ImpactAlpha, April 12 – The successor to the TED Prize has raised $250 million from the Skoll Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Virgin Unite, the Dalio Foundation and others for what it calls “a new model for philanthropic collaboration.” The five projects were announced at the annual TED conference.
- The Bail Project… will manage a revolving fund to pay bail for those who can’t afford it, with an aim to post bail for 160,000 people in the next five years.
- The Environmental Defense Fund… will launch a low-cost satellite to track and report methane emissions globally.
- GirlTrek… will try to improve the health of a million black women through a network of 10,000 public health activists who will lead walks and other activities.
- Sightsavers… will seek to eliminate trachoma, a bacterial infection that causes blindness, by implementing World Health Organization-endorsed strategies in resource-poor countries.
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution… will map the mesopelagic, or midwater, region of the ocean (200 to 1,000 meters below the surface) with robots and sensors, as commercial fishing interests scale up resource extraction.
TED’s Chris Anderson said the effort’s goal is “to build a platform for ideas so audacious, but also so well prepared, that they can attract large amounts of financial support pooled from multiple donors.”
