Welcome to the GlobalGiving Innovate for Good Contest!

This is an opportunity to show your talent and creativity in a way that has big social impact and major visibility through the GlobalGiving and eBay platforms.

GlobalGiving, a nonprofit funded by Omidyar Network, is an eBay-like platform for giving to specific, grassroots social and environmental projects located around the world. We recently opened up our platform to engage developers in helping us expand our reach and improve our user experience.

To celebrate the launch of GlobalGiving’s developer program, we are running a developer contest, in partnership with eBay, to fuel the development of applications that provide GlobalGiving more visibility through the eBay platform or improve the GlobalGiving experience in a meaningful way. Entries will be reviewed by a high-profile panel of judges including:

• Erich Broksas, SVP, Innovation and Investments at the Case Foundation
• Seema Shah, General Manager eBay GivingWorks and eBay World of Good
• Kumar Kandaswamy, Head of eBay Developers Program
• Mari Kuraishi, Founder and President, GlobalGiving
• Steve Rogers, Head of Engineering, GlobalGiving
• Adam Hirsch, Chief Operations Officer, Mashable
• Allison Wolff, CEO, Vibrant Planet

The entry deadline has been extended to April 30, 2010.

Winners will be announced May 14, 2010. Get started now!

Contest parameters, instructions, judging and awards:

Below, you’ll find everything you need to know to enter and submit an application to the contest.

Contest Parameters

Developers have three options for developing applications:

1. Use any available GlobalGiving API to enhance the GlobalGiving experience or create a branded giving experience of your own. Useful apps might include creative ways of displaying GlobalGiving projects, streamlining the giving process, improving project tracking and communication, social/location based mashups, mobile giving apps, or giving games that drive donations. Learn more about GlobalGiving’s available APIs.
2. Support GlobalGiving through the eBay Giving Works program using eBay’s APIs. Developers can build applications to list items that benefit featured GlobalGiving projects (more info) or enable people to search for and buy items that benefit GlobalGiving (more info).
3. Mash up eBay and GlobalGiving APIs to come up with your own idea to support GlobalGiving projects through the eBay or GlobalGiving platforms—or anywhere on the web.

A one-page overview of the application plus a link to a working prototype, or fully functional version, of the application must be submitted by April 30, 2010 (see more below). The GlobalGiving team will partner with the winning developers to help develop applications to completion and testing.

Contest Entry and Instructions

After reviewing the Innovate for Good Contest Terms and Conditions, enter the Innovate for Good Contest here. Once you complete and submit your Contest entry form, you will automatically receive an email from GlobalGiving that includes a GlobalGiving API key. If you plan to use eBay’s APIs, you can get more information here and here. You can also ask any questions or discuss ideas with the GlobalGiving team through the developer forum.

When you are ready to submit your application idea and mockup/prototype, please fill out our application submission form.

Judging and Awards

The winners of Innovate for Good will be announced on May 14, 2010. A panel of 7 judges will decide the winning applications. Judges include:

• Erich Broksas, SVP, Innovation and Investments at the Case Foundation
• Seema Shah, General Manager eBay GivingWorks and eBay World of Good
• Kumar Kandaswamy, Head of eBay Developers Program
• Mari Kuraishi, Founder and President, GlobalGiving
• Steve Rogers, Head of Engineering, GlobalGiving
• Adam Hirsch, Chief Operating Officer, Mashable
• Allison Wolff, CEO, Vibrant Planet

Judging Criteria

The Innovate for Good panel of judges will closely review all of the applications submitted, and choose finalists and winners according to the following criteria:

• Uniqueness, novelty value, and innovation: the application must display creativity and use established technology in a creative way that delights potential donors and triggers them to engage with GlobalGiving.
• Functionality/UI/design: the application or service must display user-friendliness and be graphically attractive.
• Market potential: the application must clearly fulfill users' needs and have the potential for widespread adoption, thereby delivering on our goals of raising awareness of GlobalGiving and its projects, or improving the giving experience via the eBay or GlobalGiving platforms.

Awards

The top three applications will be awarded the following valuable prizes:

Grand Prize: All expenses paid trip to one of GlobalGiving’s exotic project locations.

One grand prize winner will be selected among the submissions, and will win an all-expenses-paid 7-10 day trip to one of 85 countries to visit one or several GlobalGiving projects as well as local sites. Total value of the trip is up to $10,000, depending on the location chosen. As an example, check out this recent donor trip: A 9-day journey in Guatemala

2nd Place Prize: A $1000 GlobalGiving Gift Card.

Our second place winner will receive a $1000 GlobalGiving Gift Card, which he/she can direct to one or more of GlobalGiving’s 860 projects of their choice. Through the GlobalGiving platform, donors receive project progress reports so that they can have visibility into the impact their donations have.

3rd Place Prize: A $500 Apple gift certificate.

The Apple gift certificate is redeemable at any physical or online Apple store.