ideas42
For General Operating Support
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Amount$527,000
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Program
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Date Awarded11/15/2011
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Term36.0 Months
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Type of SupportGeneral Support/Organization
Overview
Behavioral Ideas Lab uses scientific insights from behavioral economics research to design innovative policies and products, both domestically and internationally, that solve tough social problems. The Foundation has supported the Lab’s work for the past three years, starting from the time it was founded at Harvard University as the Policy Design Initiative by, among others, Sendhil Mullainathan, a professor of Economics at the University (and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant"). During that time, the Initiative successfully reconceptualized social problems, and designed and tested scalable solutions through strategic partnerships. For example, it has reviewed all of the Children and Families programs in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to implement behavioral interventions that could increase uptake and retention of services, or improve program effectiveness in other ways. In the future, a division of the Lab will remain at Harvard to focus on academic research activities, while this new nonprofit will focus on social impact projects. For example, research into incentives for Ugandan business owners to repay their loans has the potential to change both the perception of credit risk for microfinance institutions and provide more access to finance for small businesses in developing countries.
About the Grantee
Grantee Website
www.ideas42.org
Address
80 Broad Street, Floor 30, New York, NY, 10004, United States
Grants to this Grantee
for support of the civic engagement portfolio
The civic engagement practice at ideas42 is a creative workshop that develops behavioral science-based solutions to improve civic participation and voter access in the United States. An anchor project in the portfolio is VoterCast, a platform that equips local election officials with customized, best-in-class voter outreach materials that clarify the voting process and build trust in our elections. With this grant, ideas42 will partner with election administrators and civic organizations to scale innovations that making voting easier, more accessible, and more meaningful for millions of voters.
for the Sustainable Banking consumer campaign
Ideas42 has applied behavioral insights in more than 100 projects across 35 countries, helping people act on choices that affect their lives and communities. Ideas42 manages a Sustainable Banking campaign that encourages consumers to switch their bank accounts to climate-positive, socially and environmentally sustainable financial institutions. The short-term goal of the campaign is to drive consumers to take actions signaling their demand for pro-climate deposit accounts. The medium- to long-term goal of the campaign is to build substantial and growing demand for pro-climate retail banking products, and engage with regulatory and private actors to increase the availability and utilization of those products.
for the design of a behavioral insights research project to improve civic monitoring platforms
The Behavioral Ideas Lab, Inc. (ideas42) is a research organization and network of behavioral scientists that partners with governments, foundations, and civil society organizations to address social problems with behavioral insights. In this project, they will identify the trade-offs of potential models for a research collaborative to study the application of behavioral insights to increase the responsiveness of public officials to reports from civic monitoring platforms.