2 minute read

It’s now easier than ever to create and manage your prize competitions and crowdsourcing campaigns (together referred to as “challenges”) on Challenge.Gov. After more than a decade as the hub for federally-sponsored challenges, Challenge.Gov has launched a new set of dynamic and interactive tools to facilitate public engagement and participation in federal challenges. This entirely new platform has a robust set of additional features for challenge managers and public solvers.

Built from the beginning with equity and accessibility in mind, Challenge.Gov brings together multiple shared services from GSA’s Technology Transformation Services into one platform. Login.gov, Cloud.gov, the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), Cloud.gov pages, and Search.gov all work together to deliver this secure engagement portal as a shared service. All at no cost to federal agencies.

Control your content
As a federal challenge manager, you can manage your challenge content directly:

• Upload and edit the challenge description, award information, rules, judging criteria, instructions on how to enter, and more
• Post alerts, notices, resources, and winner announcements
• Manage submissions from the public

Reach your audience
Challenge.Gov allows you to directly engage with members of the public to source innovative ideas:

• Collect submissions through the Challenge.Gov portal or via a link to your external challenge site
• Send and track communications with challenge participants via the secure messaging center
• Send email bulletins to individuals who have signed up to follow your challenge

Members of the public are also able to create public solver accounts to engage directly with challenges.

Explore analytics
For the first time, you can view a snapshot of Challenge.Gov platform data:

• Track how many people have viewed your challenge listing - observing how different marketing efforts impact site visits
• Obtain important metrics about the use of challenges across the federal government
• See how your challenge compares to others

Secure and accessible
Posting a challenge on Challenge.Gov aligns with requirements for prize authority and security:

• Fulfills the America COMPETES Act and American Innovation & Competitiveness Act (AICA) requirement to announce federal prize competitions on a publicly accessible Government website
• Obtained Authority to Operate (ATO) by GSA in September 2021
  Provides a FISMA Moderate data security environment in Cloud.gov
• Adheres to the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA)

Engage public solvers
In addition to these great features for federal challenge managers, Challenge.Gov has some new ways for the public to engage:

• Create public solver accounts
• Follow or save challenges to a dashboard for easy reference
• Submit to a challenge that is fully hosted on the secure Challenge.Gov portal
• Communicate directly with federal challenge managers via the secure messaging center

Learn more
The best way to get to know the new features is to visit Challenge.Gov, sign up for a challenge manager account, and explore. Even if you don't have a challenge you’re currently working on, setting up a challenge manager account will give you access to analytics and other resources to help you plan your next one. We have a detailed user guide and Frequently Asked Questions document to help you get started.

Sign up for Office Hours on December 8 to bring your questions. Reach out to team@challenge.gov with any other questions.

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