RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—CO-OP Financial Services is again partnering with OpenIDEO to launch CO-OP THINK Prize 16: The Financial Longevity Challenge, co-sponsored by Mastercard.
Like last year, the 2016 challenge will capitalize on the OpenIDEO online collaborative platform, with the emphasis this year on finding financial technology solutions for aging consumers.
“There are many fintech solutions in the market geared toward the Millennial generation,” said Samantha Paxson, chief marketing officer, in a statement. “However, these solutions are often outside the technology scope of the aged and could pose more harm than good towards the goal of protecting their financial assets. This year’s Challenge focuses on the economic impact of the aging population – specifically, the importance and increased relevance of financial services.”
The question posed in the 2016 Challenge is: “How might we create financial services that support the dreams and obligations of those 50 and older?” The Challenge is already open and accessible at https://challenges.openideo.com/challenge/financial-longevity. A $10,000 prize will be divided among up to five individuals who offer the best ideas in response to the Challenge question.
CO-OP said a new element to the Challenge is a series of collaboration training workshops for credit union employees to be held in November and December. Co-sponsored again by Mastercard, the half-day sessions will be led by OpenIDEO facilitators and “Credit Union Innovation Fellows” (credit union employees working with CO-OP and OpenIDEO on this initiative). Dates and locations are to be announced, and inquiries can be directed to marketing@co-opfs.org
According to CO-OP, the Challenge is proceeding in five phases over the course of more than three months, according to OpenIDEO’s crowd-sourcing format: Research, Ideas, Feedback, Refinement and Evaluation.
The CUSO said participants may enter the process anytime, and new ideas can be submitted any time before the end of phase two, Nov. 27.
The current timeline:
- Phase 1: Underway now and extending through Oct. 30: The Research phase enables anyone to share personal perspectives and examples on the challenge topic.
- Phase 2: Oct. 31-Nov. 27: The Ideas phase is open, enabling anyone to submit and comment on new ideas.
- Phase 3: Nov. 28-Dec. 4: The short Feedback phase will result in approximately 25 ideas to go into the Refinement phase.
- Phase 4: Dec. 5-Dec. 30: In Refinement, the ideas with the most potential impact will be refined and built out by the idea authors and their teams.
On Jan. 12, 2017, five top ideas will be announced, based on a judging panel of OpenIDEO staff and CO-OP and MasterCard representatives.
After that date, the Challenge will remain live for Phase 5, Impact, enabling the community to continue collaborating and sharing progress.