Global Volunteering Alliance and the IFRC Volunteering Team

The Innovative Volunteering Challenge

Challenge is closed

The Global IFRC Volunteering team in partnership with the Global Volunteering Alliance will host a meeting to be held during the Summit to focus on rethinking volunteering, learning about innovative volunteering models and designing new experiments and collaborations to test new approaches to volunteering. We want to encourage Red Cross Red Crescent staff and volunteers to submit ideas on how to improve or transform volunteer engagement/participation, recruitment, recognition or improving the safety, security and well-being of volunteers.

Do you have an idea to help transform volunteering in your National Society or Branch? Do you want to bring that idea to life?

We are looking for individuals or teams of people who have innovative ideas to improve or transform volunteering in their National Societies or branches. We will select the top 3 who will join us, all expenses paid, in Nairobi (June 26-28 2023) for the IFRC Global Innovation Summit. The winners will also be supported to apply for funding from the IFRC Capacity Building Fund to implement their projects.

At the summit, we will dedicate a closed space for the winners to design a project based on their ideas with the support of volunteering development practitioners from other National Societies and the global IFRC Volunteering and Innovation team. After the first round, we will host an open session with innovation professionals within the IFRC network responsible for building innovation within their organisations and other Summit participants to provide further feedback. How do you submit an application?

Who can participate

Applications can be submitted by Red Cross or Red Crescent National Society volunteers or staff, as individuals or teams. We highly encourage staff and volunteers from branches to submit their ideas.

Important: You should seek approval from your National Society before applying.

What to submit

We ask that you submit a video (up to 3 minutes in length). Be sure to answer the following:

• Introduce yourself (and your team).
• What problem around volunteering are you trying to solve?
• What is your idea? Why do you think your idea is innovative?
• What will be its greatest achievement or innovation? 
• What impact will it have?
• How will you encourage other National Societies to work on its design at the Global Innovation Summit?

Your video application could be chosen by @SolferinoVoices and made public on YouTube.

Check out our useful tips to take and edit the best video.

Important: Please do not send a project that is already being implemented at your National Society or branch – we are looking for ideas which can be turned into a concrete project.

Languages

Submissions are accepted in English, French, Arabic and Spanish, but please note that if you are selected to travel to Nairobi for the Global Innovation Summit then you will need to be able to work in English as no translation is provided at this event.

When to submit

Submissions are open from March 27th, 2023, until April 23rd, 2023 – 12pm Central European Time. 

How to submit

Click on the following button to register to the challenge and submit your video.

If for some reason you are unable to submit a video, you can send a one-page (300 words) written application or audio recording (3 minutes in length) by email to [email protected]

Challenge is closed

Selecting winners

3 winners (2 decided by the panel and 1 by the public) will be invited to the IFRC Global Innovation Summit, all expenses paid for.

• A panel made up of the Global IFRC Volunteering and Innovation team and the Volunteering Alliance steering group will select 2 of the winners.
• One extra winner will also be selected by popular vote. The popular vote winner is calculated by the most views x average duration of views of your video on the @SolferinoVoices YouTube channel by 6pm CET 30th April 2023. Please note that written or audio applications will not be considered for the public vote. However, they can still be selected by the judging panel as finalists.

All shortlisted entries will be posted on the @SolferinoVoices YouTube channel. Final winners will be notified by email on the 2nd of May 2023.

If a ‘team entry’ is selected as a finalist, only one representative from that team will be funded to attend the Summit.

Winners must be eligible for travel, including a valid passport.

This initiative is proudly sponsored by the Global Volunteering Alliance and the IFRC Volunteering Team.

Need help? Contact us: [email protected]