About the Prize
The Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability is an annual award recognizing ambitious, feasible, and scalable solutions to housing affordability. The Prize is designed to award innovators for their efforts and provide material support to advance their projects. The search committee looks for solutions which combine elements of finance, policy, and design/construction.
2024 Ivory Prize Competition
2024 Ivory Prize Competition Timeline
September 1, 2023:
Nominations and applications open for the Ivory PrizeDecember 31, 2023:
Ivory Prize applications closeMid-February, 2024:
Ivory Prize Top 25 AnnouncedMid-March, 2024:
Ivory Prize Top 10 AnnouncedMay 16, 2024:
Ivory Prize Winners Announced
If you have any questions about the timeline above, please email info@ivoryinnovations.org
Competition Details
01. Applications
Any organization (public or private sector, small or large) may be nominated for the Ivory Prize by an outside source or through the self-nomination process.
02. Due Diligence
All nominees are screened and reviewed by the Ivory Innovations team with the help of our Advisory Board and Ivory Innovations Fellows.03. Finalist Rounds
Chosen finalists will be announced.04. Winners Announced
Ivory Prize Winners receive unrestricted grant funding and recognition as part of the Ivory Prize awards process.
$300,000
+IN-KIND SUPPORT
Awards
The Ivory Prize awards up to three hundred thousand dollars each year to the most promising housing innovations in the country. Winners are selected in at least each of the award components — construction and design (including both new construction and rehabilitation), policy and regulatory reform, and finance.
We are partnering with the Housing Lab at the Terner Center at UC Berkeley to send one of our top entrants through the accelerator, if one of our entrants is selected. The program is focused on lowering the cost of housing. We also look to place student interns funded by Ivory Innovations with some of the winning companies to provide any additional support they may need.
The Advisory Board will play a key role in determining the final distribution of the awards related to the prize.
What happens during our Due Diligence Process?
01. Screening
Candidates are evaluated for completeness of application and alignment with the Ivory Prize mission of supporting scalable solutions in housing affordability.
02. Qualification Round.
Candidates that match our criteria are referred to a group of Ivory Innovations evaluators with relevant expertise. Some nominees will be visited during this process or receive requests for additional information.
03. Advisory Committee
Top candidates from the Qualification Round will be selected as finalists and winners by the Ivory Innovations Advisory Board and Ivory Innovations Fellows.