20/07/2009
Three ventures that aim to raise £10 million for Cancer Research UK were announced at a ceremony in London on Friday evening.
Over the past 10 months, Cancer Research UK has been working with the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) and collaboration experts, mo.jo, on an innovative new project called Open Ventures Challenge - a radically new fundraising model to develop ideas with the potential to raise millions of pounds a year for the charity.
The winners of the challenge are: Extraordinary Experiences, Open Gym and Project Rose. They are expected to raise over £10 million for Cancer Research UK over the next few years.
Given the cutting-edge nature of the Challenge, it attracted around 600 people who submitted and voted for ideas. From these over 150 new ideas were formed by this community of entrepreneurially-spirited people, who merged into teams and shared their ideas via the web. The strength and number of ideas submitted shows the quality of these entrepreneurial individuals who joined together in using their brain power to help beat cancer.
This collaborative format is a radical and exciting change in direction for fundraising. It is based on the principles of open innovation, a method normally employed by large corporations who open their doors to new ideas from entrepreneurs and small businesses, and develop them for new global markets.
David Simoes-Brown, from NESTA says, "It's extremely exciting to see open innovation methods, normally used by private companies, applied to the fundraising sector to produce such coherent and strong ideas. The challenge has proved that collaborative models such as open innovation can be translated to different areas, creating entirely new ventures from scratch. This has the potential to revolutionise the way companies look for business partners."
The six best ideas formed during the Open Ventures Challenge were shortlisted and received consulting support from Deloitte, the business advisory firm, on a pro bono basis. Deloitte worked with each venture project to develop their business plans and final presentations before they pitched their idea to a judging panel consisting of the CEO and Directors of Cancer Research UK.
Rob Bryant, the Deloitte consulting partner who led the firm's work on this project, commented: "We set up our pro bono consulting initiative three years ago to offer consulting expertise to not-for-profit organisations. This Challenge has been an ideal opportunity for our people to apply their skills to a project which will make a valuable contribution to an eminent charitable organisation."
Stew McTavish, Founder of mo.jo said, "All I can say is wow. Before we started the Challenge our Open Ventures concept was just that, a concept. The support of Cancer Research UK and the contribution of all the Challenge participants, at all stages of the process, has been truly inspiring. Now we feel that we can say with confidence that anyone with the right motivation and support can collaboratively create and develop new, commercially viable, innovative concepts to make a big difference to the world around them."
Kevin Waudby, Head of Radical Innovation at Cancer Research UK said, "At Cancer Research UK we take innovation very seriously and are always focused on finding different ways to engage our supporters, both new and existing, effectively in funding our life-saving research.
"We are delighted by the results that this Challenge has yielded and have no doubt that the winning ideas will help raise vital funds for our work to beat cancer."
For more information contact, NESTA Communications Officer - Catherine Anderson catherine.anderson@nesta.org.uk Tel: 0207 438 2609.
NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts. Its mission is to transform the UK's capacity for innovation. With the largest portfolio of early-stage businesses in the country, it is a leading authority on how to grow new ideas. We also stimulate imaginative solutions to pressing social issues and shape policy to help the UK meet its national innovation challenges.
NESTA Connect are campaigning for more space, licence and opportunity to collaborate and exchange ideas across silos, organisations, sectors and disciplines.
Open innovation is a key example of this kind of collaboration. NESTA are working to discover best practice methods for open innovation and ways to overcome the numerous barriers to the model, in particular ownership of ideas, through programmes like Open Ventures Challenge.
Together with its partners and supporters, Cancer Research UK's vision is to beat cancer.
- Cancer Research UK carries out world-class research to improve understanding of the disease and find out how to prevent, diagnose and treat different kinds of cancer.
- Cancer Research UK ensures that its findings are used to improve the lives of all cancer patients.
- Cancer Research UK helps people to understand cancer, the progress that is being made and the choices each person can make.
- Cancer Research UK works in partnership with others to achieve the greatest impact in the global fight against cancer. http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/
mo.jo helps create people powered ventures. Businesses have forgotten that they exist to serve people and it's time to remember. Using collaborative and open innovation tools and techniques mo.jo enables anyone to get involved in creating and running ventures that serve their needs.
Contact: Stew McTavish, stew@mo.jo 0792 995 7063
The Open Ventures Challenge aimed to take open innovation on the web to the next level. It harnessed the interests, skills and resources of crowds and used these to create viable new ventures. Groups were encouraged to create new revenue-generating business models, worth £10m for Cancer Research UK.
The Open Ventures Challenge winners:
Extraordinary Experiences
A national raffle venture that could win you a 'money can't buy' experience of a lifetime.
Project Rose
Lizze McLean started Project Rose when she was 13 years old and her mum was diagnosed with breast cancer. For a cost of £2.50 students in secondary schools and colleges can pre-order silk roses that are delivered anonymously to their friends or secret love on Valentines' Day.
Open Gym
Open Gym is a network of outdoor fitness groups, providing weekly exercise classes in local parks across the UK. Qualified fitness coaches provide one hour outdoor workouts every week and all the profits go to Cancer Research UK.
T +44 (0)20 7438 2500
F +44 (0)20 7438 2501
Nesta Operating Company, a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales with company number 7706036 and charity number 1144091. Registered as a charity in Scotland number SC042833.
