The craft of incentive prize design The architecture of prize design

Written by: Kwasi Mitchell, Nes Parker , Sahil Joshi, Jesse Goldhammer, Brad Anderson

Cover image by: John Mattos

Together with New Venture Fund, including Bruce Boyd, Ginger Elsea, Renee Eyma, and Hilary McConnaughey, Doblin wishes to thank the six funders of this report: James Anderson from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Sarah Koch from the Case Foundation, Gretchen Crosby Sims from the Joyce Foundation, Jonathan Sotsky from the Knight Foundation, Ariel Simon from the Kresge Foundation, and Kippy Joseph from the Rockefeller Foundation. Without their vision, generosity, commitment, and expertise, we would not have been able to offer prize designers the insights and perspective contained in this report. We are grateful for the opportunity to advance the art and science of prize design for the sake of the public good.

We want to thank the individuals whose interviews informed our research, including Beverly Blake and John Bracken of the Knight Foundation, Erich Broksas of the Case Foundation, John Clarke of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Jason Crusan of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Alok Das of the Air Force Research Laboratory, Jeff Davis of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Kathryn Dennis of the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, Greg Downing of the Department of Health and Human Services, Jonathan Greenblatt of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, Joseph Heaps of the Department of Justice, Steve Hodas of Innovate NYC Schools, Tom Kalil of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Maurice Kent of the United States Agency for International Development, Elizabeth Kittrie of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kevin Kuhn of the Environmental Protection Agency, Karim Lakhani of Harvard Business School, Bob Lee of the Wright Brothers Institute, Xavier Le-Mounier of the European Commission, Katie Leonberger of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Tammi Marcoullier of the General Services Administration, Nancy Merritt of the Department of Justice, Bill Moses of the Kresge Foundation, Clare Newman of Bloomberg Philanthropies, Anil Rathi of Skild, Euan Robertson of New York City Department of Small Business Services, Brian Sasscer of the Case Foundation, Denice Shaw of the Environmental Protection Agency, Michael Smith of the Social Innovation Fund, a White House initiative and program of the Corporation of National and Community Services, Michael Timmons of Skild, Katheryn Viguerie of the United States Agency for International Development, Adam Wong of the Office of the National Coordinator, Department of Health and Human Services, Julia Wood of the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, Josh Wyner of the Aspen Institute, Emily Yu of the Case Foundation, and Marco Zappalorto of Nesta.

Several friends, supporters, and colleagues provided invaluable feedback at many phases of our research, including Cristin Dorgelo of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Jenn Gustetic of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Nancy MacPherson of the Rockefeller Foundation, Patricia Rogers of BetterEvaluation, Robert Picciotto of King’s College (London), Geoff Tuff and Ruth Schmidt of Doblin, Bill Eggers of Deloitte Public Sector Research, and Jitinder Kholi, Max Hoblitzell, Ken Decreus, and Lev Joffe of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Lastly, we would like to thank our Deloitte research and graphics team: Claudia Antonacci, James Jeffrey, Emily Koteff Moreano, and Loren Weingarten.