Game Genius, Inc

Game Genius believes in the power of play when building strong, resilient communities. Our hyperlocal approach aims to effect change at the grassroots level and provide an example for other communities to do the same. 

Our work is centered around the Greater Washington DC region because of its high concentration of nonprofits and socially beneficial initiatives. Within this density, there are organizations that scale from small neighborhood projects to global chapters. We hope our impact locally will inspire communities around the world to introduce more play-based approaches.

To us, the Elevate Prize is all about lifting up the community, and Game Genius prides itself on being radically collaborative. The social sector is filled with amazing changemakers and thought leaders, but it's not a level playing field. There is a strong bias toward those who have (resources, relationships, desire to scale, etc) and those who do not. As a result, smaller nonprofits feel constant pressure to fundraise and deviate from their core program just to survive. Our mission is not only to help make nonprofit operations more enjoyable, but also to challenge the system itself and offer playful ways the social sector can compete less and work together more.

Roddy McKenzie: I am the Vice President at Game Genius. With a background in financial services and business development, I wanted to transition my career into something creative, impactful, and fun. My prior work at a large bank and small impact fund would not seem like the traditional background for a play-focused organization. However, having met my business partner (Peter Williamson) in a finance game design project, and being a part of strong collaborative models (Next Gen Giving Circle; various volunteer committees), I was compelled to explore the space further. Play is flexible in that people from different cultural, professional, or racial backgrounds can engage together. It's this universality of play that I find persuasive. Games are effective storytelling vehicles to build awareness and break barriers. 

Over the last couple years, I've helped position Game Genius into a nonprofit-serving organization that doubles as a case study for anyone to use as a play-based resource. Through this evolution, Game Genius has also become a thought leader and idea lab for game-learning ventures. One particular project, Barometer XP, just launched as a simulation platform for consultants/coaches to approach team leadership and communication in future hybrid (physical/digital) work environments.

Game Genius provides play-based services and experiences to support leaders, organizations, and socially beneficial initiatives in the Greater Washington DC region. Our work consists of three overlapping branches that build off our why we're applying response:

1. Play-based services and workshops to empower changemakers. By offering unrestricted creative capacity and game-learning techniques to individuals and teams, we unlock impact outcomes that are less accessible without significant resources and relationships. Projects range from supporting existing programs and facilitating teambuilding sessions to co-designing new engagements that attract new constituents while re-energizing the staff and board.
2. Community-based game events that demonstrate the power of play while highlighting local changemakers. Every year, we focus our public efforts around an impact theme. 2021's theme is climate and environment, so our two major events (spring and fall) revolve around initiatives and organizations working in this space. Both aim to celebrate progress and identify individual call to actions through a fun experience.
3. Independent games that tell an impact story. We sell these products on the open market and allocate a percentage of proceeds to organizations within our annual theme. Much like our public events, the goal is to show tangible examples of how social impact can be fun.

Play is a universally understood concept, but Game Genius is intentionally positioned to serve one community. With influences from models like trust-based philanthropy and need-blind services, our approach is built around deep community understanding and collaboration. 

Too many organizations (and businesses) expand their geographic footprints to achieve faster profitability or impact. While serving more people is objectively good, the quality of service often gets lost along the way. As a result, we see a lot of surface level solutions that don't address the root causes of an issue. 

Moreover, fundraising has turned into a survival of the fittest exercise, leaving organizations to fend for themselves even though a similar group may be working toward the same desired outcome. Funders and philanthropists have historically perpetuated this quantity over quality bias as well, leading the social sector to try to squeeze more out of less.

Through our creative services, fun public events, and independent products, Game Genius uses play to bring teams and supporters together for the benefit of the local community. With so much negativity surrounding us today, we aim to serve as a champion of changemakers who seek ways to enjoy the process of making social impact.

There is an increased amount of research and literature promoting the importance of play throughout one's life. From educational drive and socialization to deeper understanding and situational awareness, games and play offer a rich environment to explore and find purpose.

Over the last 18 months, poor and deteriorating mental health has emerged as a leading factor in disengagement within home, school, and work settings. Many of the people that make up our classrooms and workforce are stretched too thin, and it's contributing to a laundry list of societal issues that includes normalization of tragedies, polarization of public discourse, and fortification (the act of preserving self at the potential expense of others) of status. 

Playing actively disrupts these deeply rooted issues by encouraging and incentivizing people to challenge their attitudes and behaviors in a safer environment. From our experience in the field and researching game-learning pedagogy, play has shown to help mitigate decision risks, de-escalate conflict, improve collaborative tendencies, boost personal and societal perception, and drive community change. 

Our mission is to cultivate and showcase a local community (DC region) that prioritizes play more while curating spaces that empower people and teams to come together and solve ugly problems of today.