The Edge Prize
Presented by the Salmon Nation Trust & Terran Collective
An invitation to a community of Edgewalkers: Innovators, entrepreneurs and local leaders weaving open source and Indigenous knowledge together for a more connected and resilient world
Resources & connections for Edgewalkers
Edgewalkers have the opportunity to participate in workshops designed to help scale and replicate their initiatives, on how to manage their PR, and how to get traction with marketing, fundraising, and technology - and more.
Partner organizations and mentors currently include Tom Chi of At One Ventures, Lonny Grafman of Humboldt State University, Phoebe Tickell of Moral Imaginations, Buckminster Fuller Institute, Terran Collective, and more. If you’d like to learn about being a mentor or signing on as a Partner, please email us at connect@edgeprize.org
The Edge Prize is your opportunity to share what works, big or small, and find the others who want to join you, fund you, learn from you, or replicate your efforts locally. This is not a business plan competition. This is not a “pitch” competition. It’s not really a contest at all! This is about sharing what you’re already doing, why it’s working, and why it gives you hope.
We want to hear from anyone in Salmon Nation working on something that has a positive impact in your community. With additional resources and a supportive network, you know this solution could benefit more communities all over the bioregion and beyond.
We are looking for astonishingly creative ways that you are solving local challenges and contributing to your local landscape. We are particularly interested in traditional, open-source, or other non-proprietary expressions. While the prize is open to all domains, we will prioritize regenerative solutions in the following areas:
Food & Agriculture
Community Finance & Development
Energy
Water
Built Environment & Manufacturing
Ecosystem Restoration & Regeneration
Governance
Health
Culture & Education
We believe in Edges. The centers are where the power structures of yesterday sit. The solutions to the problems we face today will come from Edges.
Edges are where small-scale, off-grid solar originated; where permaculture and hydroponics developed; where microcredit was invented; fermentation advanced; current best practices in birth perfected; compounds for cancer treatment found; where mobile payments, Linux and the Internet originated; and where many other foundational innovations began. We believe that innovations from the Edges can help show us new possibilities for healthy communities everywhere.
Criteria for Applications
We invite applications from people in Salmon Nation who are stewarding a regenerative project, enterprise, innovation, or solution. By “regenerative,” we mean that it improves the health of people, the planet, and the economy.
We ask applicants to share with us the reasons they feel their project is having a positive impact. We welcome all kinds of indicators of the impact you are having – quantitative or qualitative.
- Projects coming from or benefitting communities in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Yukon, or Alaska
- Projects touching one or more of the impact areas outlined: Food & Agriculture, Community Finance & Development, Energy, Water, Built Environment & Manufacturing, Ecosystem Restoration & Regeneration, Governance, Health, Culture & Education
- Projects that are currently demonstrating a net benefit for the systems they touch, including tangible improvements in community, ecological, and economic wellbeing
- Projects based on traditional or Indigenous knowledge and approaches
- Projects that are open-source, non-proprietary, or make use of public domain intellectual property so that solutions can be shared openly
- Projects that could be replicated in other parts of Salmon Nation and beyond
This is not a definitive list. Our goal is to invite all sincere stewards of the land, sea, forests, and people into the community of Edgewalkers.
Examples projects include: Social enterprises, new community financing models for shared infrastructure, habitat restoration for keystone species, new models of community governance, agricultural practices to build healthy soil, zoning innovations to reshape the built environment, programs to treat trauma and substance abuse, schools to teach traditional and Indigenous knowledge, and any other way communities are finding to live in step with each other and natural systems.
About Salmon nation
Salmon Nation extends from Northern California to the North Slope of Alaska. It is perhaps the most creative, diverse, rich and beautiful bioregion on Earth. Here, diverse local cultures are forming growing movements toward healthy and regenerative systems.
Welcome home.
WHAT IS TERRAN?
We are a collective of people with a common vision of a world in balance
We are a small band of humans based in the Bay Area navigating towards a way of life in balance with all people and all of nature. Our collective work is to design and practice this way of life as a necessary step to bring about the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.
