global pitch 2020
At this year's Global Pitch, 100% of our finalists' projects were awarded funding, thanks to the generosity of our judges!
Check out our winning teams below to learn about the impact they're making in their communities and around the world.
2020 WINNERS
Hutchins 4 Homeless
HUTCHINS 4 HOMELESS (AUSTRALIA)
The Hutchins 4 Homeless Changemaker Project is the creation and operation of a community garden in Central Hobart, with the primary aim of supporting our homeless community. We are in the process of developing this garden, which will generate income and fresh produce for homeless people working in the garden, while also improving the community. We have engaged with local businesses and council groups, hoping to expand our reach to local homeless shelters. Our project can and will make a change in the community but it is only one step towards solving the issue of homelessness in Hobart.
ISH connects
Our project addresses loneliness among elders. Certainly now during the lockdown in most countries due to Corona but also before many elders struggle with loneliness. Some main reasons are that they have lost people close to them or fallen out of touch with family members. The aim of our project is to connect these elders with each other and their families through a website where they can play games from their past and chat with friends. We hope that this website elders can reconnect with each other and feel like they can become a part of society again.
Project Rakt
PROJECT RAKT (INDIA)
To address widespread anemia- a public health and gender inequality issue- in nearby villages, we incorporated inputs from social workers, non-profits, doctors, women-leaders, and government functionaries in our intervention, which has so far entailed administering a preliminary blood screening and commencing an awareness campaign. Currently, we work remotely to prepare for further steps such as open-discussions, workshops and curriculum development in schools, feasibly adapting local recipes to more nutritious versions, and establishing a system for regular nutritional supplement distribution through government workers, among other measures. Our model will later be replicated to encompass several other surrounding villages in the region.
Poster Group
POSTER GROUP (NORWAY)
The problem we want to solve is the lack of visual educational material for students at the Christian Advent School in Liberia. All they have are blackboards to support their growth and education. Our plan is to both buy and design educational posters to bring the students visual material in order to improve their learning and help them achieve their full potential at the school. This is something that they can benefit from later in life. To make this a reality we ask for 300 USD to finance the creation and locally print the material for the students to use.
Crescendo Connect
CRESCENDO CONNECT (USA)
Music positively affects every life that it touches. Studies demonstrate that playing music on a regular basis can reduce stress and even raise IQ. Sadly, learning music is often expensive and is almost exclusively available to the upper and middle classes of America. With Crescendo Connect, we seek to offer everyone the chance to learn music. Crescendo Connect is a website which seeks to link students of all socio-economic backgrounds with music. Students can find local professional instructors or volunteers willing to teach for free. Not only that, but users can also access cheap or donated instruments in their area.
All Clean
ALL CLEAN (GHANA)
All Clean is a project which was started by Gerald and Peter to address the sanitation needs of local market women in Ghana. We realized the need for better sanitation conditions for market women in these market areas. As a result, we interviewed some market women and noticed that there are some sanitation facilities available such as toilets. However, these facilities are outdated and are not very well maintained. We think this is important because bad sanitation would lead to poor health, increase tendency to gain diseases among others. Therefore, we decided to help renovate this place in line with good hygiene and to help run it in a sustainable manner.
PEOPLE'S CHOICE AWARD WINNER!
Armenia Without Abuse
ARMENIA WITHOUT ABUSE (ARMENIA)
Domestic violence is a huge issue in Armenia. And little is being done. Many women who face such abuse are afraid to speak up because of the stigma around it. We want to raise awareness for the problem by producing a documentary, interviewing various stakeholders including NGOs, law enforcers, politicians, and the victims. We plan to screen the documentary in universities and community centers; sparking discussions and breaking the silence on this issue. We believe that by showing the truth about domestic violence, we can catalyze the necessary social changes required in Armenia. We believe in an Armenia Without Abuse!
New Lights
NEW LIGHTS (ITALY)
We want to make a shade structure above a parking lot which has solar panels on top to power a streetlight. The solar panels will charge a battery during the day. A light sensor will control the streetlights at night. All the components will be connected by a circuit board. This will reduce the pollution coming from coal and be beneficial to the government as it would lower their current cost of electricity and maintenance per year.
FoodPrint Edu
FOODPRINT EDU (USA)
Foodprint Edu. is a campaign created to educate college students on how their diet determines their ecological footprint. We are building this platform through a website which contains information about our events, curriculum and very own content. Our curriculum is structured to be easily replicated past our target audience. Our first audience will be Adelphi Fall 2020 Freshmen, who will view our video in freshman seminar as an introduction to this campaign. On our website, students will calculate their own “foodprint” and progress as they begin integrating a more sustainable diet into their lifestyle.
TeensVolunteer.org
TEENSVOLUNTEER.ORG (USA)
TeensVolunteer.org is a free resource that helps teenagers find volunteer opportunities in the Bay Area. The site was launched in May 2018 by Emi Rohn and has hundreds of community service opportunities from a variety of nonprofit organizations in the Bay Area. Because of limited funding for advertising, the site is mainly marketed with Instagram and by contacting volunteer coordinators at local high schools. To date, TeensVolunteer.org has had more than 25,000 page views and has connected 400 teens to volunteer opportunities. The goal is to connect 1,000 teens to volunteer opportunities before 2021.
judges
Ariel Nessel
After an epiphany in 1997 changed the way Ari related to food, his heart opened up to the impact every person’s life has on countless beings and the world at large. Soon after this insight, Ari had a vision of himself attaining his worldly goals & dreams, yet left feeling empty inside. This led him to ground his life into practices such as mindfulness, compassionate eating, philanthropy, service and transformational entrepreneurship. Recent projects include hosting meditation retreats for activists, founding The Pollination Project, developing a 3MW+ solar energy install, and building a gift-based retreat center. The issues Ari feels most called to support are transforming our food system away from animal agriculture to plant based eating, transformational philanthropy, and antidotes to apathy.
Stephanie Klempner
Stephanie has always had a great love for animals, participating as a foster parent for stray dogs and volunteering with various programs aimed to help the welfare of pets. After connecting her love for animals with her food choices, she began to open her heart to both suffering and compassion in the world and connecting the choices we make in life to a more blessed life. She realized the power that one person truly has to impact the world, and thus teamed up with Ari (her brother-in-law) to create The Pollination Project. Stephanie is also extremely committed and dedicated to her career as Vice President of a children's literacy curriculum company and feels a deep connection with empowering youth to be readers and writers in the world, while also empowering them to change the world. Stephanie lives in NYC with her with her partner Josh, and their son Odin. The issue that Stephanie is most passionate about is the rights of animals to live without fear, pain or exploitation.
Kate Campbell King has spent the last 25 years as a financial advisor, combining her analytic skills with a passion for helping clients feel safe and confident in their financial decisions. In 2005, she co-founded North Berkeley Wealth Management. The firm has grown and now has six advisors and a support staff that provide client-centered financial planning and investment management, including sustainable investments, for individuals, families and nonprofit organizations. Kate works with several local nonprofit organizations, and chairs the board of the Berkeley Food Network. She particularly cares about food justice and economic justice, and the role of biodiversity in protecting the planet.
Kate Campbell King
Brian is a partner at North Berkeley Wealth Management, a B Corp with an emphasis on meaningful client relationships and socially responsible investing for clients in the Bay Area and beyond. He is also the current Chair of Advisory Board for the UC Berkeley Personal Financial Planning Program. Brian is passionate about improving financial literacy education, and believes in the power it has to change individual lives and strengthen communities. In his free time, Brian can often be found working in the garden or chasing his three young kids down new pathways in the Berkeley Hills.
Brian Kozel
More than a decade ago Doug quit his job to go back to school and follow his passion and find new ways to improve solar technology. He is now a research scientist at IBM and is the co-author of more than 30 publications and a dozen patents related to solar cells and renewable energy technologies. Recent research has also included AI and quantum computing, but Doug remains committed and passionate about sustainability and global inequality. Today he remains active in a non-profit working in Ghana focused on bringing communities together to make local change.
Doug Bishop
thank you to our sponsors
