GALEWiLL Design announced today that it is the winner of a grant from the Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  GALEWiLL Design, President Bob McKinnon, and Managing Director Kathryn Kahler Vose will use the grant funds to develop its concept for communicating the importance of investments that support global development “Translation:  A Whole New Way of Talking about Aid”.

“We are honored to be chosen by the Gates Foundation and believe we can help the development community more effectively tell the story of how modest investments can make a huge difference in millions of lives,” McKinnon said.

“For too long, we’ve used words that may be right for the internal aid community, but don’t work for the world in general,” Vose said. “ ‘Translation’  holds the promise to change that.”

Grand Challenges Explorations (GCE) funds individuals worldwide who are taking innovative approaches to some of the world’s toughest and persistent global health and development challenges.  GCE invests in the early stages of bold ideas that have real potential to help solve the problems people in the developing world face every day. GALEWiLL Design’s project is one of over 80 Grand Challenges Explorations Round 9 grants announced today by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

“We continue to be impressed by the novelty and innovative spirit of the Grand Challenges Explorations grantees,” said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery and Translational Sciences at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “These projects hold real potential to help improve the health of millions of people in the developing world, and ensure that everyone has the chance to live a healthy productive life.”

To receive funding, GALEWiLL Design and other Grand Challenges Explorations Round 9 winners demonstrated in a two-page online application a creative idea in one of five critical global heath and development topic areas that included agriculture development, immunization and communications. Applications for the current open round, Grand Challenges Explorations Round 10, will be accepted through November 7, 2012. 

The GALEWiLL Design has a long history of crafting messages that explain complicated, nuanced ideas filled with jargon and acronyms into language that is truthful and faithful yet compelling.  The idea for “Translation” rests on the premise that just because one is talking about foreign aid does not mean one must talk in a foreign language. The GALEWiLL team proposes to translate the complicated language of foreign aid into simplified, compelling messages using a proven, research-based methodology and develop a one-of-a-kind digital translation tool to help the aid community tell the compelling, human stories.

About Grand Challenges Explorations
Grand Challenges Explorations is a US$100 million initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Launched in 2008, over 700 people in 45 countries have received Grand Challenges Explorations grants.  The grant program is open to anyone from any discipline and from any organization.  The initiative uses an agile, accelerated grant-making process with short two-page online applications and no preliminary data required.  Initial grants of US$100,000 are awarded two times a year. Successful projects have the opportunity to receive a follow-on grant of up to US$1 million.

About GALEWiLL Design
GALEWiLL Design is a for-purpose company that designs social change programs, communications, advocacy and action. There is a gale of forces all around us and the will within us that can create change. We believe we must address both to move the world forward. 100% of our work is social-change driven and we partner with changemakers within government, foundations, non-profits and corporations to design new ways to help people get to a better place. We've designed programs, messaging, framing, campaigns, tools, outreach, public relations, advertising, websites, collateral, events and training. If it can move the world forward, we will design it.

GALEWiLL

GALEWiLL

GALEWiLL Design is a for-purpose company that designs social change programs, communications, advocacy and action. There is a gale of forces all around us and the will within us that can create change. We believe we must address both to move the world forward. 100% of our work is social-change driven and we partner with changemakers within government, foundations, non-profits and corporations to design new ways to help people get to a better place. We've designed programs, messaging, framing, campaigns, tools, outreach, public relations, advertising, websites, collateral, events and training. If it can move the world forward, we will design it.

More from GALEWiLL