Frequently
Asked
Questions

Yes! Please register no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, December 11, 2025 for any and all pillars that are of interest.

Registration is a simple, five-minute process (watch this two-minute video tutorial) and gives you the opportunity to submit an application for each pillar once you decide. A separate registration is required for each pillar and must be completed to be able to access the online application.

Here is a link to the recording of the webinar, as well as a link to the ​​questions that were answered. The following FAQs have also been updated to reflect some webinar questions.

Please read this page in its entirety, and email us if you have more questions or need technical support.

The WIN Culture & Practices Challenge seeks trailblazing, evidence-based, and scalable approaches to address the key barriers women face at work and to advance processes, standards, and norms that help everyone thrive in a rapidly changing workplace.

The WIN Culture & Practices Challenge is one of three challenges launched in September 2025 as part of the Workplace Innovation Now Challenge (WIN Challenge), a new initiative of Aspen Digital, supported by Pivotal, a group of organizations founded by Melinda French Gates.

The WIN Culture & Practices Challenge is an opportunity to find creative, actionable, and scalable solutions that support women in a rapidly changing workplace—and help everyone thrive—through three challenges awarding a total of up to $60 million in grants. Each of the following pillars offers a total of up to $20 million to award grants of either $2.5 million or $5 million to up to eight applicants.

• WIN Culture & Practices Challenge. Seeks trailblazing, evidence-based, and scalable approaches to address the key barriers women face at work and to advance processes, standards, and norms that help everyone thrive in a rapidly changing workplace.  
• WIN AI Challenge. Seeks bold, scalable solutions to address the impact and potential of AI in quickly evolving workplaces, from AI-powered solutions that help women at work, to AI skill-building and solutions that mitigate bias in AI.
• WIN Narrative Challenge. Seeks game-changing approaches to shape new narratives that help women thrive and everyone win as workplaces are transforming.  

The WIN Challenge welcomes applications from eligible organizations, such as nonprofits located and serving communities, audiences, and/or organizations within the United States and U.S. territories.

Applications that include multiple organizations and/or cross-sector partnerships are eligible. However, the Lead Organization must be an eligible organization, responsible for receiving and taking accountability for any grant funds, as well as providing overall direction, control, and supervision for the project. The selection of the Lead Organization is up to each team to determine and describe in the application.

Fiscally-sponsored nonprofit organizations based in the U.S. and/or U.S.territories are eligible to apply as a lead. If an organization does not yet have their nonprofit status, and are operating under a fiscal sponsor (another nonprofit organization), then that fiscally sponsored organization is eligible to apply. If the fiscally sponsored organization is awarded a grant, then the grant will be sent to its fiscal sponsor to manage. Applicants may list both its fiscal sponsor and the nonprofit organization in the Lead Organization field on the registrationform, such as Organization/(Fiscal Sponsor is _____).

Note that educational entities must be 501(c)(3) organizations to be an eligible Lead Organization.

Applicants are also welcome to establish nonprofit entities to serve as a lead. However, if an Applicant does not have its tax-exempt status under the IRS by the time grants are awarded under this competition, the organization must have a fiscal sponsor that meets the WIN Challenge eligibility requirements to receive a grant award. Failure to secure tax-exempt status or secure an eligible fiscal sponsor will render an Applicant ineligible to receive a grant award under this competition.

For-profit companies, individuals, government agencies, and non-U.S.-based organizations are encouraged to serve as part of a team on a submission by an eligible Lead Organization. An organization can also serve as a partner on a team for multiple applications provided that each application proposes a separate, distinct solution.

Please note: Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a nonprofit college/university, may each register and submit separate applications naming their parent organization as the Lead Organization. Similarly, applicants may include a specific branch or department along with the parent organization in the Lead Organization field on the registration form.

In all these circumstances, the proposed solutions must be separate and distinct. There should be no overlap in personnel/team members. The intent here is to ensure that teams are concentrating their best effort into one application. Teams are encouraged to select a single project that best represents its organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

Review the rules for more information and take the readiness quiz to help determine your eligibility and fit for the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge.

Past and current grantees of Pivotal and the Aspen Institute are eligible to apply. Current programs of the Aspen Institute are not eligible to apply as a Lead Organization and cannot serve as part of a team submitting the application and/or implementing the proposed solution.

Yes, for-profit and government entities are eligible and encouraged to participate, but cannot apply as a Lead Organization – these entities must apply as a partner on a proposal submitted by an eligible Lead Organization. Please review the rules for more information and email us if you have questions (and please be sure to specify the pillar(s) / challenge(s) you are referencing in the subject line of your email).

​​​​Please visit the ​​About​​ ​​​​​​​​page for each pillar to understand the research that shaped the pillars and to help hone the solution you will present in your application. ​​​

The WIN Culture & Practices Challenge prioritizes solutions that lead to systemic and lasting impact through workplace policies, practices, and culture. (The WIN Challenge is not focused on government policy.) Applications will focus on systemic solutions that meet the four criteria outlined in the scoring rubric and that address one or more of the following barriers specific to culture and practices in the workplace:

• Caregiving Responsibilities
• The Broken Rung
• Inflexible Workplaces
• Violence and Sexual Harassment
• Bias and Toxic Workplace Culture
• Salary Discrepancy

Proposals from organizations operating in a range of stages will be encouraged to apply. From early-stage organizations with a new idea, to existing organizations and partnerships with strong proofs of concepts or proven solutions ready to scale.

​​​​​​​Please also visit the Resources page and scroll down to ​​Solution Stage​​ to learn more about how we describe the eligible solution stages for the WIN Challenges. ​​Review the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge About page and “The Challenge” section in the read-only application to determine which barrier your application will address.

The WIN Challenge welcomes proposals with solutions that engage men in creating workplaces where women thrive, while creating better workplaces for everyone and strengthening our economy. Applicants will be asked to describe how their innovative idea supports working women and by extension helps everyone—families, communities, and/or the economy overall—to thrive in a rapidly changing work environment. Applicants should propose tools, strategies, and resources that are nondiscriminatory, and that help support women in the workplace without discriminating against men or members of protected categories. Applicants should not propose programs that exclude employees from jobs, promotions, contracts, or other specific employment opportunities based on their sex, race, or other protected characteristics.

Learn more here, review these resources, and please take the readiness quiz to help determine your eligibility and fit for the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge.

There are no requirements for a specific organizational budget range or capacity, and there are no requirements or preferences as they relate to the age of the organization or the project.

Under the Rules, Section 5. Financial & Organizational Capacity, all applicants must demonstrate the financial capacity of any Lead Organization that may be the recipient of any award to carry out any project and to appropriately manage any Award.  

Applicants have the opportunity to demonstrate this on the application under Section C. The Team and Section F. Beneficiaries & Impact, and by providing two years of financials under Section H. Administrative Information.

Please review the scoring rubric to learn more about how each proposal will be evaluated.  

The WIN Challenge Team requires information necessary to understand the financial health of the Lead Organization. The application will request audited financial reports from the past two (2) years for the Lead Organization. If audited financial reports are not available, upload 990s or certified financials for the past two (2) years for the Lead Organization. You may submit the two years of financial records in any standard format.

Collaborations and partnerships are welcome. Once you complete the registration form, you can log in to Carrot’s application platform and access Forums. Here, you could post information about the types of partners you are looking for. You are also welcome to research and reach out directly to organizations who look like a good fit.

Before deciding whether to submit an application, we encourage you to complete this readiness quiz, then carefully review and reflect on the application requirements and scoring rubric.  

​​Once you’ve determined you’re a strong fit for the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge, register no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, December 11, 2025. 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 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, January 27, 2026.

​​​​​Once you complete the registration form, you will be able to access the online application form and forums on the platform. You can also opt in to receive confirmation of your registration and application submission​​

We also encourage all participants to consider the amount of time and resources required to be competitive. Please review this read-only version of the application and word count overview in full before deciding to register and apply and note: those who submit valid applications will move on to Peer-to-Peer review where each applicant will be responsible for reviewing five applications in March—April 2026 submitted by fellow applicants using the scoring rubric. Peer-to-Peer review is required to remain eligible to move on to the Evaluation Panel.

Your submission may be shared with five of your fellow applicants as part of Peer-to-Peer Review, five Evaluation Panel members, designated members of the WIN Council, and the WIN Challenge team during the evaluation process.

All peer reviewers and Evaluation Panel judges will be required to  commit to keeping all application materials they review confidential, given the proprietary nature of solutions being presented.

Though it is important to note that portions of your applications may be published online and may be shared by the WIN Challenge team with the general public to promote your proposal or to highlight results. Those portions may include, but are not limited to: Lead Organization, Website, Project Title, Project Statement,Executive Summary, Video Presentation, and Project Description.

Please provide as much relevant information as necessary for reviewers to evaluate.

The WIN Challenge recognizes that innovation emerges from novel, original ideas or a new application of an existing method. We are seeking trailblazing, evidence-based, and scalable approaches to address the key barriers women face at work and to advance new processes, standards, and norms that help everyone, especially women, to thrive in a rapidly transforming workplace.

Applications should demonstrate how the proposed solution can be scaled. Scale may mean expanding to new geographies, or it may mean how you intend to amplify your impact more deeply in one geography or context. If appropriate, explain whether and how you will need to tailor and adapt your solution for scaling and/or amplifying impact.

Applications should include evidence or reasons why the results can be replicated. The following responses may be helpful to review: 1) the article, Emerging Pathways to Transformative Scale, from the Stanford SOCIAL INNOVATION Review (SSIR) and 2) the article, The Four Pathways to Impact at Scale, from The Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship (CASE) at Duke University.

We understand that innovative solutions can reference a wide range of evidence-based practices. Applications should highlight track record, internal data, ​​organizational or personal ​experience, and/or formal evidence that the proposed solution will effectively support women and help everyone thrive in the workplace.

If you do not have evidence of impact of your own solution, you should be able to 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.

We leave it up to each participant to best determine and describe their budget as they see​​ ​fit.​ ​​Award funds must be used for the project detailed in the application and may be disbursed to partners for project-related purposes as detailed in the budget.​ ​On the application under section ​​G.Project Plan and Budget​​, y​​ou may view the budget form that each applicant will need to complete by year as part of their submission. ​​

​​In addition to direct project costs, the budget may include a reasonable allocation for indirect expenses associated with the overall operations of the team that are shared across the organization’s activities. A partner's indirect costs can be included as part of the total subgrant designated for that partner. We reserve the right to review and adjust amounts allocated for indirect expenses.​​​

​​​​We understand many universities have set indirect cost rates. Please describe any such indirect cost requirements in your Budget Narrative and ensure that any indirect costs are accounted for in your budget in the application.​​

Per section 6 of the rules, award funds may not be used for the following:

• To support non-charitable purposes (see U.S. IRS definition of charitable purpose)
• To support illegal discrimination or preferences (For example, programs that exclude employees from jobs, promotions, contracts, or other specific employment opportunities based on their sex, race, or other protected characteristics. Please see About & Eligibility FAQ section above for more details.)
• To support lobbying activities or to otherwise carry on propaganda or otherwise to attempt to influence legislation as defined under the tax laws
• To influence the outcome of any specific public election or to carry on, directly or indirectly, any voter registration drive as defined under the tax laws
• To engage in any activities, such as administrative lobbying that is not necessarily treated as lobbying under the tax laws but could be subject to public disclosure under federal, state and/or local laws
• To support activities (a) prohibited by US laws related to sanctions and combating terrorism; (b) with persons on the List of Specially Designated Nationals (www.treasury.gov/sdn) or entities owned or controlled by such persons; or (c) with or in countries against which the U.S. maintains comprehensive or targeted sanctions, unless such activities are fully authorized by the U.S. government under applicable law and specifically approved by Competition Sponsor in its sole discretion
• To support any activities which do not comply with anti-corruption laws, regulations, and ethics standards that apply to government officials, including but not limited to payment to government officials
• Funding or grants to any organization not related to the proposal, to any individual for travel, study, or other similar purposes, or to make a grant to any organization that is not a Section 501(c)(3) public charity, except in compliance with the provisions of Sections 4945(g) or (h) of the Internal Revenue Code, as the case may be
• Creation of any endowment or for the aggregation of philanthropic capital by organizations that regrant to nonprofit organizations.
• Creation of a venture capital fund, or pooled funds to invest in or distribute to for-profit organizations
• Loans or microloans to individuals, nonprofits, or for-profit entities
• General operating support for the Lead Organization and/or any partners (see Section 7 of the rules)
• Funding 501(c)(4) organizations or 527 political organizations
• Government services

Yes, you may submit an application to one or more of the three WIN Challenge pillars. Please do not submit the same application for all three challenges—each application should demonstrate why the proposed solution is a strong fit for the focus of each challenge. Learn more about all three challenges at winchallenge.org.  

An organization may only serve as a Lead Organization on one application for each of the three challenges. An organization may be a partner on more than one application if each one proposes a separate and distinct solution. And each application must be submitted by a different, eligible Lead Organization.

​​Please note: 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​, for a total of three applications​​. This means that a single university, for example, could have more than three total applications submitted.​​​​​

In all these circumstances, the proposed solutions must be separate and distinct​–​you should not be submitting the same application to each of the three challenges​​. The intent is to ensure that teams are concentrating their best effort into one application. Teams are encouraged to select a single project that best represents its organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

​​​If you are a parent organization or university that will have applications from several locations or departments within your university for the WIN Challenge, then each team should register separately with a unique email address on the respective pillar's platform. Applicants may list both the parent organization and the specific college/department in the Lead Organization field on the registration form, such as ​​Dept/Project Name (University)​​ or P​​arent Organization  – Dept/Project Name​​.​​

To help decide which pillar is the best fit for you, please take the readiness tool This is a quick and confidential quiz to help determine your organization's eligibility and fit for each challenge.  

Please also view the About page to find more details on the focus of the challenge and specific barriers we aim to address, and the scoring rubric to better understand how we have defined a strong application.

In any case, please go ahead and register for any and all pillars of interest as soon as possible and no later than the registration deadline of 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, December 11.  

Registration by this deadline is required for the opportunity to submit an application by the January deadline.

Funds will be disbursed by pillar. Each of the three WIN Challenge pillars has $20 million to support up to eight applicants who will receive a grant of either $2.5 million or $5 million each.

So for the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge – we will grant up to eight awards of $2.5 million or $5 million each – and that funding will be used toward the solution proposed to the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge.

If you have one proposed solution that could fit across all three pillars, please register and submit one application to the pillar you think is the strongest fit with your solution.

While a single lead organization could submit one application for a separate and distinct solution to each pillar, please do not submit the same solution or application to all three pillars.  

​​​​Proposals from organizations operating in a range of stages, sectors, and within a range workplaces may apply. Review the About page as well as “The Challenge” section in the read-only application to determine which barrier your application will address.  ​​​​​

All proposed solutions must be implemented in the United States or U.S. territories. Applicants have the opportunity to select and describe the type of communities, audiences, and/or organizations that will benefit from the proposed solution (see Section F. Beneficiaries & Impact on the application).

Questions about the lead organization’s geographic location should be based on where the organization is located.  

On the application under Section F. Beneficiaries & Impact, please answer based on where the proposed solution will be implemented during the two-year project period. Note: Nationwide and national are included under the list of options to select. Applicants also have the opportunity to narratively describe geographies and communities you aim to serve.

All applications should provide a budget, timeline, impact, metrics, scope, etc. based on an award at the $5 million level. On the application under Section G. there’s a Contingency question where applicants then have the opportunity to share how the plan and impact would change at the $2.5 million level.

The grant period can be up to three years total and we expect to announce awards in the Fall of 2026 with projects starting shortly after once award agreements are fully executed. Additional information on the project period is available on the application form, under Section G. Project Plan and Budget.

Once the submission deadline passes, the WIN Culture & Practices Challenge team will perform an administrative review to confirm each submission meets the rules and application requirements before advancing to Peer-to-Peer Review.

Peer-to-Peer Review will result in a rank order of all valid submissions. Applications that advance to Peer-to-Peer Review will be scored by five fellow applicants. Based on the rank order of scores, a selection of top-scoring applications will move forward to the Evaluation Panel.  

Peer reviewers and the Evaluation Panel will use the scoring rubric to provide scores and valuable feedback on their assigned submissions, and all scores will be statistically normalized to ensure fairness. Applicants that advance to the Evaluation panel will be reviewed by five judges.

The WIN Culture & Practices Challenge team will review the top-scoring submissions resulting from Evaluation Panel review to select top-scoring applications for consideration by designated members of the WIN Council. Based on considerations that may include, but are not limited to, Evaluation Panel resulting rank order, organizational capacity, geographic impact, and demonstrated potential, the WIN Council will recommend up to eight awardees to receive grants of either $2.5 million or $5 million each. If a WIN Council member has a conflict of interest with any Applicant, such Council member will recuse themselves from reviewing such Applicant’s proposal. Final decisions and selection of awardees will be made by Aspen Digital.  

To help ensure a level playing field, we publish a readiness tool, the full application requirements, word count overview, scoring criteria, and evaluators to help ensure any visitor to this site has the information needed to participate.

All applications that pass an objective administrative review will move on to Peer-to-Peer Review, a feature of this grant competition that aligns with our broader goal of fostering a culture of collaboration and helping to ensure the process includes input from those closest to the work. It allows participants to provide feedback on ideas from other teams with different perspectives working toward a similar vision. It also exposes each participant to other teams who aim to achieve the same goal.

The WIN Challenge team will review the results of Peer-to-Peer review–including the feedback applicants provide– to select applications to move on to the Evaluation Panel. Peer reviewers are encouraged to provide the kind of quality, helpful feedback they would wish to see on their own application to help inform the WIN Challenge Team’s decisions.

Once review is complete, all scores will be statistically normalized to account for reviewers who are naturally more lenient versus those who tend to score more harshly. This will ensure that an application that might be assigned to a reviewer who tends to give low scores is not disadvantaged and an application that has a reviewer who tends to score high is not favored.

Unfortunately, due to the anticipated high volume of submissions, we will not have the capacity to provide reviewer feedback to applicants.

Your work 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.  

The platform works best when using Google Chrome as your browser on a laptop or desktop computer, with view zoom at 100%.

Once you complete the registration form, you will have access to the Forums and online application.

Please email all questions and requests for technical support to questions@winchallenge.org and include the pillar(s) to which you are applying in the subject of your email.

We ​also host​ed​ a Q&A webinar ​in November 2025 ​for anyone interested in the WIN Challenge​. Please watch the recording and review answers to questions from the webinar. ​

Please note: To ensure fairness for all our participants, the Carrot, Aspen Institute, and Pivotal teams cannot take phone calls or meetings, and we are not able to provide guidance that is very specific to your proposed solution or team structure. Please refer to the information on this website for more information and consult with your legal / tax professionals as needed.

Additional programming will be announced in 2026. Aspen Digital will host a summit in the fall 2026 to uplift the solutions and changemakers sourced through the WIN Challenge. The knowledge curated will be shared widely across industries, the philanthropic community, and decision-makers committed to reshaping workplaces with forward-looking ideas so everyone can thrive. In the final year of the WIN Challenge initiative, Aspen Digital will focus on providing programming for the awardees and supporting their journeys.

Applicants can update registration information up until the application deadline in January. If you need to edit your registration information, log in to the platform, click on Submissions at the top right of the dashboard then select Registration Form to update.

Applicants are required to submit two short videos that capture your team and project, and describe why you should be supported through this challenge.

These videos are an opportunity to pitch your proposed solution in a succinct format, and 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.  

Once the videos are ready, you will upload them to YouTube and follow the guidelines outlined under Section B. of the application form, including settings for captions, embedding and privacy.  

The first Team Video can be up to one minute total and will focus on your organization and team. Be sure to reflect on the experience of your team and the connection to the community you aim to serve.

The second Solution Video can be up to 90 seconds and should focus on the proposed project.  

We do not have sample videos to share. Please review the application requirements for more information and email us at questions@winchallenge.org if you need technical support.