The Hacking Wealth Challenge

We imagine a world where Wealth Hackers are encouraged to develop and launch their innovative solutions, supported through a combination of financial and social capital, and connected to an aligned community of changemakers.

To support this vision, WHI offers the Hacking Wealth Challenge to accelerate promising wealth redistribution projects that can be significantly advanced with funding and participation in our collaborative cohort.

Apply

Applications for the 2025-26 Hacking Wealth Challenge are hosted on The Innovation Exchange. This is an open application process, individuals and teams from anywhere can apply. 

You can create a profile on The Innovation Exchange at any time.

The 2025/26 Hacking Wealth Challenge will open on 8 September 2025, and will remain open through 24 October, 23:59 UTC

Types of projects

Eligible projects develop innovative approaches to wealth redistribution, and include but are certainly not limited to:

  • Building a prototype of a product or service that supports funding to move more effectively  

  • Adapting an existing intervention to another jurisdiction or language

  • Conducting applied research for a wealth redistribution initiative 

  • Developing legal, policy, or advocacy proposals that enable funding to move towards social and environmental outcomes  

  • Creating novel financial vehicles or cooperative resourcing structures

Eligible projects are sprints, not ongoing bodies of work. The funding from the Hacking Wealth Challenge helps them to get from 0 to 1, or reach a next phase or milestone. The funding is “but for”, and intended to provide the spaciousness to achieve a meaningful next outcome.

Selection Criteria

Applications are evaluated by a judging panel on:

  • Strategic Alignment: How well does your project advance the mission of redistributing wealth and power?

  • Team Capability: Demonstrated ability of the individual or team to execute the proposed hack

  • Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: Strength of the initiative’s commitment to JEDI principles

  • Resource Efficiency: How meaningfully funding can impact your project’s success and your capacity to implement it

  • Impact Potential: The hack’s potential to create outsized positive outcomes for wealth redistribution

  • Community Engagement: Your ability to contribute energy and insights to the cohort and wider community

Collaborative Funding Model

The cohort of 2025/26 wealth hackers will collectively decide how to allocate a total pool of GBP 150,000 through a facilitated democratic process. This approach ensures that funding decisions align with the Wealth Hacker Initiative’s community values.

The Challenge prize purse is a finite pool, and the assumption is that the funding allows selected projects to achieve a stepwise improvement or milestone by offsetting some of your or some of your team’s time and related expenses to get to that next phase. We imagine this to be on the order of one or two months of full time equivalent effort.

Your Commitments

Participating in the Hacking Wealth Challenge means:

  • Actively developing your hack during the Challenge period

  • Attending monthly Cohort calls and engaging meaningfully with peers (see dates below)

  • Contributing insights, feedback, and support to the other participants

  • Willingness to have your hack shared with the larger Wealth Hacker community and in online materials

  • Joining the Liberating Wealth Gathering in June 2026

  • Sharing learnings and outcomes with the broader Wealth Hacker community

What you will gain

Participation in the Challenge includes:

  • Kick-off call to launch your cohort experience

  • Monthly check-in meetings for ongoing support and accountability

  • Participation in a collaborative funding process to allocate GPB 150,000 to teams and individuals

  • Feedback, mentorship, and connections from cohort members, the Wealth Hacker team, and the broader community

  • Invitation to the Liberating Wealth Gathering

  • Access to a network of innovative practitioners working on wealth redistribution

Application Timeline

Now: create a profile on the Innovation Exchange

Applications Open: September 8 2025

Challenge Info Call: October 6 2025, 17:00-18:30 UTC

Applications Close: October 24 2025, at 23:59 UTC

Winners Announced: week of November 17 2025

Key dates

Welcome Call: December 4 2025, 16:00 - 17:30 UTC

Budget Distribution Call: December 11 2025, 16:00-17:30 UTC

Monthly Cohort Meetings: January 12, February 9, March 9, April 13, and May 11, 16:00 - 17:30 UTC

Liberating Wealth Gathering: June 3-5, 2026 location TBD