June 03--A lot of smart people have great ideas for making the world a better place. If only they had, say, $100 million to get the ball rolling.
Here's where Chicago's MacArthur Foundation enters the picture with the announcement Thursday of an intriguing competition. The philanthropic heavy hitter is putting up $100 million in grant money to be awarded to a single group submitting the most compelling, achievable proposal for addressing a big social problem.
An idea to save the bees? Or confront gang violence? Either could be the winner. MacArthur is casting a very wide net and offering no hints on a preferred subject to be tackled. As long as the idea relates to a charitable endeavor by an organization, the foundation says it's willing to consider proposals related to any problem anywhere in the world.
There are certain to be a lot of wonderful, noble suggestions, and some goofy ones, too. The winner will be able to convince MacArthur and a panel of expert judges that the proposal is "meaningful, verifiable, durable and feasible." In other words, the big idea -- Cure a disease! Teach tech skills! -- should eradicate a problem, or at least make real headway.
"Solving society's most pressing problems isn't easy, but we believe it can be done," Julia Stasch, MacArthur's president said.
Seems like it will be a dizzying prospect to choose a winner: We imagine long nights for the judges weighing the benefits of helping mothers in sub-Saharan Africa vs. Alaskan villagers.
MacArthur is calling its competition "100" If there's a game show-like quality to the contest, that appears intentional, as a way to amp up excitement and promote the theme that big problems can be overcome. A Tribune story noted that finalists will give public talks on their ideas, a la the TED Talks lecture series. The winner will be named by early 2018.
We'll follow along enthusiastically because we believe in the power of creative problem-solving. Our own New Plan of Chicago is an ongoing series of editorials designed to take on major local challenges in partnership with you, our readers. What we've learned from our call to action is that a caring public responds. If MacArthur's contest goes well, we envision many of the competitors will generate financial support for their ideas from other philanthropists through the publicity.
The caveat, understood by anyone who's ever looked hard at a difficult problem, is that major social ills aren't easy to fix. They are expensive to address, and sometimes intractable. The world is on the cusp of eradicating polio, for example, but the global effort has taken 30 years and cost more than $13 billion.
The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, which contributed $2.5 billion to the polio effort, thought it had an easier project to fund when it turned to education. But a frustrated Bill Gates recently acknowledged that it can be easier to take on a global disease than to push school systems to improve their performance.
The lesson: MacArthur's $100 million will only go so far. We imagine that means the winner of the foundation competition will be realistic as well as altruistic. Since it's a competition, we're rooting for a Chicagoan to win. Who knows -- maybe one of the groups we've highlighted in the New Plan of Chicago will submit the winning proposal. What we can say for certain is that the MacArthur Foundation's generosity gets a round of applause.
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