To honor 50 years of contributions and volunteers who enable
The Greater Cincinnati Foundation to support nonprofits in the region, the organization decided to launch the
Big Idea Challenge.
“We’re a permanent community institution and plan to be here for at least 50 more years,” says Elizabeth Reiter Benson, GCF’s vice president of communications and marketing. “So we thought about people in the community who aren’t familiar with the foundation or who haven’t been part of our work in the past, and thought about what sort of project or gift to the community we could give that would get more people involved.”
Inspired by a similar challenge in Minnesota, the Big Idea Challenge highlights submissions for potential projects that would make our city better, and allows people living within the community to vote on which idea they would most like to see come to fruition.
Seven different segments of community life are represented in the ideas—everything from cultural vibrancy and education to the environment and health and wellness.
“The category we call Strong Communities received a lot of entries, because a lot of people—when thinking about making the community better—center on community engagement or getting particular groups of people together,” Reiter Benson says. “But I think what was impressive to me in the finalists’ results was really the breadth of ideas. They had things from very specific parts of neighborhoods, all the way to trying to bring the whole region together—almost neighborhood Olympics.”
Voting is open through Sept. 27, and winners will be announced in October, when local nonprofits will be matched up with winning ideas and will receive the funds needed to pilot a project and get the ball rolling.
“We had a goal of about 1,000 votes and already have 3,000, so the community is clearly excited about the opportunity that they get to pick the winner,” Reiter Benson says. “We didn’t know what the response would be, so to have this many people involved in something is really a great fiftieth anniversary gift to us.”
Do Good:
• Read all ideas and
vote for your favorite.
• Like the Big Idea Challenge on
Facebook, and share the page with your friends. Encourage them to vote.
• Continue to check the
site even after winners have been chosen so that you can help keep the ideas in motion.
By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at both the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.