Community Changemaker Challenge
A Pitch Competition with a Theme:
Make Evansville More Fun and Exciting!
- We are looking for fun, whimsical, creative, or interesting new ways to increase the fun factor for our city.
- Ideas could include events, activities, businesses, art installations, or anything else you can imagine.
- The idea should be something you are willing to create or do if you can get the right resources and guidance.
Prize
The final four teams will each:
- Receive $1,000 in prize money to be used as they wish.
- Have the chance to pitch their ideas to real community investors in a televised "Shark-Tank"-style format on WNIN.
Who Can Compete
Anyone can be a changemaker! Form a team (no individual entries) to compete. We strongly encourage multi-generational teams, and hope to see kids working with adults on ideas! Talk to your kids (kids: talk to adults!) and put a team together.
- Age Pre K-99 (or beyond)!
- Any walk of life!
- Teams can be from anywhere: a non profit, a school, a business, a government entity, a 4-H or Boys & Girls Club or anyone / anywhere else. The number of people who can pitch on TV will be limited at a later point, but form whatever size team you need to do the work!
Guidelines
- Your idea must clearly address the theme of “Making Evansville More Fun and Exciting.”
- Community investors want to understand what outcomes their funds will have on the community, so be sure to address the anticipated impact of your idea.
- We encourage submissions that are:
- Innovative
- Feasible
- Sustainable year after year
- Have people from different age groups
Funding request
You may pitch for funding to help start your event, purchase supplies, get a business off the ground, or any other reasonable costs associated with getting your idea on its way to implementation. The maximum amount any team can request is $10,000. We encourage you to request less than that, however, as it will be much more likely that our investors will fund things at lower levels such as $2,500-$5,000 or even less. Many of the best ideas don’t take a lot to get started!
Interested? Here is your first step:
Some Sources of Inspiration
Peter Kageyama is author of two great books that are very relevant (see below). He encourages people who care about their cities to write them “love notes.” A love note can be just about anything from a large-scale community painting to a small treasure hunt for mice to a ritual event to an exciting new food truck to a playground for millennials or anything else you can imagine.
A few examples from around the world, which Peter Kageyama calls “Love Notes to a City” - we are looking for love notes to Evansville!
Some examples that cost less than $2000
Mice on Main
Greenville, South Carolina: For his senior project at Christ Church Episcopal School in 2000, Jim Ryan proposed the idea of installing a family of nine unique mice sculptures in surprising places along Greenville's Main Street from the Hyatt to the Westin Poinsett Hotel. His original idea spun from the book, Goodnight Moon, which he and his mom read every night when he was small. There are nine mice pictured in that story. Ryan made his way through the red tape involved in any city project and then raised the money, with the assistance of donors and the mayor, to complete his project. The mice have become a popular attraction downtown, with many people engaging in scavenger hunts, or bringing out-of-town guests to try and find them all.
RainWorks
Seattle, Washington: Positive messages that appear on the sidewalk when it rains, with a mission of turning rainy days into something to look forward to! People go on Rainy Day Scavenger Hunts and can submit their own ideas.
From: https://rain.works/
Office Phone
812-488-2455
Office Email
centerforinnovation@evansville.edu
Office Location
Rooms 270-274, Ridgway University Center
