A Prize is a cash fund held in trust by Philoptima which was deposited by a grant maker, donor, individual, or corporation to compensate successful researchers for submitting winning solutions to problems described by the funder.  Prizes come in two types: Design Prizes and Implementation Prizes.  Design Prizes are on deposit to incentivize researchers to submit inventive solutions to problems.  Implementation Prizes are on deposit to incentivize nonprofits to submit implementation plans for previously accepted Design Prizes.

Currently, the Philoptima Faculty concentrates in the disciplines of education, health, public safety, and the environment.  Every effort will be made to recruit specialized researchers in other fields for prizes larger than $75,000.  We monitor research needs and resources and will consider opening additional disciplines if demand warrants.

It is in Philoptima’s best interest to protect identities until prizes are posted and winning solutions selected.  This way, grant makers avoid being hounded and solutions are chosen because of their content instead of the names of well known academics.  Similarly, nonprofits compete on the basis of ideas rather than simply because they have national name recognition.  When either type of prize is paid out as an award, then, at that time, the respective relationship is made known to both parties.  What follows the unmasking is often an intense exchange of more detailed information as solutions and plans are refined for later implementation, data tracking, and evaluation.

Philoptima offers a secure electronic platform protected by account-specific information and passwords.  Your ideas are temporarily licensed to Philoptima when you submit them.  Rights to the winning solution or plan are then permanently transferred to the grant maker or funder as a prize is paid-out as an award.  Rights to proposed solutions and plans are returned to you if your submission is not chosen by the grant maker as a winning solution or plan.

Philoptima is a new copyrighted combination word originating from “brotherly love” (philo) and “highest use” (optima).  We prefer to deepen this by saying Philoptima means “maximum beneficence for the dollar invested”.  Philoptima was started by a frustrated philanthropist amidst the difficulty of matching her charitable instincts to hard, cutting edge, science-based methods.

First and foremost, Philoptima finds great satisfaction in matching good ideas to charitable giving.  The impact of such giving is greatly magnified.  However, Philoptima isn’t free.  It earns income in several ways including interest income and fees from posted or awarded prizes, consulting fees, sale of documents, and a little tasteful advertising.

A Problem is a well-described set of social or community conditions which a grant maker or donor has identified as needing a solution and for which, the donor is willing to pay for a competition of ideas.  Problems can be submitted in a specific format elsewhere on this site (see “Submit a Philoptima Problem”).  A cash Prize must be received by Philoptima before a Problem is posted to the website and exposed to the Faculty (see “Post a Prize”).

Any grant maker, donor, individual, or company interested in seeing well-researched solutions and implementation plans can post a Prize.  Only the originator of a Prize can choose a winning solution for the Prize.  If no solution is selected, the Prize is returned to the donor at no cost to the donor but Philoptima keeps any interest earned on the deposited Prize as a posting fee.

If you hold a terminal or professional degree (Ph.D., J.D., M.D., Sc.D., D.B.A., D.Ph., etc.) in the broad disciplines of education, health, health services, law, science, business, or public health among others, you may apply for admission to the Philoptima Faculty.  Completing and submitting an application gets you temporary privileges to see Prize abstracts and, if admitted, you gain full entry to Prize details and a working secure folder.  Preference is given to active members of the academic community in the United States and Canada.

Philoptima tries to balance the likelihood of any given researcher submitting a winning solution or plan against the number and nature of open Problems and the quality of past proposals.  Nothing is more frustrating as a competent researcher than spending considerable effort on a submission only to be repeatedly denied.  Such denials argue in favor of a small number of qualified researchers.  Equally frustrating to the donor is spending hard-won prize money on an inferior proposal to a posted Problem.  We believe that the best solutions or plans are born from a competitive struggle of ideas.  Such competition argues in favor of a larger number of researchers.

We monitor the dynamic Prize/Solution process and attempt to have three or more competing solutions to any given Problem by the time of the Prize Deadline.  When we don’t succeed, we lose fees and we are not happy.  In such an instance, we may find a need to expand the number of researchers in a given discipline.  On the other hand, bench-warming members of the Philoptima Faculty who choose not to compete for open prizes in their disciplines for several months may be involuntarily eliminated from the Faculty at the sole discretion of Philoptima.

You own the rights to your intellectual property.  By agreeing to join the Philoptima Faculty or the Implementation Team, you are agreeing to temporarily license your ideas and work to Philoptima until a particular prize for which you are competing is paid out in the form of an award.  If your proposal is chosen by the grant maker or donor of the Prize as the winning solution or plan, you then sell your rights to the donor through a temporary licensing agreement with Philoptima in return for the Prize.  If your proposal is rejected, your licensing agreement with Philoptima is canceled and you are free to use your work elsewhere.  Naturally, by making a submission, you are attesting to your legitimate ownership of the underlying intellectual property and to your authority to enter into such agreements.

Implementation Prizes may be considered a second phase to the solutions process after Design Prizes are awarded.  In the first phase, a grant maker describes a Problem and posts a Design Prize with a Deadline.  After a Design Prize is awarded to one or more members of the Philoptima Faculty, the grant maker may choose to fund a second phase; the Implementation Prize is thus created and posted on the basis of the winning Design Prize in phase one for which nonprofit organizations then compete.  If you represent a nonprofit (IRS code section 501-c-3) organization in the United States, you may register on this site and receive Implementation Prize alerts.  Monitor these alerts and if a Prize is posted for your community, you may wish to submit an Implementation Plan Proposal.

Generally speaking, most nonprofit organizations work in a single discipline and in a relatively small geographic territory.  It is not surprising, therefore that your community is not neatly matched with the target population of a post Implementation Prize.  Monitor the open Implementation Prizes from time to time for postings in your community.  Philoptima attempts to match Prizes to the communities you serve and may alert you specifically of a new Prize in your area.

Philoptima requires you to accept the Terms of Use Agreement before using the site.  The Terms of Use Agreement spells out in detail the legitimate uses of our content, graphics, trademark, copyrighted material, pictures, formulae, data, and concepts.  Please review this Agreement if you have not already done so to understand more fully the boundaries governing the use of this website.

Philoptima offers a wide range of draft policies and conceptual documents to help grant makers, foundations, and donors professionally manage their practices.  In addition, Philoptima, sells specific consultation in strategic thinking for grant makers and tactical implementation modeling.  Program evaluation models, research into trends, and theories of change are also part of our expertise.  We have working knowledge and experience with human resources, compensation, and benefit practices.  We can also connect donors to other advisors with whom we have enjoyed positive experiences including financial advisors, money mangers, attorneys, tax specialists, and estate planners.  For specific fees or proposals, simply use the “Contact Us” form on this site and we will be in touch.