Application
Propose your solution to create a stronger Arizona.
Thank you for participating in the Common Good Challenge. We recommend reading all requirements before you begin. Portions of this application, including but not limited to: Project Title, Project Overview and Video Presentation, may be published on this website. The remainder of your application will be viewed by the Common Good Challenge team, peer reviewers, Evaluation Panel judges, and the Selection Committee.
Please enter your responses to the Application questions in English. This provides consistency across all entries during our review process and reduces the risk of translation error or misinterpreting an application.
Be sure to review your application as it will appear after it’s been submitted (link at the bottom of the page) and confirm your changes have been saved. When you have completed all of the requirements, a message will be displayed on the screen. At that point, you can submit your final application.
Once you have submitted the application, you will no longer be able to make changes and the status on your dashboard will confirm submission (you will not receive an automated email confirmation).
You must submit your application no later than Wednesday, January 18 2023, at 5:00 PM Mountain Time.
The Common Good Challenge embraces the idea that society is stronger when people with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences work together to develop meaningful solutions to complex problems. At a time when significant attention is paid to breakdowns in civil discourse and persistent pressures on our democracy, this competition honors and invests in projects that advance dialogue and cooperation across social, economic, political, racial, and other boundaries to solve specific community challenges.
Please provide a title for your proposal.
This is your opportunity to make a strong first impression. Provide a clear and compelling explanation of your solution. Avoid using jargon, abbreviations, or language that a layperson may not understand. Your Quick Pitch is a brief statement that each evaluator will read to develop an initial understanding of your proposed solution. As a reminder: Quick Pitch, along with other portions of your application, may also be shared publicly on this website and other materials related to this competition.
Please explain how your solution will bring stakeholders with diverse perspectives together to address a complex or persistent challenge facing your community. How will you bring together a diverse team to advance dialogue and cooperation across boundaries to solve a problem? How will your solution help bridge divides caused by breakdowns in civil discourse and pressures on our democracy to create a stronger Arizona? Identify where you intend to apply your solution within Arizona specifically.
You are required to submit a video that captures your project and why it should be funded. The video is an opportunity to showcase your passion and to pitch your story in a succinct format. We want you to share your vision with the judges in a way that is different from the written proposal format. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video.
In order to complete this part of your application, your team will upload a short digital film using YouTube.
Set the Privacy Settings on your video to Public or Unlisted – do not set them to Private.
Your video may be extracted from your submission and made available to the public and other donors. Appeal to a broad audience. Video submissions should follow these guidelines or your application may be disqualified:
Here are general suggestions for delivering a high-quality video pitch:
The following information is required to capture a basic understanding of the structure, management, and talent of your project team.
Describe your organization and the work that you do. Why is this work important to your organization? How are you uniquely qualified to address your identified community challenge and to serve as the lead applicant on this proposal?
If your team consists of two or more organizations, please list them using the legal name of each partner. If your team does not consist of two or more partners, please enter “Not Applicable.”
The Common Good Challenge focuses on who is coming together to work united against an identified common community challenge, and encourages diverse, creative, cross-sector partnerships. After careful review of the scoring criteria, please provide a brief narrative of the structure of your partnerships, including any decision-making authority relevant to the identified community challenge between the parties. Partnerships may include one or more nonprofit organizations, for-profit ventures, and/or government entities as secondary partners. If you do not have any partners, please answer with N/A.
Consider your full project team, including your organization as the lead applicant, and the role(s) of the key staff, including relevant partners. Describe the project team’s leadership and experience as relates to this proposal, with particular emphasis on your relationship to and expertise regarding the identified community challenge. If relevant, include details about how and why any collaborations were formed. Explain the extent to which your team reflects the diversity of the communities you will be impacting, how your team is uniquely positioned to deliver results, and why it is the best choice to tackle this problem.
For each of the top three individuals responsible for the success of the project, please provide a name (First/Last), the name of the organization the individual is affiliated with, and a brief biographical statement of up to 100 words. The biographical statement should include each individual’s title and emphasize those credentials and experiences which are most relevant to the project.
Key Staff #1:
Key Staff #2:
Key Staff #3:
In this section, you will describe how your proposed solution will bridge divides and create a stronger Arizona. Take time to underscore both the specific strengths of your strategic approach and how your proposed implementation will impact target communities.
Describe in detail the specific issue you have identified in your community and are working to address. Outline how your understanding of the issue was informed by community voices and input, and why your team has chosen to focus on this specific issue. Use data to describe the scope of the problem and focus on how bringing together a diverse team in coalition can help arrive at a solution or proposed solution.
Where are you currently implementing your solution? Select up to five locations that apply. If you are not currently implementing your project, you may select NOT APPLICABLE.
Where do you plan to implement your solution if awarded this grant? Select up to five locations that apply. These locations may or may not be the same as the locations where you are currently implementing your solution.
Describe your community and where your solution will focus. What divides currently exist? What additional challenges are there that may be impacted by your proposed solution? What unique assets and strengths exist that you hope to highlight, maintain, or build on through this work?
Earlier in the application, you were asked to provide a Quick Pitch for your proposed solution. Now, you have an opportunity to expand and provide more detail. How was your proposed solution informed by community voices and input? What is the connection between your proposed solution and the common good of your community? What makes your approach innovative and different from existing solutions?
Describe the projected measurable outcomes of your proposed solution and how you will define success. If applicable, include the number of communities and/or people you expect to reach, the specific impact on those communities, and the long-term effect of your solution. How do you intend to measure this impact? As you assert any claims, make your case and share evidence that your proposed solution will work.
Communities are stronger when people of all backgrounds work together in coalition. How do you plan to engage and work with community stakeholders throughout the process to ensure meaningful inclusion, buy-in, and long-term success? How are you bringing people from diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences together?
We believe that bringing multiple voices and perspectives to the table is the best way to solve community problems and take full advantage of emerging opportunities as well as local talent and potential. We also expect teams to think carefully about how to actively plan for and include the most marginalized and/or vulnerable from within those populations in solutions design, program planning, and ongoing work. Explain how you will ensure, or have ensured, that the design and implementation of your solution authentically reflects the values of diversity and inclusion in regards to race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and ability.
While the information provided in the previous section is intended to reveal strategic and practical implementation plans for your proposed solution, we also require other information necessary for our judges to understand the financial needs and feasibility of your proposal. You are required to submit a comprehensive budget and complementary explanations for the $100,000 award.
Offer a general overview for how you would use the $100,000 award. Your budget narrative description should include, in broad terms, total projected needs by category.
Provide specific line items from your budget narrative (above) for your work. To help us understand your organization's priorities, please provide a detailed budget for how you would spend the $100,000 grant if you received it today. Please make sure that any funds identified in this table reflect and clarify your general explanations provided in your budget narrative. Budgets must equal $100,000.
Does your proposed solution require resources in addition to the $100,000 award? If so, please explain what specific types of non-financial resources would be helpful as your organization(s) implemented your proposed solution. If you have already secured additional resources for your proposed solution, both financial and non-financial, please describe them here.
Please describe how resources will be mobilized to establish a viable funding base for your proposed solution. How will you ensure financial sustainability, specifically as it relates to your solution’s scalability? If you feel your approach does not require recurring financial support or your proposed solution is not intended to be sustained, please describe why this is the case.
Describe your expected timeline and milestones for your proposed project. For each task, please provide a brief description, a start date and an end date. As part of your description, explain the milestones that you intend to measure and any key activities critical to reaching those milestones to know if you are successful or on track to be successful.
Describe any barriers to success of the initiative. In your response, include internal as well as external political, technological, and social factors, or any potential unintended consequences you imagine might result from your proposed solution, and your plan to address those barriers or consequences. Discuss your experience and capacity to manage them.
If there is any other information you would like reviewers to consider, please include it here.
The following questions are intended for applicants that are for-profit organizations. Nonprofits may enter “Not Applicable.”
What is the charitable purpose of your project? Describe how the public or a subset of the public, which is a defined charitable class, will benefit from your project. A charitable class must generally be an indefinite number of individuals who are the beneficiaries of the charitable purpose and not a finite number of specified individuals. For example, the class can be needy persons within a disadvantaged community, but not a specified identifiable individual or a finite group of identifiable individuals in the community, even if that individual or finite group is disadvantaged (e.g., “needy individuals in ABC Community” vs. “the Smith Family”).
PRIVATE BENEFIT (150 words)
Will private interests (such as shareholders, for-profit companies, contractors, consultants, or other individuals) benefit more than incidentally from your project as compared to the public or the charitable class?
If your project will trigger any private benefit to one or more individuals, provide an explanation of how the overarching public benefit cannot be achieved without necessarily benefiting those individuals and to what degree any private benefit compares to the public benefit. It is insufficient to say that benefits gained will be due to all of humanity benefitting.
If your project will not benefit any private interests, provide an explanation of how your project benefits only the public.
Does your project involve any efforts to effect public policy through changes in existing legislation or the enactment of new legislation?
Does your project require lobbying activities with respect to a specific legislative proposal?
If your project does involve any of the above lobbying activities, explain how the project involves any lobbying activities and if the project can be accomplished without lobbying. If not, what percentage of the project will be lobbying activities?
If your project does not involve any lobbying activities, then simply enter “Not Applicable.”
