HERE’S HOW THE COMPETITION WORKS:
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Cities take the Challenge
Cities are invited to participate.
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Idea acceleration
The first cities to RSVP receive its own in-person Idea Accelerator workshop, designed to help city leaders strengthen idea development by drawing upon the expertise of the community.
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Cities submit their best idea
Cities complete the initial application describing an urgent challenge and how they will tackle that challenge in an innovative way.
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Cities win innovation funds to test ideas
A select number of Champion Cities are awarded a grant to begin to bring their ideas to life. Champion Cities test and refine these ideas, creating a coast-to-coast civic-solutions laboratory.
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Take it to the next level at Ideas Camp
Champion Cities come together for an intensive workshop with innovation experts and leading urban practitioners from Bloomberg Philanthropies’ global network. Here, competitors became collaborators as cities helped one another improve their ideas.
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Pull it all together
Champion Cities refine their ideas after the testing phase and submit a more detailed application focused on implementation, timelines, partners, and more.
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Win millions
Bloomberg Philanthropies announces the Mayors Challenge winners.
We're In
Ready, Set, Innovate
Announcing the Mayors Challenge Winners
Selection Criteria
Applications are evaluated across four distinct criteria:
Vision
Ideas should be bold, creative, and, importantly, should tackle the most pressing issues facing your city today.
Impact
In order to be successful, ideas should have the potential to significantly improve citizens’ lives.
Implementation
Though implementation plans may not be fully developed, cities must demonstrate their commitment and a viable path to bringing their ideas to life. This includes garnering support from citizens and key stakeholders.
Transferability
Winning ideas will not only be beneficial to the city generating the idea, but also have the potential to spread – and succeed in – other cities. Issues addressed should be timely and relevant. We are looking for approaches that address problems other cities face. Other cities should be able to import and adapt the best ideas to benefit their own citizens.
2018 SELECTION COMMITTEE
The expert panel was assembled to help Bloomberg Philanthropies select the 35 Champion Cities, and ultimately, award $9 million in prizes. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and Ursula Burns, Executive Chairman of Veon, Ltd. and retired Chairman and CEO of Xerox, co-chaired the Committee, which is comprised of innovation and policy experts from across the United States.
Selection Committee Co-Chairs
Ursula Burns
Executive Chairman, Veon Ltd.
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation
Ursula Burns
Executive Chairman, Veon Ltd.
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xerox Corporation
Ursula Burns is the Retired Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Xerox Corporation. Burns is the Chairman of the Board of VEON Ltd and a director of American Express, Exxon Mobil, Nestle, Datto, and Diageo. Burns also provides leadership counsel to the Ford Foundation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Corporation, Cornell Tech Board of Overseers, the New York City Ballet, and the Mayo Clinic. Burns is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Caroline Kennedy
Ambassador
Caroline Kennedy
Ambassador
Caroline Kennedy is an attorney who served as the United States Ambassador to Japan. Kennedy is the author or editor of eleven New York Times best-selling books on law, civics, and poetry. She is Honorary President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and Honorary Chair of the Senior Advisory Committee of the Harvard University Institute of Politics. Kennedy also served as Vice Chair of the Fund for Public Schools.
Selection Committee Members
Kimberly Bryant
Founder, Black Girls Code
Kimberly Bryant
Founder, Black Girls Code
Kimberly Bryant is Founder & CEO of Black Girls CODE, a non-profit dedicated to introducing girls of color (ages 7-17) to technology and computer science. Prior to starting Black Girls CODE, Kimberly spent more than 20 years as an Engineering Manager for Fortune 50 companies such as Genentech, Merck, and Pfizer.
Anna Deavere Smith
Actress, Playwright, Professor
Anna Deavere Smith
Actress, Playwright, Professor
Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, and professor. She is a University Professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Smith has received the National Humanities Medal presented by President Obama, the MacArthur Award, a George Polk Award in Journalism, The Ridenhour Courage Prize and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award.
Manny Diaz
Former Mayor of Miami, Former President of US Conference of Mayors
Manny Diaz
Former Mayor of Miami, Former President of US Conference of Mayors
Manny Diaz is the Former Mayor of the City of Miami, Florida, and former President of the United States Conference of Mayors. Diaz transformed Miami and launched nationally innovative programs in urban design, sustainability, and education. He is on the Board of Directors of Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Shaun Donovan
Former Director of U.S. Office of Management and Budget
Shaun Donovan
Former Director of U.S. Office of Management and Budget
Shaun Donovan is the former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under President Obama. Donovan previously served as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2009-2014). He also served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, worked in the private sector on financing affordable housing, and was a visiting scholar at New York University.
Rosanne Haggerty
CEO, Community Solutions
Rosanne Haggerty
CEO, Community Solutions
Rosanne Haggerty is the President and CEO of Community Solutions. An expert on homelessness, she is also a MacArthur Fellow, Ashoka Senior Fellow, Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur and recipient of the National Design Award and Jane Jacobs Award.
Arianna Huffington
Founder of HuffPost and Founder & CEO of Thrive Global
Arianna Huffington
Founder of HuffPost and Founder & CEO of Thrive Global
Arianna Huffington is the Founder of HuffPost and Founder and CEO of Thrive Global. Her last two books, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder and The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night At A Time, both became instant international bestsellers.
Mukti Khaire
Girish and Jaidev Reddy Professor of Practice, Cornell Tech
Mukti Khaire
Girish and Jaidev Reddy Professor of Practice, Cornell Tech
Mukti Khaire is the Girish and Jaidev Reddy Professor of Practice at Cornell Tech. and the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. Prior to joining Cornell Tech, Mukti taught entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School and was visiting faculty at Brown University. Her recent book, ‘Culture and Commerce: The Value of Entrepreneurship in Creative Industries,’ was published by Stanford University Press.
Vijay Kumar
Professor, Author, Consultant, Advisor
Vijay Kumar
Professor, Author, Consultant, Advisor
Vijay Kumar is a professor, author, consultant and advisor to Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, social organizations, and governments. Kumar is a professor at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. For more than 12 years he was the chief methodologist at Doblin (now a member of Deloitte) a leading global innovation firm.
John Minor Jr.
President and Chief Investment Officer of JobsOhio
John Minor Jr.
President and Chief Investment Officer of JobsOhio
John Minor is President and Chief Investment Officer at JobsOhio. John has 14 years of investment banking experience, advising companies on strategic and capital raising transactions. John was a Managing Director at Evercore Partners and a senior Vice President in the Financial Institutions Group at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital.
Dr. Vivek Murthy
19th Surgeon General of the United States
Dr. Vivek Murthy
19th Surgeon General of the United States
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy is the 19th Surgeon General of the United States. As the Vice Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, he launched the TurnTheTide campaign, catalyzing health professionals to address the nation’s opioid crisis. An internal medicine physician and entrepreneur, Dr. Murthy has co-founded a number of organizations: VISIONS, an HIV/AIDS education program in India; Swasthya, a community health partnership in rural India; software company TrialNetworks; and Doctors for America.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein
Associate Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein
Associate Dean, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein is the Inaugural Director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, Professor of the Practice, and Associate Dean for Public Health Practice and Training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He previously served as the Health Commissioner of Baltimore, as the Health Secretary of Maryland, and as the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.