The Global Shapers Community is a community of action. Every hub is required to implement at least one hub project per year. Whether it’s a skills-building effort, emergency response, awareness campaign or something unique to your community context, all projects aim to provide solutions to local challenges.
Project Criteria
- Each hub is required to undertake at least one project per year that positively impacts their community.
- Hub projects involve at least three members of the hub,* have clear objectives, timelines and core teams.
- Hub projects improve the lives of people outside the hub, not Shapers themselves.
- Hub projects are non-partisan in nature and adhere to our values
- Hub projects tackle relevant global, regional, national or local issues and focus on urgent, short-term actions and/or long-term systemic social change.
- There are no restrictions regarding the duration, frequency and/or scale of hub projects. One-day events are not usually considered hub projects unless they have measurable outcomes.**
- Hub projects may be new initiatives created by the hub or partnerships to support existing initiatives.
* Personal projects don't account for hub projects unless at least 3 hub members are involved.
** Note that one-time or short-term events such as awareness campaigns and Meet the Leader sessions are not considered hub projects. For any questions, you can reach out to your Community Manager or Community Champion.
Projects By and With Shapers
When developing hub projects, build upon or enhance activities already underway. There are two options:
- Projects by Shapers: Identify a pressing issue that is not being sufficiently addressed in your city and develop a hub project from scratch. Recruit collaborators as needed. Global Shapers can evolve their individual projects into hub projects, as long as the hub has a clear process of making collective decisions and three or more hub members participate.
- Projects with Shapers: Identify an issue and map relevant stakeholders in your city working on this issue area. Hubs are encouraged to partner with external organizations that can contribute to a hub project. Your hub can also plug into an existing initiative as long as the hub maintains a leading role in moving the cause forward.
Project Stages
1. Conception and Initiation
- Identify a problem in your local reality and together with the hub agree on one issue of which you would like to make a difference
- Research if there is a feasible solution the hub could execute to tackle this issue
- Work with your local stakeholders and community members to identify the right issue and solution
2. Definition and Planning
- Once you have properly identified an issue and developed a potential solution, it is time to create a project plan for your impact.
- The most important step is to define a clear, ambitious and measurable goal. Research how to set SMART or FAST goals.
- Complete in detail the Hub Project Planning & Tracker Template. This will help you gather the necessary information to craft a compelling and comprehensive project summary.
3. Launch and Execution
- Build a strong core team and assign responsibilities.
- Set accountability checks to ensure timelines are met.
- Design a kick-off meeting and/or launch event locally.
- Develop your network and recruit influential allies.
- Modify your hub project plan as needed.
- Impact Officers must upload the project to TopLink.*
* While all Global Shapers have the rights to upload projects to TopLink, we encourage that only Impact Officers and Project Managers upload hub projects to ensure quality and consistency of the information provided.
Once your project is approved by your Community Manager, it will receive its own dedicated page on TopLink. This page will be used to keep all Forum stakeholders, including hub members, your Community Manager, and other Global Shapers, informed about your project's progress. Additionally, your project will be featured on the Hub page of the public website.
4. Performance and Evaluation
- Evaluate your progress using key performance indicators (KPIs) to ensure that your hub is on track. For example, #of people mobilized, # of young people trained, # of policy changes driven by Shapers or #of solar lights distributed.
- Make course corrections as needed to achieve your goals.
5. Showcase and Close
- Update the description on TopLink using past verbs to indicate the project is finished.
- Ask your Community Manager to change the stage to "Closure" and share an estimation of the start/end dates of the projects to keep as a record.
- Approach local media to amplify your achievements
- Write about the project on Agenda, the World Economic Forum’s blog.
- Recognize and thank team members and supporters.
- Host a hub debrief to evaluate what went well and what can be improved for future hub projects.
How to Write a Project Summary
You can find all the detailed instructions to Upload and Update Hub Projects in the TopLink guide.
All projects should be submitted, whether they are just starting, in the middle of execution, or concluded months ago. If the project does not appear on your hub's TopLink page, the Impact Officer is encouraged to submit it to strenghten the institutional memory of the hub.
Your project summary should be written according to your project phase. For example, if your project is just starting, write in future tense (e.g., "the hub will..."). If your project is ongoing, use the present tense (e.g., "the hub is..."). If your project has ended, use the past tense (e.g., "the hub has...").
Your project summary should include the following information:
Problem Statement: Provide a one or two sentence description of the issue your hub is working to resolve. The format can be: **[Beneficiary] in [area, place] needs to [do this] in order to [achieve this outcome]**. This statement should clearly articulate the core problem your project aims to address.
Target Group: If the target group (or beneficiary) is not clearly described in the problem statement, specify who you are working to support. Detail the demographics, location, and specific needs of the beneficiaries.
Proposed Solution: Write a comprehensive description of the approach your hub is taking in response to the problem. Explain the methodology and rationale behind your chosen solution, and how it addresses the needs of the target group.
Hub Activities: Clearly list the specific actions your hub is taking to address the problem. Provide a detailed breakdown of the steps and activities involved in the project, including timelines and responsibilities.
Short & Long-Term Goals/Results: For Ongoing or Upcoming Projects,* outline the desired outcomes you and your hub hope to achieve. Describe the short-term and long-term goals, and the expected impact on your target group. For Completed Projects, detail the actual impact your project has had on your target group. Include metrics, feedback, and any next steps for scaling the project. Share quotes or testimonials from participants or beneficiaries to illustrate the project's success.
Note: Once your hub's project is complete, update the project page on TopLink with the actual results and metrics.
Available Metrics: Describe the desired or achieved output of your work in tangible terms. Include specific, measurable data and a time component for your metrics. For example, "So far, the hub has held four 2-hour training sessions with the same 35 students to deepen their knowledge. The hub aims to expand training to the remaining 300 students in the school by the end of the year."
Collaborators: List the names of any organizations you are working with to complete your project. Highlight the role and contributions of each collaborator.
Specific Guidelines for Cross-Hub Initiatives
- Project Title: Use the same project title as the main project of the initiative followed by the name of your city (e.g., "Shaping Fashion Amsterdam").
- Description: Indicate which cross-hub initiative the project is part of and include a link to the main TopLink project page (if it already exists). If it is a new cross-hub initiative, there may not yet be a main page for the project.
- Unique Description: Ensure that the description is unique to your hub, rather than the overarching initiative goal. Share the specific activities, contributions, and impact of your hub.
By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your project submission is comprehensive, clear, and impactful, providing all stakeholders with a thorough understanding of your project's objectives and achievements. This information will also be published on the Hub page of the public website to increase visibility and engagement.
Best Practices
- Clarify your Goals: Know what problem you’re trying to solve and have a concrete solution with clear objectives and measurable outcomes. Be specific!
- Establish Your Brand: The best hub projects develop memorable names and hashtags (for example, Internet 4 All, 52 Weeks 52 Cities and Sustainability Sundays.)
- Collaborate: Establish different ways to engage (for example, how to include those inside/outside the core team and those inside and outside the community, etc.)
- Fundraise: Funding can be a big barrier. Even few resources, whether in-cash or in-kind, will give your hub project a boost.
- Keep Your Hub in the Loop: For a short-term project, organize a weekly update in person or by email. For long-term collaborations, update the hub monthly.
- Build Credibility: Demonstrate to local stakeholders that you are trusted partners for impact by providing regular updates and producing a final report at the end of a project to demonstrate your capabilities for future collaborations.
- Skills-based Recruitment: Your core team should include members with diverse talents who can each contribute in different ways. If you’re missing a certain skill, align hub recruitment with project needs.
- Be Realistic: Our community is not a development agency. We are a network of volunteers who are passionate about making a difference. Leverage the power of volunteers and plan your impact accordingly.
TIP 1: To find all hub projects on TopLink, head to the Global Shapers Community TopLink page and click on the initiatives tab
Cross-Hub Initiatives
A cross-hub initiative is a large-scale initiative that capitalizes on our shared values of service and cooperation.
Criteria
- The initiative fully meets the Hub Project Criteria.
- The initiative has one leading hub and at least two other contributing hubs. The leading hub is responsible to keep track of the global execution and impact of the initiative.
- The initiative received written approval from the Global Shapers Community team.
- Each participating hub must have a clear local impact related to the cross-hub initiative, which is reflected in their own TopLink submission.
2. Benefits
- Use the Global Shapers Community logo in line with our branding guidelines.
- Mobilize all 500+ hubs and 17,000+ Shapers and Alumni.
- On specific cases, access the community social media accounts and TopLink announcements amplification such as newsletters
- Request your Community Manager for a potential introduction to a Forum initiative, as long as you write a concise and feasible rationale for your request.
- Be showcased as a prime example of our community impact at Forum meetings.
3. Types of Cross-hub Initiatives
4. Approval Process
The Global Shapers Community team approves new cross-hub initiatives. To get your project approved, follow these steps:
- Fill the Project Planning & Tracker Template for each participating hub. The project template can be the same for each hub, but each hub has autonomy to run the project in different ways that best adapts to their local realities.
- Apply to have the initiative approved by filling the Cross-hub Initiative Application Form. You should receive a reply in no more than two weeks.
- Once you have received written approval, the leading hub will be asked to create a TopLink page for the global project with the information submitted in the application form. The leading hub contact will have editing rights to this global page.
- Each participating hub including the leading hub must also submit an individual project on TopLink, carefully following the instructions given in the section above. The project submission should have the same project title as that of the global page followed by the name of the hub city (e.g. Shaping Fashion Amsterdam). Be sure to carefully follow each section detailing the project's specific efforts and goals. It should also be clear that the hub is part of the cross-hub initiative.
TIP 2: Most cross-hub initiative submissions are not detailed enough to make an approval in the first try. The team usually replies asking for clearer activities and impact metrics. The better your submission, the faster you will get your project approved.
Once you receive written approval for your cross-hub initiative, you can immediately use the community logo and access all other benefits.
5. Keep the Project Updated
- All participating hubs must keep their own project TopLink page updated following the guidelines in the TopLink Submission Project Guide.
- The leading hub is responsible for updating both the main project page with general information about the cross-hub initiative, and their own project TopLink page with specific information on hub activities and contributions.
- Explore if other hubs are doing similar projects and may be interested in joining forces.
- Share general updates and celebrate major achievements on TopLink and directly with your Community Manager.
TIP 3: When you are looking at all hub projects on the Global Shapers Community initiatives tab on TopLink, you can find past and present cross-hub initiatives by using the filter "Initiative Led By" and selecting "Global Shapers Community"