Impact
100&Change: When a loss becomes a win
On April 7, six teams gave their final pitch to win $100 million in the MacArthur Foundation’s second 100&Change competition. That same day, five of them learned they lost. These teams will all keep working after the recipient is announced, but this loss cuts deep. I know, because I was part of a team that “lost” in the final round of the first 100&Change competition.
Learnings from our experience with the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Impact Award
As a family of national civil society organizations, Asylum Access believes in the power of “proximate” solutions: we know from our experiences that those closest to experiences of displacement are best placed to confront the obstacles that face their communities. As the movement for refugee leadership in response to refugee issues grew stronger, and the calls for refugee participation made it into prominent spaces – like the (UN Refugee Agency) UNHCR’s 2019 Global Refugee Forum – Asylum Access looked inward and asked: Where do we fit? How do we help? By our assessment, the calls for change were surface-level and lacked pathways for implementation. We needed massive investment for system-wide change. At the time, it was hard to envision unlocking that kind of funding.
The Capacity to Aspire to Change the World
At IMAGO Global Grassroots, we work with organizations that want to scale up their impact, including helping them get investment-ready. Like thousands of others, many of our partners were inspired by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s 100&Change competition. They imagined what could be possible with $100 million, formed alliances and sent in their applications.