March 3, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Amazon.com has announced a new award to honor nonprofit organizations that are taking innovative approaches to solving problems.
Charities will be evaluated on the urgency and relevancy of the problem they seek to solve, the creativity of the strategies they employ, and their record of results. Judges will also review the organizations’ analysis of the gap between the problem or need they are trying to tackle and existing solutions, as well as their plans for fostering future innovation.
“We really want to focus on the inventiveness of the solution and how it breaks from traditional approaches,” says Jani Baker, a spokeswoman for Amazon.com, the online retailer.
Stanford Business School’s Center for Social Innovation will review the applications and select a set of semifinalists. Out of that mix, 10 finalists will be chosen by a panel of judges Amazon has assembled that includes Muhammad Ali, Henry Kissinger, and Jeff Bezos, the Seattle company’s chief executive officer.
All 10 finalists will be profiled on the company’s Web site. From July 19 until September 30, Amazon customers will have the opportunity to make online donations to the charities, and the one that raises the most money will win the award. Amazon will match the amount of money donated to the winning nonprofit organization, up to $1-million.
According to Ms. Baker, the company’s success helping the American Red Cross raise money after September 11 and after the tsunamis in South Asia influenced the design of the awards competition. More than $6-million was contributed through the site after the 2001 terrorist attacks, and more than $15-million was contributed after the disaster in South Asia.
Applications for the innovation award are due April 28. Semifinalists will be named in May.
For more information: Go to http://www.amazon.com/nonprofitinnovation.
