• Kenya: g.co/kenyachallenge
• Nigeria: g.co/nigeriachallenge
• South Africa: g.co/southafricachallenge

 

Judges

 

• Eghosa Omoigui- Managing General Partner, EchoVC Partners

 

1. John Momoh- Chairman and CEO of Channels Media Group
2. Juliet Ehimuan- Country Director, Google Nigeria
3. Kanu Nwankwo OON- Ex Footballer and Founder of Kanu Heart Foundation
4. Leo Stan Ekeh- Chairman and CEO of Zinox Technologies
5. MI Abaga – Rapper and CEO of Chocolate City Music Group
6. Mo Abudu- Chairman and CEO of EbonyLife TV
7. Oluseyi Oyebisi- Philanthropist and Executive Director of Nigeria Network of NGOs
8. Parminder Vir OBE – Chief Executive Officer, Tony Elumelu Foundation

 

Criteria for Assessment:

• Community Impact: Does the proposed project create economic opportunity in Nigeria? Does it improve the lives of people in our country?
• Innovation: Does the project present unexpected solutions to unmet needs?
• Reach: Does it have the potential to scale directly or to serve as a model for other communities? Will its scope grow over time?
• Feasibility: Is the project plan (or business plan) well thought-out, and the team well-equipped to execute on it?

 

About Google.org

 

What is Google.org?

Google.org, Google’s philanthropy, supports charitable organizations that apply scalable, data-driven approaches to solving the world’s biggest challenges. Through the efforts of the Google.org team, Google helps nonprofits accelerate their progress by providing funding, products, and technical expertise from Google volunteers with a focus on education, economic opportunity, inclusion and crisis response.

 

Google.org seeks out and supports nonprofits who are innovating and using technology to combat the world’s biggest challenges

• Google.org’s focuses on Education, Economic Opportunity, and Inclusion as pillars of its corporate giving, and responds in real time to global crises and natural disasters.
• Through Google.org-led initiatives, Google helps to accelerate the progress of innovative nonprofits by connecting them to the best of Google and help them scale by investing in their vision.
• In addition to grants, Google employees also  contribute their skills to help our grantees realize their projects.

 

The Google.org offering provides the best of Google to grantees. This includes both financial resources + Google resources (Cash + Google).

 

Each year:

 

• Funding: Over $100 million in grants to support breakthrough innovation and technology with the potential to scale.

• Expertise: Googler volunteers spend 250,000+ hours with nonprofits––bringing their passion and engineering expertise to accelerate progress.

• Technology : A range of free products and services are designed to serve the unique needs of nonprofits, and amplify their impact.

 

 

Supporting innovative nonprofits

We identify nonprofits using technology and innovation to tackle complex global challenges. While every project is different, these organizations tend to have a few things in common.

 

• Address inequities – We look for nonprofit innovators who understand the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations in their own communities– and around the world. These innovators create new and unexpected solutions to address inequities.
• Solve like engineers – When ideas aren’t backed by data and research, impact is harder to achieve and measure. We look for teams that break down large problems into small ones, and then test and iterate solutions. They share our belief that technology and innovation can accelerate change across the nonprofit sector.
• Bring change to everyone – The best ideas positively impact as many people as possible. We look for leaders who have bold, ambitious ideas. They open source their technology. They build models with the potential to scale. They speak publicly about their successes and failures so that others can learn and benefit.

 

And then we build the right toolkit

We help grantees scope projects to ensure they have the resources to sustain and scale. In addition to funding, we connect our grantees to tools, products, and technical expertise from Google volunteers that accelerate their progress.

 

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