This is what it's all about.
Our idea is to identify the climate challenge that matters the most to the people in Zurich.
With this crowdfunding campaign, we want to gather the financial means to involve the people of Zurich in the definition process of a local climate challenge. At Climathon in October, we then bring a diverse set of people together for 32h and support them - together with our coaches and experts - to develop climate solutions for their challenge.
Facilitating such a crowd challenge would create attention and interest in local climate initiatives prior to the actual climate hackathon, promoting engagement and reflection on the topic. By doing so, we aim to reach, inspire, and involve more people over an extended period. Moreover, this participatory process gives citizens the opportunity to work on a challenge they are truly passionate about. This will undoubtedly encourage even more people to participate in the Climathon and contribute to local solutions, further expanding our climate community.
The uniqueness of our project.
Climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our generation and requires the mobilisation of every individual. Success depends on measures and innovations at both the economic and social levels to help citizens understand the influencing factors and shape the future. This is where initiatives like Climathon Zurich play a crucial role.
Since 2019, we have been organising Climathon Zurich, sometimes on a smaller scale, sometimes larger - depending on our funding. Every year, we bring together 50-200 people to generate new initiatives addressing challenges in areas such as food, mobility, energy, consumption, and greening. We believe in this format because it is incredibly inclusive and empowering: Climathon is accessible to everyone and creates significant momentum for the local climate scene, thanks to the diverse skills, perspectives, backgrounds, passions, and creativity that we bring together at the event.
The past editions of Climathon Zurich have generated over 60 projects and built a real community of citizens actively contributing to shaping a sustainable future. We create impact for the climate through the projects that are implemented and further developed locally after the Climathon. We invite our ecosystem, such as the Female Founder Initiative or various Innosuisse Boosters, to provide visibility and support projects with coaching and expertise.
Furthermore, we create impact on a personal level: Every change maker who participates in the Climathon learns, expands their own climate network, and is inspired and empowered to engage beyond the event.
Lastly, with Climathon, we conduct a significant amount of educational work. Through our channels, we reach many people beyond Zurich and inspire them to take active steps. All in all, it is the people and the energy generated through collaboration that make Climathon special.
In previous years, the challenges were always defined by our partners, particularly the City of Zurich. This year, we want to enable a crowd challenge that is developed in collaboration with citizens. We hope that this approach will reach even more people outside of the climate bubble and engage more of them in climate action.
This is what we need backing for
With CHF 12,500, we could organize a crowd challenge at Climathon 2023. Specifically, we would be able to carry out the following activities:
- Coordination of a participatory process to collect and prioritise topics and specific challenges from citizens and stakeholders in Zurich
- Campaign to mobilise citizens and stakeholders on the chosen theme
- Recruitment and briefing of coaches and experts on the selected topic
- Screening of projects and participants for the Crowd Challenge
- Screening and onboarding of incubation partners and organizations related to the selected topic to provide further support to the team in implementing the project in the streets of Zurich.
With additional financial support beyond the CHF 12,500, we would be able to enable the following additional activities:
- Expansion of the timeframe and communication measures: Inclusion and coordination on the Klimaforum Zurich platform to gather more ideas for the challenge, even beyond the Climathon weekend.
- Organization of a follow-up event three months after the Climathon to showcase the progress of the projects and bring together the nationwide Climathon alumni community in Zurich.
- Provision of a 3-month Starter-Impact Hub Zurich membership as a prize for the winning project team (5 people, worth CHF 2,250) of the crowd challenge, to further accompany the team in implementing the project in the streets of Zurich.
