The Ivory Prize is an annual award recognizing ambitious, feasible, and scalable solutions to housing affordability.
Donor Name: Ivory Innovations
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Awards and Prizes
Deadline: 12/06/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The Prize is designed to award innovators for their efforts and provide material support to advance their projects. The search committee looks for solutions across finance, policy and regulatory reform, and construction and design.
Ivory Prize Areas of Focus
The housing industry faces a wide range of challenges and they believe that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for housing affordability. Each year, they award Ivory Prize winners from each of the areas of focus – these organizations comprise a portfolio of solutions as diverse and varied as the problem they are intended to solve.
The Ivory Prize areas of focus are as follows:
- Finance
- The last great innovation in housing finance in the United States was the modern 30-year mortgage in 1957. New tools are needed as the next generation of homeowners faces a unique set of constraints, ranging from higher personal debt and a growing number of careers with regular job changes to a longer timeline for family formation, and rapid urbanization. The Ivory Prize recognizes that new financial contracts must be negotiated to provide this generation the same opportunity to build wealth through home-ownership.
- Construction & Design
- Innovative construction and design play a critical role in bringing down the cost of housing and improving building performance. The Ivory Prize award focuses on approaches for both new construction and rehabilitation. Participants may advocate the new materials or practices which provide improved efficiency in home building or use. Areas of interest include material production and use sustainability, income generating opportunities such as power generation or mixed-use spaces, and the potential of emerging smart devices and use of data.
- Policy & Regulatory Reform
- From local building codes and zoning laws to federal materials and appliance standards, the housing space is subject to more regulatory oversight and intervention than virtually any other industry, placing a unique burden on innovators in the housing space. The Ivory Prize recognizes solutions which demonstrate new, scalable, approaches to improve, implement, or increase the effectiveness of housing policy.
Areas of Consideration
The Ivory Prize also considers impacts within the following areas during the evaluation process:
- Racial Inequity
- Years of systemic oppression have lead to a serious inequality in housing, leaving minorities disproportionately affected by the housing crisis. Redlining, the discriminatory practice of denying loans or other financial services to residents of certain areas, usually based off of ethnicity or race, still poses an issue years after it was made illegal. Ivory Innovations seeks to recognize solutions across all areas of focus that address this inequality, and encourages organizations with diverse leadership to apply for the Prize.
- Environmental Sustainability
- Building operations and the construction industry account for almost 40% of global energy-related carbon emissions. To improve environmental sustainability and outcomes, many innovators are working on new ideas, methods, materials, and approaches. The Ivory Prize seeks to recognize solutions across all areas of focus that address this issue.
Funding Information
The Ivory Prize awards $300,000 in unrestricted grants to winners in each of its three areas of focus. In addition to the monetary award, Ivory Prize winners also benefit from significant recognition, publicity, and operational support from the Ivory Innovations team.
Who may apply?
Innovators include small and large scale companies, nonprofits, or government entities. Anyone may nominate an organization making an impact in housing affordability, and self-nominations are encouraged. Nominated organizations must be based in the U.S.
For more information, visit Ivory Innovations.
