There can be no more important calling for those who believe in individual freedom and free markets than to pursue and expand solutions to poverty. The vision of an America where all people can flourish can never be achieved as long people in our communities lack food, shelter, and access to high quality education and healthcare.
This project will address the following questions: What is the most effective way to identify and support entrepreneurs who have innovative market-based solutions to poverty? Can we replicate these solutions in communities across the country? How can we capture the learning from these efforts, communicate these lessons effectively, and thereby empower leaders nationwide?
We will explore these questions by establishing an annual prize recognizing market-based solutions to poverty and by refining and improving the solutions at our social enterprise co-creation events. Following these events, we will support the best projects with grants tied to clear, measurable outcomes, and we will incentivize testing of these projects in multiple communities across the country with the support of our network of more than 200 state-based and national partners.
We will capture our learning in a field guide gathering case studies, analysis, and recommendations for practitioners working to address poverty. The guide will be promoted and distributed through a marketing and outreach campaign that targets our ever-expanding network of partners.
If successful, this project will result in market-based solutions that have been successfully tested and replicated in multiple communities. Those solutions will create measurable reductions in poverty, and this success will increase the awareness and application of market-based solutions to poverty.
