Award InformationThe Lumity Leadership Award, presented by Accenture, is open to Chicago-area nonprofits that meet the following qualifications:
501(c)(3) charitable organization with the following exceptions: churches, organizations whose primary mission is to promote a religion; public schools, private schools, colleges, or universities; nonprofit hospitals, assisted living healthcare organizations, or cooperative hospital service organizations; and governmental units are ineligible to apply.
Headquartered in the following locations:
Projects supported by Lumity consulting efforts are eligible to apply but the project must extend well beyond the scope of work performed by Lumity.
Only one application per organization will be considered
Applications shall be limited to no more than six pages and describe a creative project that has been successfully implemented in the last eighteen months and has at least one quarter (three months) of measurable results. Applications must contain at a minimum the following major sections.
Executive Summary: summarize the drivers, desired outcomes, and the context that was the genesis of the project. Summarize the results both in human terms and in a quantitative fashion. Lumity recommends the executive summary not exceed one page.
Problem Statement and Goals: Statement of problem or challenge with focus on the human need and desired outcomes. Describe the problem you were trying to solve and what you expected to achieve.
Project Description: Describe the project, its implementation, time tables, major milestones, cost, impact to capacity (during implementation), and other aspects you deem relevant. The description must include relevant details around the human elements (those doing the work and using the systems), the system(s) themselves, and the process that assures effective use of the technology to achieve your targeted goals. Results and project description must be limited to six pages.
Qualitative and Quantitative Results: Describe your results in context to your stated objectives and problem statement. Address impacts to agency capacity in terms of ability to deliver service as well as the human impact to end clients/ issues. Use supporting data, statistics graphs and charts as needed.
Appendices: Attach documentation as needed including data and reference materials that support your application or that might be needed to help describe the technology of your project. Attachments are not counted against the six page limit but must be supportive in nature only.
Qualitative Description
Projects that demonstrate thought leadership through intelligent, innovative use of technology to improve program outcomes and community impact will score higher than those that are internally focused or that consist of “typical” technology upgrades and expansion. Innovation and creativity are core components; however, tracking and reporting of outcomes and continual improvement over time and across demographic or environmental changes are critical to sustainability. Projects consisting of these elements will score better than those without those characteristics.
Projects can cover any aspect of nonprofit operations from service delivery to capacity improvements including fundraising and administrative aspects. The following list is intended to give examples of projects that would be acceptable. This list is not comprehensive, and indeed, innovation is difficult to describe so do not limit you applications to this list. Examples of projects include:
Quantitative Description
The following point system will be used to score proposals.
The Issue [20 points]
Identify the problem/opportunity and its relevance to your mission and constituency.
Identify both internal and external beneficiaries throughout the community.
The Solution [30 points]
Clearly describe the impact on the community and/or key clients and stakeholders and relationship to your agency’s mission. (5 points)
Describe the innovative use of technology and its integration into agency’s operations including staff, clients, and the processes implemented around the use of the technology. (15 points)
Describe the project’s funding, the impact to capacity during development and implementation of the project as well as a description on how your project demonstrates “thought leadership.” (10 points)
The Outcome [50 points]
Describe and document how the solution increased organizational/program capacity. (20 points)
Describe and document how the project improves outcomes for the agency, clients, or community in both a qualitative and quantitative way. (20 points)
Describe how you will sustain the improvements over time, monitor the project’s effectiveness, and leverage it across other agency activities or share with other agencies build nonprofit sector capacity. (10 points)
To be announced. Judges are selected from top Chicago area corporate and nonprofit leaders.
The application can be completed here.
Contact Lumity with any questions about the Technology Leadership Award or the application process at TechLeadershipAward@lumity.org or 312.372.4872.
