Guidelines for Entry

Changing Lives Through Football

With 2 weeks to go and over a 110 entries, the race to win a share of the $90,000 prize fund is very close. On May 11^th, two innovators who are already affecting social change through football won our early entry prize:

Fútbol con Corazón – Colombia Fútbol Con Corazón is a grass-roots social change model that utilizes soccer's calling power to provide new life opportunities for 1,800 vulnerable boys and girls, aged 5-16, in Colombia's Caribbean coast, who live below the poverty line.

Team Iraq - Team Iraq uses the power of football to bring together young people from all ethnic, religious and social backgrounds, through a number of football-related initiatives with emphasis on creating local youth led programs to help develop and empower and ultimately employ young people.

When submitting an application, the focus needs to be on:

• Innovation: This is the knock-out test; if the work is not innovative the judges will not give it high rankings. The application must describe the systemic innovation that it is focused on. The innovation should be a unique model of change demonstrating a substantial difference from other initiatives in the field with the possibility for large-scale expansion.
  
• Social Impact: It is important that the innovative idea provides a system-changing solution for the field it addresses. Some innovations will have proven success at a small level, while others will have potential to grow, engaging millions of people. Still others will achieve their impact quickly, while some will seed change for the long term. Regardless of the level of demonstrated impact, it is important to see that the innovation has the ability to be applied. Social Impact will be judged by considering the scale strategy, ability to be replicated, and the entrant's ability to formulate a clear "road map" to reaching larger goals.
  
• Sustainability: For an innovation to be truly effective it must have a plan for how it will acquire financial and other bases of support for the long-term. Entries should describe not only how they are currently financing their work, but also how they plan to finance their work in the future. The most successful entrants go beyond discussing whether or not they will charge for services and describe a business plan. They should also demonstrate that they have strong partnerships and support networks to address an on-going need, and to aid in scalability and the maintenance of a clear financial strategy.
  

Additionally, it is important that the application is written well, using straight forward and clear language. Applications can be submitted in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese.

Please complete the entire entry form http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/80898/edit
and submit by June 11, 2010, 5PM US EST. All decisions of the judges will be final.