Applications open for 2024 Ivory Prize Competition

The Prize is designed to award innovators for their efforts and provide material support to advance their projects. The search committee looks for solutions that combine elements of finance, policy, and design/construction. Innovators include small and large scale companies, non-profits, or government entities. Anyone may nominate an organization making an impact in housing affordability, and self-nominations are encouraged.

Areas of Focus

• Finance
  • 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
  • Ivory Prize award will focus 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
  • The Ivory Prize recognizes teams which demonstrate competency in using policy to their advantage with a particular focus on supporting new, scalable, approaches to improve housing policy.

Areas of Consideration

• Racial Inequality
  • 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
  • The Ivory Prize seeks to recognize solutions across all areas of focus that address this issue.

Awards

• The Ivory Prize awards up to three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) each year to the most promising housing innovations in the country. Winners are selected in at least each of the award components — construction and design (including both new construction and rehabilitation), policy and regulatory reform, and finance.
• We are partnering with the Housing Lab at the Terner Center at UC Berkeley to send one of our top entrants through the accelerator, if one of our entrants is selected. The program is focused on lowering the cost of housing. We also look to place student interns funded by Ivory Innovations with some of the winning companies to provide any additional support they may need.

Competition Details

• Applications
  • Any organization (public or private sector, small or large) may be nominated for the Ivory Prize by an outside source or through the self-nomination process.
• Due Diligence
  • All nominees are screened and reviewed by the Ivory Innovations team with the help of our Advisory Board and Ivory Innovations Fellows.
• Finalist Rounds
  • Chosen finalists will be announced.
• Winners Announced
  • Ivory Prize Winners receive unrestricted grant funding and recognition as part of the Ivory Prize awards process.

For more information, visit Ivory Innovations.