Application
Review the questions and materials you will need to submit your solution.
Thank you for participating in the Zero Electrocution Challenge!
We recommend reading all requirements for this application before you begin and encourage you to review the Rules and FAQ, as well as the scoring rubric that will be used to assess all valid applications.
This application form saves automatically and the status of your application is available to view on your dashboard. You have the option to request an automated confirmation email after clicking Submit – be sure the checkbox is clicked to opt into this email when the confirmation message appears.
Your submission may be shared with five of your fellow applicants as part of Peer-to-Peer Review, five Evaluation Panel members, the Selection Committee, and the ZERO 2050 team during the evaluation process. Portions of your applications may be published online and may be shared with the general public to promote your proposal or to highlight results. Those portions may include, but are not limited to: Lead Organization, Lead Organization Website, Solution Title, Solution Statement, Executive Summary, Video Pitch, and Solution Description.
Responses to this submission form must be in English. This provides consistency across all submissions during our review process and reduces the risk of misinterpretation or translation error.
Prior to submission:
- Confirm the information provided on the Registration Form is correct (go to Submissions and select Registration Form).
- Be sure to review your submission as it will appear after it has been submitted (click Preview next to Submit).
- When you have completed all requirements, you will be able to submit the application form. Once you have submitted, you will no longer be able to make changes.
Submit your application no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, July 16, 2026. Contact questions@zero2050.org with questions or technical issues.
All fields are required unless otherwise noted.
A. QUICK PITCH
Make a strong first impression with a succinct and compelling overview of your solution. In this section, avoid using first-person language, acronyms, jargon, or complex language that may be difficult for the general public to comprehend. Your responses to this section may be shared publicly in a variety of online settings.
Solution Title (up to 10 words)
Provide a title for your proposed solution that easily identifies and distinguishes it from others.
Solution Statement (up to 25 words)
Provide a short, one- to two-sentence description of your proposed solution.
Executive Summary (up to 75 words)
Provide a concise summary of the most compelling aspects of your proposed solution. This should be a stand-alone statement of the problem, solution, and intended results. It should not require any other context to clearly explain what you are seeking to accomplish.
B. VIDEO PITCH
You are required to submit a video that captures your solution and describes why it should be funded. The video is an opportunity to showcase your passion and to pitch your story in a succinct format. We want you to share your vision in a way that is different from the written proposal. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video – a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable.
To complete this requirement, upload a digital film using YouTube. Video submissions must follow these guidelines or else it will render the application ineligible:
- Ninety (90) seconds in length maximum.
- In English, or if in another language, subtitled in English.
- Must be captioned. See information about automatic captioning for YouTube videos here.
- Excludes images of identifiable children (under age 18) without express parental consent.
- Excludes copyrighted material (including, but not limited to, music) for which you do not have a license.
- Set the Privacy Settings on your video to Public or Unlisted – do not set them to Private. When setting as Unlisted, only those with the URL – such as the ZERO 2050 team, the Evaluation Panel members, and the Selection Committee – will be able to access and view the video.
- Check to make sure embedding is turned on.
- Be sure all these settings are in place throughout the duration of the competition.
Here are general suggestions for delivering a high-quality video pitch:
- Introduce yourself and your organization(s) or team.
- Explain your solution, its impact, and what is unique about the way it addresses the problem.
- Describe how you plan to measure success and achieve meaningful results. Do not simply read a slide deck – instead, make an effort to connect with your audience of Peer Review and Evaluation Panel judges.
C. THE TEAM
Provide a basic understanding of the leadership, structure, and capabilities of those working on this solution. Should you receive funding, you must designate a Lead Organization responsible for taking accountability for those award funds, as well as providing sustained project direction, control, and supervision. The Lead Organization was identified during registration. If the Lead Organization has changed, please select Registration Form from the Submissions menu to update the Lead Organization information.
Partners
We welcome applications from teams that include multiple organizations and reflect cross-sector partnerships. If your team consists of two or more organizations, list them using the legal name of each partner. If your team does not consist of two or more organizations, enter “Not applicable.”
Team Structure (up to 150 words)
Describe the roles, responsibilities, and contributions of each key team member/partner. Explain how the team will work together, including any reporting structures between the partners and Lead Organization.
Team Biographies (up to 200 words)
Introduce us to at least one and up to three individuals who will oversee and be responsible for the success of the project. For each, provide a first/last name, title, and affiliation (if applicable), and a brief biographical statement. Emphasize the expertise and/or credentials that are most relevant to this project.
Track Record & Capabilities (up to 150 words)
Describe the past success of your team’s leadership, members, and collaborators or partners. If relevant, include details about how and why the collaboration was formed. Explain how your team is uniquely positioned with the right capabilities, experience, technical expertise, and commitment to execute your project. Be sure to include core competencies and how they apply to your project, any relevant past endeavors or experience, and any other additional details that support your ability to deliver results.
D. THE PROBLEM
Here is your opportunity to more fully explain the problem you intend to solve. Your definition of the problem must link directly to fatal workplace electrocution.
Problem Statement (up to 150 words)
Set the stage for your solution and explain why you have committed to help solve this problem. Describe the problem, how it relates to fatal electrocution on the job, and the specific issue your solution will address.
Local Conditions (up to 150 words)
Describe the local conditions in and around where you intend to implement your solution. This is your opportunity to showcase that you’ve taken time to understand any issues that are important and/or unique to the workplaces and stakeholders you aim to serve, as applicable.
E. THE SOLUTION
The Zero Electrocution Challenge seeks bold solutions for eliminating life-threatening tasks that lead to fatal electrocution on the job, while advancing enterprise productivity and profitability. Illustrate your approach and the benefits your solution will deliver. Emphasize how your solution aligns with the criteria used to assess each valid application (see scoring rubric).
Solution Stage
Select one option that best describes the project stage for your proposed solution. NOTE: Solutions at any stage are eligible to apply. The scoring rubric considers evidence of effectiveness and feasibility, regardless of stage.
- Research & Ideation: In the process of developing a new approach to addressing the issue but has not tested the approach.
- Proof of Concept: Has been implementing the strategy for a small number of targeted stakeholders and/or at a small scale.
- Scaling: Has evidence of impact and is expanding and adapting the strategy, but has yet to achieve large-scale implementation.
- Operating at Scale: Has evidence its strategy achieves impact and is delivering the solution at scale, but further iteration/evolution of the solution may increase impact.
Solution Description (up to 250 words)
Describe your solution and how it will eliminate fatal workplace electrocution. Provide an overview of key stakeholders and introduce the measurable impact and benefits to these populations. Note: Later in the application you will have additional opportunities to describe stakeholders, beneficiaries, and intended impact in more detail.
Innovation (up to 150 words)
Explain how your solution diverges from, enhances, and/or reinforces existing methods/practices. Emphasize unique aspects of your solution and why you believe it will be more effective, efficient, or impactful than existing efforts to address the problem.
Integration (up to 200 words)
Further illustrate your understanding of the current environment where you have chosen to implement your solution, including currently relevant systems and local conditions which affect your plans. Address issues that might concern stakeholders, such as cost, implementation, and effects on productivity. Explain how you’ll build upon and integrate within existing systems and infrastructure.
Intellectual Property (up to 150 words)
Explain who owns the intellectual property of your proposed solution. If you are building on existing or off-the-shelf technology, detail the permissions you have to use that technology. If you are part of a team, indicate which team members own the intellectual property. If this is not relevant to your solution, enter “Not applicable.”
Project Visual (up to three pages)
Upload a single PDF that includes a visual representation of your project, as well as technical features and/or technical expertise described above. This may include, but is not limited to: illustrations, schematics, images, graphs, diagrams, user flow, maps, flow charts, organizational charts, or other visuals to help reviewers to better understand your team and proposed approach. The PDF should not exceed 10MB and a total of three pages, and should not contain additional text explanations or be used to circumvent word counts in this application. Some brief labels and/or basic text descriptions are permitted. Any pages beyond the three-page limit, as well as unrelated content to this specific question, will render the application ineligible.
F. STAKEHOLDERS
Tell us more about where your solution will focus its impact and the stakeholders that will benefit.
Beneficiary Description & Engagement (up to 250 words)
Describe the people, workplaces, industries, and geographies that your solution is intended to benefit. Explain your priority beneficiary(ies), as well as any secondary or other populations who may engage with and/or benefit from the solution. Describe your approach to responding to existing and expected needs of these populations. Identify which beneficiaries you have engaged so far and how you will continue to engage them to ensure your solution successfully achieves your goals.
Stakeholder Engagement (up to 200 words)
To be effective, solutions will need support or partnership from others – investors, technology partners, industry leaders, trade associations, etc. Demonstrate your understanding of the key stakeholders necessary for your work to be effective and describe plans to engage them on an ongoing basis to ensure long-term success. Articulate any costs/burdens that stakeholders may be expected to absorb.
G. THE IMPACT
Demonstrate how your solution will achieve results, including evidence that supports your approach. Solutions should eliminate life-threatening tasks that lead to fatal electrocution on the job, while increasing profitability and productivity.
Metrics & Results (up to 250 words)
Identify all goals, specific metrics, and/or objectives to reduce fatal electrocution and increase productivity and cost-efficiencies through your proposed solution during the maximum two-year project period. Describe your methodology for measuring the overall performance of the proposed strategy and outline the means through which you will track results or milestones to indicate success.
Scalability (up to 200 words)
Share your vision for expanding your reach and the plans you have to expand your solution to different contexts, including any plans to promote your solution to enable broader impact. Explain how your solution could be scaled or replicated to decrease and eventually eliminate fatal electrocution in a range of workplaces. If you expect a significant change in your reach in the coming two years, describe the factors that will affect this change.
Long-term Impact (up to 150 words)
Describe the impact your solution will have beyond the two-year project period. Share your goals for long-term success and illustrate your vision for how your project will evolve in the future.
Evidence of Effectiveness (up to 150 words)
Provide evidence to show that the solution will work. Present any internal (e.g., informal studies, observations, or other indicators of change) or formal evidence, including any evaluation results. If you do not have evidence of impact of your own solution, can you point to research-backed practices on which your solution is based, or analogous solutions achieving meaningful impact that you think your solution may similarly achieve? Note: You may include a bibliography below under References.
Evidence Type
Select one option that best describes the level of evidence supporting your proposed solution.
- There is a theoretical logic model for the strategy, but it has never been implemented.
- Strategy has been implemented, but team has not (yet) formally tracked outcomes or collected measurable effect or beneficiary feedback (as relevant).
- Formally collects and documents qualitative and/or quantitative feedback to assess progress but has not conducted a formal assessment.
- Has conducted internal evaluations or outcome assessments.
- There has been at least one external evaluation of outcomes.
- There has been an external assessment of impact (e.g., RCT; quasi-experimental design; contribution analysis; collective impact).
References (up to 100 words)
If you included citations for Evidence of Effectiveness, provide a bibliography with a corresponding bracketed number [#] for each citation. There is no specific required format for citations. You may also offer a list of resources that may be used to validate general claims made in your application. If not applicable, enter “Not applicable.”
Communications (up to 100 words)
Briefly describe your plans to promote your solution and/or share your results, key findings, lessons learned, and other helpful information with others. If applicable, explain how your solution could serve as a model for other workplaces/industries.
H. PROJECT PLAN & BUDGET
Illustrate your plan and the resources required to successfully implement your solution.
Plan & Timeline Narrative (up to 250 words)
Offer a general overview of your implementation plan over the course of a maximum two-year project period. Include quarterly or monthly key activities and milestones to help track and measure success.
Risk Mitigation (up to 100 words)
Explain how you will ensure your solution is feasible. Describe the main risks your solution could fail, as well as any unintended consequences, and your plan to address them. Discuss your experience and capacity to manage technical and/or operational barriers.
Budget Narrative (150 words)
Offer a general overview of how you will use the $1 million award, including projected needs by category. You may include any explanations of existing resources you have already secured.
Detailed Budget
Provide a detailed budget for how the $1 million award would be spent. Funds identified in this table should reflect and clarify your general explanations provided in Budget Narrative above and include more detailed cost categories that support your plans and intended outcomes. Avoid any general line-item descriptions such as “Miscellaneous.”
While general operating support is not allowed, we recognize applicants may have overhead costs that are not directly attributable to the proposed project but are necessary for implementation. We reserve the right to review and adjust the amounts allocated for indirect expenses. We will consider paying for reasonable indirect costs specified in this application. Ensure that any indirect costs are accounted for in your budget below. Review the Rules for more information about ineligible expenses and indirect costs.
The budget must account for the full $1 million award. Only include line items with a dollar amount greater than $0. Up to 50 line items may be entered and each description field has a maximum of 25 words.
Total Amount Requested
Provide the total amount of funding requested (in US dollars). This must equal 1,000,000. Note that only numbers can be entered below.
Total Projected Costs
Provide the estimated total costs (in US dollars) to successfully implement your proposed solution over a maximum two-year period.
Total Resource Requirements (up to 100 words)
If your project requires more than $1 million (USD), explain how you have secured (or plan to secure) the balance of any necessary funds and provide an overview of how those funds will be used. If your total projected costs do not exceed $1 million (USD), enter “Not applicable.”
Other Funders (up to 75 words)
List other key funders and amount of funding secured to date for the proposed solution, including in-kind support. If there are no current commitments for the solution, enter “Not applicable.”
Cost Reduction & Sustainability (up to 200 words)
Describe any cost savings you anticipate incurring over time and explain what milestones need to be reached to experience these savings. Share plans to leverage additional resources to sustain and/or scale your approach beyond the maximum two-year project period.
Other Considerations (up to 100 words)
This is your opportunity to raise any other considerations, emphasize or expand upon a previous point, or provide new information, as necessary. Note: Evaluation Panel judges are instructed to avoid online research and/or review of links that may be provided as part of this submission – we recommend you include any key considerations and important information within your responses to this application form.
I. ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Provide additional information about the Lead Organization.
Lead Organization Identification Number (up to 5 words)
Provide the identification number provided by the Lead Organization’s taxing authority (e.g., the Internal Revenue Service). If this is in progress, insert “Pending approval.”
Annual Operating Budget
What is the annual operating budget (USD) of the Lead Organization?
Financials
If you are selected to participate in future phases of the competition, we may require information necessary to understand the financial health of the Lead Organization. The ZERO 2050 team may request audited financial reports, 990’s, and/or certified financials for the past two (2) years.
Provide confirmation that you will be able to provide this information should you be selected as a finalist.
- Yes, the Lead Organization can provide these financials if selected to participate in future phases of the competition.
J. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If your team is invited to participate in any future phases of this competition, you may be asked to provide additional information (refer to the Rules and Timeline), including but not limited to:
- Pitch or demo of the proposed solution
- Your acceptance of a separate award agreement with the McElhattan Foundation
- Additional information about your organization
- A more detailed budget, project plan, and/or project timeline
- Additional information about charitable purpose and compliance with private benefit rule
- Fully executed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with any partners
- Tax determination letter, if applicable
- Audited financial statements, 990s, and/or certified financials
- Articles of Incorporation, Charter, or similar documentation
- Evidence of efficacy of the solution, including technical capabilities if applicable
- Evidence of additional funding and resources secured to implement the proposed solution
- Existing policies, if any, addressing conflicts of interest, whistleblower, internal controls, anti-money laundering, intellectual property, code of conduct, ethics, gifts, and any similar policies governing the Lead Organization and/or partners
The McElhattan Foundation reserves the right to perform background checks on key individuals associated with the proposal, and the refusal by key individuals to provide necessary authorizations will be a reason to reject any application for further consideration. Background information and the results of any background checks will be kept confidential.
