Play, Collaborate, Change

We aim to 

• Increase awareness about important social problems and NGOs/social businesses addressing these problems
• Support communities to participate meaningfully in co-designing and determining solutions to these problems 
• Crowdsource creative solutions, problem-solve collaboratively and co-create with people directly experiencing problems
• Provide people with a meaningful and transparent way to give back to their communities by volunteering at the highest level of their skills
• Create a sustainable way to finance solutions for important social problems 

Our solution is game-based events and workshops that bring together a multidisciplinary team of people to harness the power of human-centered design, behavioral science, and help facilitate collaborative problem-solving. 

These events could be organized globally and could change the lives of millions of people either directly or indirectly. They could be tailored to address relevant social problems in the country where the event is organized by collaborating with local non-profits and social businesses. 

There are many amazing grassroots organizations tackling wicked social problems. Unfortunately, more than half of them have less than 6-months of operating reserves. Almost 20% of non-profits experience underfunding in new technology, employee training, and increase in fundraising expenses. Investment in technology that can achieve operational efficiency is often cut or underfunded. Inadequate infrastructure causes employees to work excessively long hours with poor tools and insufficient professional development. There is a need for human talent and funding, including micro-funding that doesn't come with strict restrictions for using it on programs only. 

Communities are littered with social problems and at the same time, saturated with people who have the tools and resources to solve them, are interested in volunteering their time for social good, but are unsure of where to get started. The idea of “volunteering” is also often associated with a sense of inconvenience and duty, rather than an engaging and rewarding experience. 

It is further worsened by low awareness about the root causes of social problems that creates fear, polarization, reinforces susceptibility to misinformation and increases stigma. There is interest in a meaningful and transparent way to get involved in understanding and collaborating on solving important social problems. 

1. Vulnerable and underresourced communities 

Collaborate with vulnerable and underresourced communities that can't afford human-centered design or behavioral science services. We want to

• Brainstorm and problem solve together with people affected by the problem
• Facilitate collaboration between people and organizations in the community
• Co-design solution concepts that target the root causes of recurring social problems and generate direct benefit to the community members

2. Non-profits, social businesses and startups addressing important social problems. 

Partner with community subject matter experts through the grassroots organizations deeply connected with and involved in their day-to-day lives.   

• Get creative ideas and solutions from multidisciplinary teams
• Opportunity to connect with talented individuals willing to volunteer at the highest level of their skills 
• Create a sustainable way to finance solutions to important social problems by organizing game-based social events (not for V1)

3. Sustainability departments of corporations 

Offering game-based social events as team-building activities designed in collaboration with community-based non-profits, social businesses and startups. 

• Engage employees in meaningful volunteering activities 
• Facilitate mutually beneficial knowledge exchange between community organizations sharing their subject matter expertise and corporations leveraging their resources 

A social innovation game for increasing awareness about important social problems (healthcare, education, finance, food & agriculture, environment, animal welfare) and bring together a diverse multidisciplinary group of people to problem-solve collaboratively. 

It works by facilitating game-based events and workshops between communities and individuals who experience social problems, non-profits that work in and with these communities, and people who by playing the game create solutions & implementation strategies for them.

Steps:

1. We create a short questionnaire and share it with a non-profit, a social business or a startup that works in the community solving an important social challenge. 
2. A non-profit, a social business or a startup by filling out a questionnaire “donates a problem space” describing their beneficiaries, beneficiaries' barriers, the program they do and what works and doesn't work about it. They facilitate getting feedback and insights from community members about unique strengths, opportunities, and cultural or other limitations that exist within the community.
3. Our team takes a "donated problem space" and non-profit's existing program with it's results, and creates a game structure around it (tasks, cues, rules, players, levels, budget if any etc.).
4. Everything is put into a board game format (V1). Non-profit's, social business's or startup's logo and company information are added to customize the board.  
5. The game-based events or workshops are organized by our team and sold to CSR teams and people who want to play social good games or volunteer in their communities.
6. As the game evolves over time it will expand into larger events similar to other social meetups such as Escape rooms or Paint & Wine night.

The innovative part is the application of what has already been successfully launched and tested in other industries. Play, Collaborate, Change borrows from the following existing solutions: 

• Games (board games, escape rooms, trivia, date night in a box)

• Entertainment (paint & wine night, Sleep no more, Secret cinema)

• Crowdsourcing (hackathons, bootcamps, Phylo DNA puzzle)

The same experience design principles are applied to develop a customizable social innovation game around real-world social problems. 

Similar to an Escape Room experience people will be problem-solving collaboratively, but this time the problem will be real, for example lack of public transportation in an underserved neighborhood. 

Similar to Paint & Wine night where the subject matter expert teaches you how to paint, NGOs and social businesses will be sharing their subject matter expertise, sharing knowledge about the community, and learnings from programs they launched in the community. 

Similar to hackathons where the creative process is fast-paced and iterative, our events and workshops will be designed as fast-paced interactive experiences. People directly affected by the problems, NGOs and social businesses will be invited to co-design with teams or vote for the best ideas that could be partially or fully implemented in these organizations. 

Our solution is about merging a positive social experience people can enjoy with a meaningful real-world challenge that they could increase awareness of and even contribute to solving. We want to help people feel empowered, restore their belief in the value of civic participation and their ability to help not only by donating money.

The solution currently leverages the power of social networks, behavioral design and human-centered design. As the game evolves it will leverage different forms of technology.

Phase I: Primarily person-person tactile interactions. The game itself incorporates the principles of human-centered design and behavioral science. It is taking players through understanding a problem space using a behavioral science lens, ideation, defining solutions, prototyping and further developing them using suggested behavior change techniques and design principles.

Phase II: In the second phase, in addition to the in-person experience we aim to build a digital platform to increase the reach, improve operational efficiency and allow people around people around the world to problem solve collaboratively. We hope that creating such space will facilitate exchange of solutions that could be tested, adopted, and implemented in different locations around the world. We also plan to use it to share all the event materials online as an open-source to allow people to organize such in-person social innovation events on their own. 

Phase III: We will leverage technology to enhance the interactivity of the game by integrating online and offline engagement for a more immersive experience. We will harness the accessibility of mobile/web applications, social media, and allure of AR to bring players along during different touch points throughout the game, ultimately fostering continued engagement.

Engaging CSRs, NGOs or social businesses in a playful collaborative problem-solving creates a meaningful way to engage employees and to facilitate mutually beneficial knowledge exchange between NGOs or social businesses leveraging their subject matter expertise and corporations leveraging their industry expertise and resources. 

Immediate output: Increased employee engagement. Crowdsourced ideas and concepts. 

Short-term: NGOs or social businesses get access to unrestricted funding coming from CSRs paying for these events for their employees. CSRs get unique research insights about the communities they want to help.

Long-term: More corporate employees engaged in volunteering at NGOs or social businesses. CSRs understand what initiatives if implemented can have the biggest impact on the outcomes that matter to them and align their work better. Wicked social problems get solved faster due to a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach.

 Designing game-based experiences for the general public tackles low civic participation, and creates a space for people to contribute meaningfully to their communities at the highest level of their skills.

Immediate output: Crowdsourced ideas and concepts. 

Short-term: Increased public awareness about the social problems NGOs or social businesses work on, as well as increased brand awareness about their organization. The general public gets the platform to get their voice heard. It increases their self-efficacy around the impact an individual can make and empowers them to be active in their communities.

Long-term: Decreased stigma around social problems, increased number of people interested in providing direct and indirect help, new partnership and social business opportunities.

Current number of people you’re serving: We have piloted our social innovation game at two conferences one in the U.S. in 2017 and one in France in 2019 with about 20 participants in each. We also tested the game-based workshop approach in Muskegon, Michigan and in North Hartford, Connecticut. We collaborated with local NGOs and community members. Each community had about 15 people engaged in the workshop. 

The number you’ll be serving in one year: This year we working towards collaborating with at least 3 CSR departments and 6 NGOs or social businesses that in their turn are serving thousands of people.  

The number you’ll be serving in five years: In the next 5 years we target to serve people both actively and passively. By creating a digital platform and an online social innovation community we aim to inspire and support many more events and game-based workshops organized around the world by local activists, volunteers and corporate employees. We see Play, Collaborate, Change being a game that people can play at home with their friends, in the bar with their book club mates or at work with colleagues as a team building activity. We plan to continue building collaborating with stakeholder organizations and serve at least 12 CSRs, and over 60 NGOs and social businesses.

Goals for next year (2020)

• Organize 6 public and corporate events
• Serve at least 3 CSR departments
• Serve at least 6 NGOs or social businesses
• Increase geographical reach (4 more cities in the U.S. and 2 more countries)
• Get at least 300 people to participate in our events
• More than 20 community organized events and meetups using the social innovation game 
• Generate more than 60 solutions to important social problems for NGOs and social businesses 
• Unlock $50,000 in unrestricted funding for NGOs and social businesses

Goals for the next 5 years (2020-2025)

• Organize 50 public and corporate events 
• Serve at least 15 CSR departments 
• Serve at least 60 NGOs or social businesses
• Increase geographical reach (15 more countries)
• Get at least 3000 people to participate in our events
• More than 1000 community organized events and meetups using the social innovation game 
• Generate more than 600 solutions to important social problems for NGOs and social businesses 
• Unlock $1,000,000 in unrestricted funding for NGOs and social businesses

• Lack of established connections with NGOs and social businesses
• Lack of established connections with CSRs
• No designated space for hosting game-based events
• Lack of financial resources to provide catering for the event and printing of the game materials

• Word of mouth via friends and colleagues, and networking with NGOs and social businesses at the local meetups and large conferences. Bringing game prototype to the networking events and demonstrating how it could be applied to the problems they are working on. We have already been introduced to 3 NGOs that we plan to organize events with.
• Word of mouth via friends and colleagues, and networking with CSRs at the local meetups and large conferences. Setting up 1-1 meetings with CSR teams and demonstrating the game prototype to them and how it can be applied to increase employee engagement. We have already been introduced to 2 CSR departments, but are working on expanding our network. 
• Targeted outreach to local/national NGOs, social businesses, and CSRs via LinkedIn and email. 
• Initially, we plan to use office and coworking spaces, and collaborate with restaurants and bars. 
• There are a few strategies to overcome lack of financial resources for food and drinks for the events. We can host events at the places where people can buy food and drinks (restaurants & bars). We can also host events at the places where some of it is already available (drinks at WeWork) and we will subsidize the food. We will invest our own resources if needed in providing food and drinks for the first few play test events. 

Everyone who is currently working on our social innovation game do so as a side gig. 

We have 5 part-time volunteers who are contributing to the content, design, usability testing, strategy and partnership building. The skills range from game design and UX research to behavior change and social entrepreneurship.

We have a multidisciplinary team of volunteers who are passionate about making a positive social change and have years of experience in doing the type of work we are proposing. We have been doing hackathons, design-thinking workshops and applying behavioral science for corporate clients and for-profit startups for many years. 

We believe that the same collaborative problem-solving approach and game-based methods can be transformational for NGOs and social businesses, as well as for the general public whose perspective on what civic participation and activism means can be positively altered. By creating these collaborations and partnerships we can restore public trust in large institutions, empower them to be active in their communities, increase brand awareness of grassroots community organizations, as well as unlock unrestricted funding for them. 

People on our team are skilled in game design, experience design and research, marketing, public health, behavioral science, social entrepreneurship, visual design, and business development.

Play, Collaborate, Change partnered with the following organizations

• Way To Wellville by organizing human-centered design workshops in two of their communities.
• Massachusetts College of Art and Design by engaging students in organizing social innovation events in the communities and co-designing with people directly affected by the problems.
• One Young World by engaging OYW Ambassadors in organizing social innovation game events, and introducing us to NGOs and social businesses.

B2B2C model

Key Resources: people trained to facilitate game-based events, information about the problem and a program(s) designed to address it "donated" by NGOs or social businesses, general public and/or employee population to play the game and crowdsource solutions. 

Partners & Key Stakeholders: NGOs or social businesses, CRS departments, corporate employees, general public  

Key Activities: design a questionnaire to get information about the problem space and program designed to address it from NGOs or social businesses, create a game structure around it, put everything into a board game format, customize the board with NGO's or social business's logo and other branding, host an event and disseminate key learnings after the event. 

Type of Intervention: V1 workshops or game-based in-person events, V2 game in a box or a digital platform with online community 

Beneficiaries: NGOs or social businesses

Customers: CRS departments and general public 

User value proposition: 

• Socialize the problem and increase awareness about the organization

• Get creative ideas and solutions from multidisciplinary teams

• Connect with talented individuals willing to volunteer at the highest level of their skills

• Create a sustainable financial revenue stream
  

Customer value proposition:

• Engage employees in meaningful volunteering activities

• Facilitate mutually beneficial knowledge exchange

• Give back to your community at the highest level of your skills

• Enjoy a positive social experience that has a direct and indirect social impact 

Revenue: 

B2B corporate employee workshops 70% 

B2C general public game-based events 30% 

Fee-for-service model  

3 revenue streams 

B2B – CSR 

Pay per event model 

$10,000-15,000/workshop depending on the number of participating employees 

B2C – general population 

Pay per event model 

$20-30/person for one game-based event depending on the number of participating players and the hosting venue 

Grants 

$10,000-100,000 to further develop the game and start integrating technology to increase the reach and improve operational efficiency

We believe that Solve can help us further advance our project by connecting us with the right mentors and facilitating media and conference exposure. 

It will be very helpful to have a team of mentors or advisors who work in the CSR or sustainability departments of corporations that can help us understand how to frame and further develop our solution so that it answers their unmet needs and at the same time generates positive social impact in the community. We hope that having them as mentors or advisors can help us refine the short-term and the long-term strategy, align it with their business operations and understand the best mode of engagement.

Many of the barriers that we experience at the moment and that prevent us from moving forward are related to lack of connections with CSR/sustainability departments of corporations and lack of established NGOs and social businesses network. We started addressing it by going to events and networking with people from these organizations. We believe that the media and conference exposure can help us continue growing the network with corporations, NGOs and social businesses. 

If there are some organizations including MIT that would be able to provide us the space to host game nights it will be very helpful. Ideally, it will be great to have a space for a month like a pop up space so that we can organize and decorate it. If we have a designated space we will be able to do events more frequently and quickly test and iterate our ideas about the game, finding the best way to design the game experience and to deliver value for nonprofits or social businesses. 

It would be great to have an opportunity to partner with CSR and sustainability departments in large corporations. Based on our research and stakeholder interviews it could be not only an opportunity to engage employees in meaningful volunteering activities, but also an opportunity for a mutually beneficial knowledge exchange between community organizations sharing their subject matter expertise and corporations leveraging their resources. 

There are 2 modes of partnership we were considering. 

One is employee engagement workshops. We would review the list of NGOs they already have established partnership with and select one or two to do a workshop with. The NGO would 'donate a problem space' and we would design an engaging game-based experience that employees can volunteer to participate in. In some of the companies that we interviewed, there is already an established rule that says that if certain number of employees volunteer at one of the approved NGOs the corporation will donate $10,000 to them.  

Another mode of partnership would be to for the CSR and sustainability departments to sponsor the game night for general public including any full or partial contributions such as donating a space or sponsoring food for the event. It could be a great opportunity for corporations to create a direct positive impact in the community and improve their brand awareness. 

n/a

This prize would provide us with an opportunity to organize up to 5 game-based social innovation events ($5,000 per event, $25,000 total ) in the selected communities where we could engage large number of underrepresented community members. 

We will partner with NGOs or social businesses focusing on fostering prosperity and social mobility in these communities. The organizations will 'donate a problem space' and we will design an engaging game-based experience though which people in the community will learn how to apply human-centered design and behavioral science to problem solving. We will focus on co-design and making sure that people participating in the game-based events include underrepresented community members as well as people directly impacted by the problems that we being solved. 

It will provide these communities with opportunities to 

• Brainstorm and problem solve collaboratively
• Facilitate collaboration between underrepresented community members and organizations operating in these communities
• Co-design solution concepts that target the root causes of recurring social problems and generate direct benefit to the community members

n/a

n/a

n/a

The Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prizecan provide us with an opportunity to further improve the product and start integrating technology in the experience. 

This prize money will allow us to progress to the second phase of our product development. In the second phase, in addition to the in-person experience we aim to build a digital platform to increase the reach, improve operational efficiency and allow people around people around the world to problem solve collaboratively. We hope that creating such space will facilitate exchange of solutions that could be tested, adopted, and implemented in different locations around the world.

We also plan to use it to share all the event materials online as an open-source to allow people to organize such in-person social innovation events on their own. 

The Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize mainly can help us can help us hire contractors to build out the digital
platform. In addition to that, as we are building it this money will help iteratively test different assumptions and hypotheses that we have including hypotheses about how technology could be integrated in the experience. 

n/a