Leaders today face a strategic choice: continue relying on traditional approaches to complex problems, or adopt innovative models that can deliver outsized impact at scale. The world’s most pressing challenges — climate change, food security, access to clean water, and healthy aging — require solutions that are bold, measurable, and scalable.
A recent national survey highlights public priorities: 62% of Americans identify climate change as a top concern, three in four worry about access to healthy, affordable food, 80% highlight clean water, and 60% cite health and aging. Nearly one in three respondents say they are unsure who to trust to deliver meaningful change. These findings underscore both urgency and opportunity: the public is calling for results, and leaders have the ability to deliver them by reimagining how they invest and partner for impact.
XPRIZE has spent over three decades developing an effective problem-solving model that leverages the power of incentivized competitions to accelerate enduring solutions. Rather than funding projects passively or research without pathways to market, this approach sets ambitious, measurable goals, puts ideas to the test through rigorous testing, and rewards those who deliver results. The impact is tangible: our newly released 2025 Impact Report illustrates how $519 million in prizes has generated more than $31 billion in measurable global impact – a 60x return on investment.
Why does this model matter for executives and philanthropists? It demonstrates how philanthropic dollars can act as a catalytic capital, when paired with structured incentives, to multiply results, accelerate innovation, and de-risk exponential new solutions. Incentive competitions channel talent, resources, and creativity toward high-priority problems that might otherwise remain unsolved.
For leaders looking to maximize impact, there are three clear lessons from the XPRIZE model:
-
- Invest catalytic capital.
Strategic, goal-oriented investments can mobilize far more resources than the initial contribution. Just as XPRIZE prizes attract additional funding, partnerships, and talent, executives can structure grants, venture funds, or challenge-based investments to layer and amplify results, reduce risk, and unlock breakthroughs. - Collaborate across sectors.
Nearly a third of Americans view partnerships between government, business, and communities as the most effective path to solutions. Executives are uniquely positioned to convene coalitions, align incentives, and coordinate efforts that accelerate adoption and scale. - Structure incentives for measurable outcomes.
The key to XPRIZE competitions is designing challenges with clear goals, objective metrics, and rewards contingent on results. Leaders can replicate this through challenge funds, grant competitions, or partnerships that reward real-world impact, ensuring investments go toward high-risk, high-reward solutions that have the potential to scale globally.
- Invest catalytic capital.
The public has made its priorities clear, and problem-solving models like incentive competitions demonstrate that ambition, structured incentives, and strategic capital can transform challenges into measurable progress. Business and philanthropic leaders have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to step in and shape the solutions of tomorrow.
The next decade will reward those who embrace strategic risk, cross-sector collaboration, and innovative investment models to address global challenges at scale. Leaders who invest in alternative approaches today will drive the breakthroughs the world needs, and leave a lasting legacy of impact.
Join us at XPRIZE Visioneering to transform big ideas into breakthrough competitions, engage with visionary innovators, and explore how the XPRIZE model accelerates scalable, world-changing impact.
Email me directly at peterandanousheh@xprize.org
Dr. Anousheh Ansari is serial tech entrepreneur, astronaut, changemaker, and published author and speaker. Ansari is currently the CEO of XPRIZE, the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. The first female private astronaut, and successful Tech entrepreneur, she has developed transformative technologies for decades and is a global presence in future-positive tech markets as well a resonant voice for women within STEM, business, and the entrepreneurial industries.
Ansari and her family sponsored XPRIZE’s first competition : the $10 million Ansari XPRIZE that ignited a new era for commercial spaceflight. She began serving on its Board of Directors and became CEO of XPRIZE in 2018, leading and scaling the foundation to its highest impact period in its history. To date, XPRIZE has launched 30 prizes offering over $500 million in prize purses, hosting over 35,000 innovators from around the world to participate in its competitions.
Ansari was recently named to Forbes 2025 Sustainability Leaders list for her work to redefine climate leadership. She has received many awards and recognitions as an entrepreneur and agent of positive change.
