Jean Case on White House Blog: Public Sector Prizes in Innovation Democracy

Today, the Case Foundation was proud to co-present “Collaborative Innovation: Public Sector Prizes” with the Joyce Foundation and the White House Office for Science and Technology Policy, bringing together hundreds of leaders from the Administration and federal agencies and some of the most recognizable companies and organizations to discuss how prizes and challenges are sparking innovation and deepening citizen engagement.

We were honored to present the Department of Health and Human Services with the first Award of Excellence in Advancing Public Sector Prizes and Innovation for their commitment to this increasingly used tool to solve some of our country’s most complex problems.

The Case Foundation has long supported prizes (like our America’s Giving Challenge) as a way to ignite community engagement, connect with hard-to-reach populations, spur innovation, and make philanthropy more democratic. The White House has been at the forefront of a similar appreciation of prizes and competitions in the public sector.To find new ideas and solutions for solving a range of challenges, we must be willing to fearlessly experiment and embrace approaches like prizes that produce impact.

For more about the Collaborative Innovation event and the Case Foundation’s support of public sector competitions and prizes, read our CEO Jean Case’s post on the White House blog.

Join us on a Journey to Be Fearless

If you’ve been following the Case Foundation in any of our communication outlets over the past few months-Facebook, Twitter, blog, meetings, etc.-you will know that we’ve been pretty excited about two words: Be Fearless.

Well, today we go from excited to ecstatic because today’s the day we officially kick off our journey to Be Fearless, and invite you to come along for the ride! There are several ways you can participate…here’s how:
CaseFoundation.org/BeFearless

To spark a dialogue on what it means to Be Fearless in the social sector, we are unveiling a new report and interactive website: To Be Fearless. The report, written by leading philanthropy consultants Cynthia Gibson and Brad Rourke, is based on interviews with leading changemakers and an exhaustive landscape analysis of some of the most impactful or promising social movements of our time. The report outlines what we see as the five key elements to any fearless approach to creating change, with the goal of sparking discussion, challenging assumptions and inspiring action. Check out CaseFoundation.org/BeFearless to read highlights of the report, download the full report, share your favorite points and elements with your friends and colleagues, and most importantly, to take the Be Fearless pledge-and just by doing so you could win an iPad preloaded with To Be Fearless or several other fun items specially selected for the Fearless changemaker on the move. 🙂

Jean Case Blog in SSIR

Earlier this year, our CEO Jean Case reflected on 15 years of the Foundation’s work in addressing social challenges, and observed that we and our partners were at our best when we took risks, acted boldly and learned from failures. In other words, we were at our best when we were Fearless. Today, Jean publishes a blog post on Stanford Social Innovation Review previewing the five key elements to Be Fearless, while calling on foundations and other social innovation leaders to join the conversation.

Be Fearless campaign launch LIVE!

This afternoon, we’re gathering with some fearless leaders we admire, to formally release the To Be Fearless paper and site, and to learn from examples of fearlessness in the social good sector, and how moving forward, we can all collaborate in new and innovative ways to make the world a better place. We hope you’ll join us online for the livestreamed event (it starts at 2:00pm ET), which will feature an interview with Jean and Steve Case by CEO of the Aspen Institute and Steve Jobs biographer Walter Isaacson, and a panel discussion with Senator Mark Warner, Barbara Bush, and Tom Tierney. Several lucky viewers will win an autographed copy of Steve Jobs, so tune in and it could be you. You can watch the event below, and we invite you to Be Fearless and join the conversation here on this blog, on Twitter using #BeFearless, or on our Facebook page.

Update: missed the event online? Watch the recording below!

Video streaming by Ustream