AFI Competition Information

Welcome Letter

Action For India invites you to participate in our first ever social innovation competition!

We know that India is full of ingenious and resilient entrepreneurs working at the grassroots level to solve urgent social problems in a variety of sectors. But in a country of over 1.2 billion people - most with unmet basic human needs - we need solutions that scale. At Action For India our goal is to help entrepreneurs overcome barriers to scaling their innovative solutions. Learn more about us at our website.

The purpose of this Growth Prize competition is to identify five social entrepreneurs who demonstrate progress in scaling - or preparing to scale - their ventures during a 6-month period. Growth Prizes will be awarded in five sectors: education, healthcare, agriculture, energy and livelihoods. Winners will each receive INR 5L in funding, plus a bundle of free IT, legal, accounting and consulting services. All participants will also benefit from this opportunity to grow and promote their enterprise using the globally recognized Ashoka platform for social innovation, and will be invited to participate in the 2013 AFI National Forum.

To enter, create an online “ChangeShop” in May. Then, return regularly to this site during the competition period to report your growth. To see what’s involved, take a look at the three Featured Changeshops on our page who have graciously set up their model shops early. In December our panel of judges will review the progress made by each entry in the 6-month period, and select five winners. These winners will be announced at our 2nd Annual Forum in January 2013.

We are very excited to be able to offer this competition in partnership with Ashoka’s Changemakers platform and hope you will participate.

Good luck!

Sanjay Kadaveru
President/Founder
Action For India

Overview

Who should enter:

If you are a young social innovator with an idea, product or enterprise that addresses an unmet need in India, we want to hear from you! We are seeking organizations with a social mission, that are poised to scale, and that have the following characteristics:

1. Leveraging technology or considering how technology can help increase their reach
2. Have a Founder/CEO younger than 40 years of age
3. Operating in one of the following sectors - agriculture, education, energy, healthcare and livelihoods

The competition is open to innovators in the private, public and social sectors, but you must be working in India.

Why you should enter:

• Access resources and support for scaling your enterprise.
• Connect to a community that supports the impact you are making, or seeking to make.
• Gain visibility within the AFI network and the Changemakers community.
• Position yourself as a candidate for a Growth Prize

What you can win:

• One of five cash prizes of INR 5L
• A bundle of free services including:
  • Hiring/employee assessment services from Aspiring Minds
  • Mentoring for internet strategy from Bharat Matrimony
  • Financial structuring services from Enarr Capital
  • One full-time intern for one year from IDEX Fellows

How to enter:

• Create a changeshop
• Submit the competition entry form
• Read through the following tips about how to make your entry stand out.

>> Watch an introductory video here. <<

Read on to learn more about how you can win...

Competition Guidelines

The competition is open to individuals, teams, and organizations with innovations or enterprises operating in India. We welcome entries in any stage of development, from concept to maturing, though being able to demonstrate impact at some level is helpful for judging purposes. In particular we seek entries:

• With significant impact potential
• Where technology plays a central role in the innovation itself, or in its strategy for achieving scale
• Where collaboration with government or an existing delivery system is a feature

Please complete your Changeshop and submit an entry form by Midnight IST on June 1, 2012.

Assessment Criteria

Winners of AFI’s Growth Prize will be those young social innovators (see “Who Should Enter”) that show progress along a pathway to achieving significant scale. Your entry must achieve at least some of your growth milestones during the competition period. To evaluate this our judges will consider the “Full Impact Potential” of the enterprise, progress made during the competition period towards achieving that impact, as well as a third criterion - contributions to the AFI network.

• Full Impact Potential. What - if money or resources were not an obstacle - would be the impact of your solution? Do you understand and can you articulate the potentially systems-changing impact you could create? Do you have the confidence and self-permission to deliver that impact? This information should be clearly stated in the "summary" tab of your changeshop, and identified as the ultimate milestone on your growth tracker.

 

• Growth during competition period. How much more effectively are you articulating your strategy and model? What systems, personnel and partnerships have you put in place? To what extent have you hit the impact milestones you set out to accomplish? Judges will look for this data in three places:
1. Impact reports that demonstrate your progress towards stated milstones;
2. Modifications to your Changeshop and Growth Tracker to demonstrate an evolving understanding of your operation and next steps; and
3. Needs posted to the broader Changemakers community, demonstrating an sense of your operational challenges and a willingness to overcome them.
• Contribution to the AFI community. What are you doing to document your model and needs and engage with other community members.

The judges don’t expect you to achieve your full impact potential in the next 6 months (though of course it would be great!) but will look for progress. Set your milestones by June 1st. During the competition return to your shop and update your Growth Tracker to reflect your progress. Note that in addition to just typing in your progress you can also upload evidence, such as photos, press, videos, etc.

>> Watch a video explaining the criteria here. <<

Competition Deadlines

Competition entrants are accepted until Midnight IST on June 1, 2012.

There are four main phases in the competition:

• Entry Period, May 1 – June 1, 2012: At any time before this deadline, participants are encouraged to revise or improve their Changeshops.
• Growth Period, June 1 - December 1, 2012: Make sure to visit your Changeshop regularly to update your growth tracker
• Review and Judging, December 2012: A panel of expert judges and a team of Ashoka staff select the competition finalists, and winners.
• Winners Announced, January 19, 2013: Five winners will be named at the AFI Forum and each receive a cash prize of INR 5L and a bundle of free services.