High-Profile Philanthropy Contests Take Hold, Raise Concerns
When the corporate foundation at German engineering giant Siemens went looking for simple technologies that could help people in developing countries, it didn’t ask for grant applications. Instead, it used a hot new format for foundations: a prize competition.
The Empowering People Award, first given in 2012, announced its second round of prizes last year. The top winner, a group from India that developed a wristband for detecting hypothermia in infants, beat out roughly 800 other applicants to win about $53,000.
"Somehow you have to find those guys out there in places like Africa and Latin America, and it’s really tough to do that," says Rolf Huber, managing director of the foundation. "The prize was a way for us to get coverage and attention so that we could identify some great solutions." . . .