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Innovation Award Competition Entry Form:
How to Provide Affordable Housing

Please be sure that you read carefully the competition guidelines and criteria before applying. While completing the entry form, keep in mind that Changemakers.net's unique open source format makes your entry reviewable online by the competition judges and community members. So please keep your entry easy to read and understand. Clearly and concisely describe how your initiative or model contributes to providing housing for all.

As you gain new understanding from this give-and-take process, you may submit revised versions of your original entry during the course of the competition to improve your chances of winning. Simply use the same online process to submit a revised application that will replace the original one. The earlier you enter the competition, the more you will gain from the virtual reviewing process.

If you plan to copy and paste text into the entry form below, please copy from a "plain text" document rather than from a Word document to avoid any erroneous characters or formatting. We also encourage you to send photos that illustrate your initiative to housing@changemakers.net. They will be posted with your application.

If you experience any difficulty applying online, please contact us.

PROJECT PROFILE

1) Descriptive name of your housing initiative (for greater communication impact, use a carefully phrased and accurate title):

2) Focus of activity:

Please select one Financing Design Community Involvement Housing Rights Public Policy Technology Environmental Systems
(If you'd like to propose that we add another field name to this list, please contact webmaster@changemakers.net)

3) Year of inception of the housing initiative (yyyy):  

4) Positioning of your initiative on the mosaic diagram,

Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
        Please select one Dearth of complementary goods (e.g., land and infrastructure) Low individual purchasing power Limited access to housing finance Inadequate current product offerings

Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
        Please select one Enable long-term investment Leverage resources that are abundant at the local level Radically lower the cost of the entire housing delivery process Shift public policy through advocacy

If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

5) Products or services: What main products or services have you introduced and how does it contribute to providing housing for all, particularly for low-income and marginalized populations? Which aspect of housing shortage are you addressing primarily? What activities does it involve for your organization? Who are your primary beneficiaries?

6) Innovation: How does your approach differ from existing programs in the field? Which components of your initiative are particularly novel or unique (e.g. the products and services, the technology used, the delivery or financing mechanism)?

7) Delivery model: How does your initiative eventually reach benefit populations, particularly low-income or marginalized? What mechanism do you have in place to reach out to them?

8) Key operational partnerships: What key partnerships have you established to make your model possible or more efficient? Who are your partners (business, social, government, other) and what are their roles? How central are these partnerships for your initiative.

9) Financial model:
a) Which mechanisms do you have in place to ensure that your beneficiaries can afford your products or services? Do you have financial schemes or arrangements for low-income and marginalized populations?

What percentage of the operating costs does earned income represent?

b) How is the initiative financed? Is it financially self-sustainable or profitable? How much do beneficiaries contribute to the expenses of the program? What are the other sources of funding? How are you planning to ensure the financial sustainability of your initiative in the long-term?

10) Effectiveness:
What has been the outcome of your project so far? How many clients have benefited from your program in total?

How many clients have benefited from your program over the last year?

What percentage of your clients would qualify as "low-income or marginalized"?

What is the order of magnitude of the potential demand for your products or services? Which other client groups, countries or regions could benefit from it? Try to quantify as much as possible (number of clients, market size in currency). Size of the overall market (less than 100,000 people / 100,000 - 500,000 people / 500,000 - 1 million people / 1- 5 million people / greater than 5 M)

11) Scale-up strategy:

Which stage is your initiative currently in? Please select one Start Up Scaling Up Mature

What is your expansion plan for the next 3 years?

12) Origin of the initiative: How did the initiative start? Was there a particular individual driving the idea?

LEARNING FROM YOU

Although the answers below are compulsory, they will not be taken into account in the assessment of your initiative for the competition. Changemakers competitions are also an opportunity for Ashoka to understand the needs of entrepreneurs in various fields and identify possible responses through its network and range of programs. Please be as open as possible in responding to the following questions:

13) What are the two main obstacles obstacles to scale up (policy, legal, organizational, people, financial, etc.)?

14) What are your two main challenges to finance the growth of your initiative - with regards to operating costs and capital expenses? What amount of financing would your organization need in order to scale up operations? What type of investor are you interested in (private bank, social investor, foundation, government, other)?

15) What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships? (identification of partners, implementation of partnerships, relationship management, etc.)

16) How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate?
        (This answer will not be published on the website.)

17. PERSONAL DETAILS

Do not publish the following three contact information items with my entry information:

Check if you are an Ashoka Fellow.

18. REFERENCES