In August 2024, the Prebys Foundation launched Prebys Sparx to invite a wide range of new or existing solutions that employ arts, culture, and/or nature to address growing mental health disparities and promote behavioral well-being among young people ages 0-25 in the San Diego region. Up to four honorable mentions will each receive $25,000 and one grand prize winner will receive $1 million.

Please contact us with any challenge-related questions, requests for help with accessibility and special accommodations, and technical support. 

Once you have registered and throughout the challenge, we will send important notifications to the email address associated with your account, as well as the primary and secondary contacts listed on your registration form. There are three important steps you can take to make sure these messages are received promptly:

1. Add our email address to your contacts.

2. Whitelist our email address. Here are instructions to add to your whitelist in most major email providers.

3. Update your registration form right away if one of your contacts changes. If you need to make a contact change after the application window has closed, please email us, and we will assist you.

This challenge aims to promote mental and behavioral well-being through non-clinical interventions / experiences. The Prebys Foundation defines "non-clinical" health services as interventions that do not involve direct medical treatment, diagnoses, or clinical procedures. Instead, these services focus on social drivers of health (SDoH), such as housing, food access, employment, education, transportation, safety, clean air and water, and as centered in this initiative, arts, culture, and nature. Non-clinical interventions aim to enhance overall quality of life and prevent health issues by addressing these broader determinants of health beyond traditional healthcare (Golden, 2023; Chatterjee, et al., 2018).

We do not have specific definitions of art, culture, nature, mental health, or behavioral health – we leave it up to each participant to demonstrate how the proposed bold ideas and innovative proposals align with the focus of this challenge and the four traits outlined on the scoring rubric. Please review the About page and the FAQs to learn more about the challenge. 

This is the first Prebys Sparx Challenge and, as such, we cannot share examples of past projects that were funded. However, prize philanthropy challenges across the world have a significant history of inspiring innovation by offering incentives for creative solutions to societal issues, leading to impactful advancements in a variety of fields. We encourage you to complete the Readiness Quiz to assess fit and eligibility. Strong applications will focus on one or more of our solution categories (arts, culture, and/or nature) and meet the four criteria outlined in the scoring rubric. 

Prebys Sparx is a challenge that invites bold ideas. The spirit of this program is to source innovative solutions from entities that may already be familiar with the Prebys Foundation, as well as new organizations. The hope is that Prebys Sparx receives ideas that may not have surfaced through a more traditional grant process.  

While this initiative doesn’t have a set numerical goal, the intention is to drive bold efforts with the potential to scale, reaching wider and deeper into the San Diego community, ultimately advancing a long-term vision of a healthy, happy, and resilient San Diego. While some of our initiatives like Healing Through Nature and Arts are currently tracking outcomes such as increased access to community assets and nonclinical well-being resources, improvements in psychological, social, and cognitive health, stronger community connections and greater appreciation for diverse arts, cultures and the natural world, we remain open to embracing other relevant outcomes as they emerge. Prebys is committed to defining success alongside award-winners, ensuring that outcomes are both meaningful and relevant to the shared and aspirational impact.

Prebys Sparx welcomes applications from nonprofit entities serving San Diego County. Each applicant must identify a Lead Organization, and Lead Organizations must be based in San Diego County or partner with a nonprofit that is based in San Diego County to be eligible. The Lead Organization will assume responsibility for the receipt and management of any award. The following organizations are eligible to apply: 

• An entity serving San Diego County, California described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (“IRC”), that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (such entity, a “501(c)(3) organization”).  
• A fiscally-sponsored nonprofit organization serving San Diego County, California.

New nonprofits that otherwise meet the eligibility requirements can apply, and there are no minimum or maximum budget thresholds for eligibility. Review the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements. NOTE: Projects that employ culture to promote behavioral well-being are welcome to apply. Please select “arts and culture” from the options listed under Solution Category when registering.

Prebys Sparx welcomes applications from eligible nonprofit organizations located anywhere in the U.S. and U.S. territories that serve San Diego County. Organizations must be based in San Diego County or partner with a nonprofit that is based in San Diego County to be eligible.

Partnerships must demonstrate authentic collaboration between organizations and must continue for the duration of the one-year project period at minimum. Memorandums of understanding may be requested from Finalists to verify authentic, sustained collaboration. Review the submission requirements to learn more about partnerships.

All proposed projects must serve and benefit youth communities in San Diego County, California. Proposed projects must impact San Diego young people ages 0-25—some benefits are allowed for adults ages 26 and over but the proposed solution should be focused primarily on young people ages 0-25. Projects do not need to impact the entire age range of 0-25. Participants can select the age group(s) that the solution serves under Beneficiaries in the application.

Entities that have previously applied for and/or received a grant from the Prebys Foundation are eligible to apply for this challenge, as are current grant recipients or those applying.

Partnerships are not required as long as the organization is a 501(c)3 organization or a fiscally sponsored nonprofit organization, and the organization is based in San Diego County. If the organization has partners, up to five can be listed under the Partners section of the application. If your proposal consists of more than five partners, you may expand on this in your narrative responses, such as under the Team Structure section.

We encourage you to complete the Readiness Tool and review the Rules to assess your fit and eligibility for the challenge. Proposals that include outdoor elements and/or indoor elements are eligible for the challenge so long as they employ arts, culture, and/or nature to promote behavioral well-being among San Diego youth.

We encourage you to first assess your fit and eligibility for Prebys Sparx, then register no later than 3:00 PM Pacific Time on Thursday, November 7, 2024 to participate. Registration is required and is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, submit your application online no later than 3:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.

You may only complete one submission as the Lead Organization except as described below. A participant can serve as a partner on a team for multiple submissions as long as each of those submissions proposes a separate, distinct solution. This means each project can only be submitted once, and we leave it up to each team to designate their eligible Lead Organization. 

Teams that are operating as fiscally-sponsored projects of a 501(c)(3) organization under formal fiscal sponsorship arrangements may each submit separate applications naming the 501(c)(3) organization as the Lead Organization on their applications. Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and programs within or based in a college/university, may each submit separate applications naming their parent organization as the Lead Organization on their applications.  

In all circumstances described above, the proposed solutions must be separate and distinct. There should be no overlap in personnel/team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

Review the Rules for more information.

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Each application must include a brief video of no more than 90 seconds that showcases your solution. This is an opportunity to share your vision and approach in a way that is different from the written proposal format. You may include screen shots, walk-throughs, or other visuals of your solution if you wish. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video – a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable.

The following are instructions for recording and uploading your video on YouTube:

1. Record a video using your smartphone’s camera app

2. Download and open the YouTube app

3. Sign-in or create an account on YouTube  

4. In YouTube, select “Create” > “Upload a Video”

5. Select your video and press “Next”

6. Set your video’s visibility to “Unlisted,” which will allow only those with the URL link to view your video (do not set to private or public)

7. Select “Upload Video”

8. Check to make sure embedding is turned on.

For more information about video guidelines, review the submission requirements. If you need technical support, you can email us.

Yes, you may update the registration form up until the application deadline at 3:00 PM Pacific Time on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. From the Submissions tab of the platform, you can select Registration Form to update this information.  

There are several sections of the application where participants can indicate the measurable outcomes of their solution, including Solution Description and Assessing Results. Please be sure to review the Application.

Evaluation Panel members will have access to the registration and application forms. The information submitted on these forms will not be anonymous to the judges, so please do not include any sensitive information.

Once the submission deadline passes, the Prebys Sparx team will perform an administrative review to confirm each submission meets the Rules and submission requirements before advancing to Evaluation Panel Review. All reviewers will use the scoring rubric. 

The Selection Committee will review top-scoring submissions and request additional information as needed to select four honorable mentions and one winner based on the Evaluation Panel’s recommended rank order. Final decisions and selection of awards will be made by the Selection Committee and announced by March 2025.

Each Evaluation Panel judge scores and comments on the submissions assigned to them using the scoring rubric. Not only will you receive scores on your submission from five of the judges, but you’ll also get feedback. In addition to numeric scores, Evaluation Panel members are required to provide comments to justify each score and note their overall impression of each application.  

We often find that this feedback is one of the most important aspects of participating in our challenges for our applicants - and that even if you are not selected as an honorable mention or the winner, you walk away with valuable feedback that you can then use to refine your solutions and seek other funding or expanded support.

Award funds must be used for the project for which they are intended and expenses may include, but are not limited to, salaries for project-related staff, reasonable compensation or incentives for program participants, subgrants / payments to project partners and vendors, and other costs necessary for the successful implementation of the proposed solution.

In addition to direct project costs, the budget may include a reasonable allocation for indirect expenses associated with the overall operations of the organization that are shared across the organization's activities. There is no maximum for indirect costs. Please note that we reserve the right to review and adjust the amounts allowed for indirect expenses.

Award funds may not be used:  

• For non-charitable purposes; 

• To influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive (within the meaning of United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”) section 4945(d)(2)); 

• To carry on propaganda or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation within the meaning of Code Section 4945(d)(1); 

• To distribute funds to any organization not related to the proposal; 

• To make a grant to any organization not identified in the proposal, to make a grant to any individual for travel, study, or other similar purposes, or to make a grant to any organization, except in compliance with the provisions of Sections 4945(g) or (h), as the case may be;  

• For the creation of any endowment or for the aggregation of philanthropic capital by organizations that regrant to nonprofit organizations; 

• For the creation of a venture capital fund, or pooled funds to invest in or distribute to for-profit organizations. 

• For loans or microloans to individuals, nonprofit, or for-profit entities;  

• To fund general operating support for the Lead Organization and/or any partners;  

• To fund political organizations (501(c)(4) organizations and 527s).  

• For government services.

Review section 5 of the Rules for more information. Be sure to list budget items in the Budget section of the application. Please email us if you have a specific question about eligible use of funds.

Prebys Sparx is offering up to a 12-month project period for the winner. This project period must be up to 12 continuous months. The winner will be selected and announced February-March 2025. Prebys Foundation will then work with the winner to execute the grant agreement, which will outline the project start and end date. The grantee will be expected to return any unexpended funds to the Prebys Foundation at the end of the project period. Please review the Timeline, Rules, and Sample Agreement.

Funds will be paid to the grantee upon receipt of the properly completed grant agreement and satisfactory compliance with all special conditions, as outlined in the Sample Agreement. This means that funds will be available during the project implementation period. The sequence of disbursement(s) of funds will be negotiated within the grant agreement.

Honorable mentions are a recognition of an excellent idea/project that did not win the ultimate prize. The $25,000 can be used at the applicant's discretion and no reporting will be required. 

The winner of the challenge who enters into a separate agreement to receive funding will be required to report progress towards milestones and other goals. Those reporting requirements may vary, based on the organization and the project, and will be determined by the Prebys Foundation. It is likely necessary that a minimum of one financial report and one narrative report may be required by the end of the one-year project period. Review the Rules and Sample Agreement for more information.