• Social venture written submissions are strictly limited to 5 pages, not including a cover page. If a submission exceeds this limit, only its first 5 pages will be evaluated. Submission must maintain 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins and use 12-­point font.
• Teams are free to determine how many members will participate in delivering the pitch.
• During the final round, teams will give a “live” pitch to a panel of judges. Following the team’s 5-minute pitch, judges will have up to 3 minutes to ask questions about the team’s social venture. The question and answer session will be strictly limited to 3 minutes.
• To eliminate the potential for judging bias, participants must avoid listing or disclosing the names of the schools they represent on their written submissions and during their pitches/presentations. The only allowable exception to this rule is a situation in which the school per se constitutes a critical element of the social venture.
• Teams must be comprised of 2-­4 high school students (9th – 12th grade/form) and one teacher or other adult advisor who is in a position to provide the opportunity to participate and is broadly available. All members of a team must be actively enrolled for the duration of the Challenge and in good academic standing at their school.
• Only social ventures that have been conceived by the members of the team may be submitted to the Challenge. If a concept is being submitted that has been conceived also by members not participating in the Diamond Challenge, their names must be disclosed upon registration so as to avoid conflicts of interest among early-stage concepts. Businesses and social enterprises must not have generated more than $50,000 in total revenue prior to the submission deadline for the written concept.

The best preliminary round social venture concept submissions will tell a compelling story that provides:

(1) a profile of the typical customer and/or beneficiary;

(2) a description of the customer’s and/ beneficiary’s problem or point of pain;

(3) the solution you will deliver to solve the customer’s problem;

(4) an answer to the question, “Why will customers/beneficiaries choose your solution over other solutions currently offered?” (i.e. what is your unique value proposition?);

(5) your plan for the sustainability of your proposed solution (describe the revenue model and what fixed and variable costs you expect, as well as how the solution will continue to be delivered and/or long-term impact);

(6) an overview of your team’s relevant experiences, skills, and resources;

(7) any evidence you’ve collected to validate your claims about the problem, customer, beneficiary, solution, unique value proposition, and sustainability model, and;

(8) plans for how the solution will continue to be delivered and the projected long-term impact.

Panels of judges will score all written Social Venture concepts and video pitch presentations on two criteria: (1) social impact, and (2) feasibility and sustainability. Semifinalists will be determined by averaging judges’ scores and equally weighting these criteria. Selection of the three finalist teams will involve a third factor – audience vote. Scores for the audience vote factor will be a function of the total number of votes/likes received for each semifinalist video pitch while it is posted on the Diamond Challenge website for public viewing. Finalists will be determined by adding the social impact and feasibility and sustainability scores, thereby giving equal weighting to each of these factors.

Social Impact:

Social impact refers to the extent to which an organization’s actions have a positive effect on beneficiaries and the surrounding community or environment. Several issues can be expected to influence social impact scores, including:

• To what extent does the team demonstrate a rich understanding of the problem(s), and that it is informed by direct engagement with beneficiaries, payers/customers and others?
• To what extent does the team’s proposed solution appear to solve the problem and deliver superior value (to beneficiaries and payers/customers) in comparison to existing alternatives?
• To what extent are other business/social impact model components, especially the beneficiary engagement and selling process, specified, validated and financially viable?
• To what extent does the team possess the skills and resources needed to execute their business/social impact model or appear likely to succeed in securing necessary talent and resources?

Feasibility and Sustainability:

Feasibility refers to the degree to which the concept can actually work as well as the team’s ability to execute the concept and establish a defensible position in the targeted market(s).

Sustainability refers to the extent to which the venture’s revenues can be expected to be sufficient to maintain or expand operations and continue to deliver positive social impact for the foreseeable future. Several issues can be expected to influence feasibility and sustainability ratings, including:

• How many people and communities are affected by the problem(s) and how severe are the adverse impacts? (i.e. How big is the “market” of beneficiaries, payers/customers and how bad is the problem if not solved?)
• How many people and communities may ultimately be served by the social venture and how much will they benefit?
• Does the venture deliver unique, meaningful benefits – both immediate and longer-term – to people and communities in a way that cannot be easily copied?
• To what extent is the solution scalable and cost-effective?

Wow Factor:

Awarded for creativity, ingenuity, persistence, passion, storytelling and any other intangibles that are deemed likely to influence the feasibility and potential of the venture.