As part of our ongoing commitment to learning, we surveyed our Wise Head Panel of external judges about their experience evaluating 100&Change proposals. We appreciate that judges take time out of their busy schedules to evaluate, rate, and provide valuable feedback to applicants. Their input allows us to run an open and transparent competition.
In a recent blog post, Cecilia Conrad described the diversity of this year's Wise Head Panel. Here we provide some of their insights on the overall judging process.
Building off learnings, including judges’ feedback, from the inaugural 100&Change competition, we added two steps prior to applications arriving in the judges’ inbox. We created an organizational readiness tool and developed a Peer-to-Peer Review process. Both were designed in response to concerns we heard from first round 100&Change judges, who felt they spent too much time reviewing proposals that were unlikely to be competitive.
Additionally, we created a “smart application” with links to resources and tools, such as creating a theory of change, budgeting for inclusion, and frameworks for how to scale projects. These resources were intended to help organizations strengthen their application. We hoped that adding these various components would reduce the burden on our panel of wise heads while still delivering a competitive group of proposals.