Double Finalist : WWF Conservation Innovation Awards
We’ve been rocking the NZ Awards!
Today we’re feeling somewhat humbled and excited.
Yesterday was the final day of voting in the WWF Conservation Innovation Awards and we’re stoked to announce our two entries have received enough votes and feedback to be put through to the small pool of ideas selected for judging.
We want to say thank you to all of you who voted, commented, shared the story on social media, and gave us your thoughts online and by email.
We’re stoked to say that the ideas have morphed, changed and improved as a result of going through this open innovation challenge, and we’re getting some interesting connections starting to come through because of it.
More than ever, our determination to take Volunteer Impact to the next level is growing and now we’re building the relationships to make it possible.
Our founder, Sam, was asked to write a blog post by the WWF team to share reflections on the process. You can read the full article here.
In the meantime, here’s an excerpt:
How might we best spur new ideas for nature?
It’s been a pleasure to be part of this year’s Conservation Innovation Awards since the day it launched. I’ve watched the momentum build, the ideas flow and the conversations spark. Most importantly, I’ve heard stories of people who wouldn’t normally speak up and throw their hat in the ring, do just that.
I’ve spent the last two and a half years running Design & Innovation Challenges and supporting emerging projects & ventures to improve youth wellbeing in Aotearoa, and I’ve seen a variety of online platforms which try to do the same for different causes. My last 8 years has been spent on a mixture of volunteer management for environmental restoration with CVNZ & Raleigh International, social enterprise development with Enspiral, technology ventures such as Bucky Box, and community building for a social lab called Lifehack.
When I heard WWF were planning to use Crowdicity, I was excited to see what it would bring forth. In a previous year I’d applied for the Conservation Innovation Award, but the process just seemed very stale — fill in an application form, wait for a panel to pick their favourite, and then receive a notification whether or not you’d won. It felt like it was missing the interesting trends of crowd participation, collaboration and discourse.
This year has been a different feast all together.
Originally published at blog.volunteerimpact.co.
