Questions & Answers

In March 2026, McElhattan Foundation launched the Zero Electrocution Challenge seeking to catalyze and amplify bold ideas that present pathways to eliminate life-threatening tasks that lead to fatal workplace electrocution by the year 2050, while increasing enterprise profitability and productivity. Up to two Winners will each be awarded up to $1 million.

Electricity powers every aspect of modern work, yet it remains one of the most persistent causes of occupational death. Despite decades of regulations, training, and personal protective equipment (PPE), workers continue to die from electrical contact. Even low-voltage circuits can deliver fatal current under certain conditions, highlighting the limitations of procedural safety alone.

The industries most affected by this issue include construction, professional and business services, and trade, transportation and utilities. View our resources to learn more about the leading causes of electrical fatalities, including overhead power line contact, contact with energized equipment or working on energized parts, ground-faults, and more.

Learn more about the challenge, view our resources, and review our scoring criteria to help submit a strong proposal.

Please contact us with any challenge-related questions, requests for help with accessibility and special accommodations, and technical support.  

Once you have registered and throughout the challenge, we will send important notifications to the email address associated with your account, as well as the primary and secondary contacts listed on your registration form. There are three important steps you can take to make sure these messages are received promptly: 

1. Add our email address to your contacts. 
2. Whitelist our email address. Here are instructions to add to your whitelist in most major email providers. 
3. Update your registration form right away if one of your contacts changes. If you need to make a contact change after the application window has closed, please email us, and we will assist you. 

The Zero Electrocution Challenge welcomes nonprofits and for-profits (including fiscally-sponsored organizations) from a wide range of sectors to submit their proposed solutions to help eliminate life-threatening tasks that lead to fatal workplace electrocution by the year 2050.

To participate, each applicant must identify a Lead Organization who will assume responsibility for the receipt and management of any award and register by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 1, 2026

The following organizations are eligible to apply:  

• An entity based in the United States and/or US territories under section 501(c)(3) and 509(a)(1) or (2) of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) that has received a tax determination letter from the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”). 
• A private foundation based in the United States and/or US territories under section 501(c)(3) of the IRC that has received a tax determination letter from the IRS. 
• A fiscally-sponsored nonprofit organization. 
• A tribal government or tribal-owned enterprise. 
• An educational entity, public college, junior college, or university that is either (i) recognized by the IRS as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) a governmental entity or instrumentality eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions under Section 170(c)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code.
• A PreK-12 public, private, or charter school. 
• A for-profit corporation organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 
• A benefit corporation, flexible purpose entity, or similar "hybrid" entity organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 
• A limited liability company or partnership organized under the laws of a State (or territory) in the United States. 

Organizations of any size are welcome to participate.

Take our readiness quiz to gauge your fit and eligibility for this challenge, and review the Rules for a complete set of eligibility requirements.

The following are not eligible to apply as a Lead Organization:

• Individuals
• Entities based out of the United States or US territories
• Government agencies, including United Nations agencies, inter-governmental bodies, and regional cooperation agencies.

While these listed organization types are not eligible to apply as a Lead Organization, they may serve as partners on an application.

The following are not eligible to participate or apply as a Lead Organization, participant, partner or other collaborator:

• Individuals that include employees of Competition Sponsor, Carrot, and any of their subsidiaries and affiliates, and immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees;
• An individual outside the age of consent to enter into a legally binding agreement under applicable law;
• A person whose participation has been permanently suspended or terminated under Section 4 of the Terms;
• A person who resides in or is a citizen of countries that are prohibited by law, regulation (including United States or other applicable export laws and regulations), treaty or administrative act from entering into trade relations (including export of technology) with the United States or its citizens;
• Subject to sanctions; or,
• In breach of any anti-corruption and/or sanctions, laws, and requirements applicable to You or your activities.

Review the Rules to learn more about eligible Lead Organizations and explore partnership opportunities if you are not eligible to serve as a lead. There are several ways to collaborate on an application.

Eligible Lead Organizations are welcome to collaborate with nonprofit organizations, companies, foundations, schools, colleges and universities, government agencies, individuals, and other entities (either U.S.-based or non-U.S.-based) in order to implement the project.

Organizations proposing to work together may be asked to demonstrate through a fully-executed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) or other similar agreement, executed by all parties, that all parties have agreed that a single eligible entity or organization (i.e. the Lead Organization) will serve as the Winner and will have direction, control, and supervision of the proposed project and management of all Award funds and be responsible for all reporting requirements.

While MOUs will not be collected in the application, MOUs may be requested from teams that are selected as Finalists.

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The Zero Electrocution Challenge invites proposals for innovative solutions that present pathways to eliminate fatal electrocution on the job, advance enterprise productivity and profitability, and meet the four criteria outlined in the scoring rubric:

• Effective: Can the approach eliminate life-threatening tasks that lead to fatal electrocution on the job, while keeping profitability and productivity? Will the solution be cost-efficient, business-friendly, and ready to implement within the project period?
• Game-Changing: Will the solution accelerate the elimination of fatal electrocution on the job and result in other compelling benefits? Is it grounded in a truly original concept, or does it propose new ways to bolster or adapt existing practices?
• Feasible: Are there practical plans and budget to mitigate risk and succeed? Does the team have the expertise, buy-in, and resources required to reasonably develop an industry-facing, effective, and adoptable solution during the project period?
• Scalable: Can the approach be replicated and/or scaled to contexts identified in the proposal? Can the team reliably and effectively adapt the solution to decrease and eventually eliminate fatal electrocution in a wide range of workplaces and industries?

Solutions at any stage are eligible to apply, including those in the research and ideation stage, and there is no requirement or preference for a hardware versus a software solution.

The scoring rubric considers evidence of effectiveness and feasibility, regardless of stage. If you do not have evidence of impact of your own solution, be sure to point to research-backed practices on which your solution is based, or analogous solutions achieving meaningful impact that you think your solution may similarly achieve.

Please note: The nature of the problem requires solutions that can be implemented in workplaces and are not vulnerable to human error. For example, a proposed solution focused on stand-alone training materials only would be unlikely to score well on the scoring rubric under Game-Changing and Feasibility. However, process innovations and adaptations to approaches to the work could score well on these traits. Be sure to review the scoring rubric to understand how applications will be evaluated.

Winners will be announced in Spring 2027 and will have opportunity to share progress on the proposed goals and objectives of their solution over a maximum two-year project period.

While the scoring rubric considers evidence of feasibility, the timeline for each proposal is dependent on the nature of the solution. Note that we will support opportunities that present pathways to eliminate fatal workplace electrocution, which does not mean that solutions must have an exact date planned to go to market. We leave it up to applicants to determine the best timeline and milestones that work for their proposal, so long as they are within the project period.

Winners will be publicly announced in Spring 2027. McElhattan Foundation will work with each awardee to execute an award agreement. Following the execution of the award agreement, the project will be implemented over a maximum two-year project period.

Solutions at any stage are eligible to apply, including those in the research and ideation stage. Research-focused proposals that deliver practical solutions at technology readiness levels (TRL) 5-6 could be appropriate. We encourage you to review the scoring rubric to understand how we have defined a strong proposal.

For-profit entities are eligible to apply but their solution must meet the criteria outlined in the Rules. Commercialization of a solution does not preclude eligibility, and commercialization could be one pathway to address the scalability criteria outlined in the scoring rubric.

More information about charitable purpose and private benefit can be found on the IRS website (examples can be found here and here).

We encourage you to first assess your fit and eligibility for the Zero Electrocution Challenge, then register no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, to participate. Registration is required and is a simple two-step process. First, create a username and password then check your inbox to confirm your registration. Next, complete the online registration form. Once you are registered, submit your application online no later than 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Please note that registration does not require you to submit an application, but it is required to participate should you decide to apply. As such, we encourage you to register before the deadline, even if you are still deciding whether to apply.

You may only complete one submission as the Lead Organization except as described below. An organization can serve as a partner on a team for multiple applications provided that each application proposes a separate, distinct solution. This means each project can only be submitted once, and we leave it up to each team to designate their eligible Lead Organization. 

Regional or location-specific branches of larger organizations, as well as departments, schools, and nonprofits within or based in a college/university, can each register and submit separately as the Lead Organization on one application. Participants may list both the parent organization and the specific applicant/project in the Lead Organization field on the registration form, such as College/Department (Parent organization) or Parent Organization – Project Name.

In all circumstances described above, the proposed projects must be separate and distinct. There should be no overlap in team members. The intent of the policy is to ensure that any team is concentrating their best effort into a single application. We encourage teams to select a single project that best represents your organization's ability to deliver a solution that meets the scoring criteria.

Review the Rules for more information.

Each application must include a brief video of no more than 90 seconds that showcases your project. This DOES NOT need to be a professionally produced video – a video shot on a smartphone is acceptable. The quality of your video will not impact the outcome of your proposal.

The following are instructions for recording and uploading your video on YouTube:

1. Record a video using your smartphone’s camera app
2. Download and open the YouTube app
3. Sign-in or create an account on YouTube  
4. In YouTube, select “Create” > “Upload a Video”
5. Select your video and press “Next”
6. Set your video’s visibility to “Unlisted,” which will allow only those with the URL link to view your video (do not set to private or public)
7. Select “Upload Video”
8. Check to make sure embedding is turned on.

For more information about video guidelines, review the submission requirements. If you need technical support, you can email us. 

No, the application does not include a question about letters of support. Please review the submission requirements to learn more about what is required at this stage. If your team is invited to participate in any future phases of this competition, you may be asked to provide additional information, which could include letters of support. Examples of what information may be requested from applicants can be found under Section J of the application.

We encourage you to review the submission requirements for more information about what is required of applicants.  

Section E of the application provides definitions for the various eligible solution stages. Please keep in mind that the scoring rubric considers evidence of effectiveness and feasibility, regardless of stage. 

Section G of the application also includes the required question Evidence of Effectiveness. Here, applicants will provide evidence to show that the solution will work. You can present any internal evidence, such as informal studies, observations, or other indicators of change, or formal evidence, including any evaluation results. If you do not have evidence of impact of your own solution, you can point to research-backed practices on which your solution is based, or analogous solutions achieving meaningful impact that you think your solution may similarly achieve. In the same section, the question Evidence Type provides definitions for the various levels of evidence that are eligible.  

If your team is invited to participate in any future phases of this competition, you may be asked to provide additional information. Examples of what information may be requested from applicants can be found under Section J of the application. 

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We leave it up to each applicant to best describe their solution within the maximum word counts provided in the application. Technical details that help to support claims made in the application around the solution’s impact are encouraged. While we ask that you avoid sharing sensitive or confidential information in your application responses, please be sure to provide as much relevant information as necessary for reviewers to evaluate.

Yes, you may update the registration form until the application deadline at 5:00 PM Eastern Time on Thursday, September 24, 2026. From the Submissions tab of the platform, you can select Registration Form to update this information.

Your submission may be shared with five of your fellow applicants as part of Peer-to-Peer Review, five Evaluation Panel members, the Selection Committee, and the ZERO 2050 team during the evaluation process. All peer reviewers and Evaluation Panel judges will be required to commit to keeping all application materials they review confidential. While we ask that you avoid sharing sensitive or confidential information in your application responses, please be sure to provide as much relevant information as necessary for reviewers to evaluate.

Portions of your application may be published online and may be shared with the general public to promote your proposal or to highlight results. For example: After Winners are announced, an online searchable database of applications will be shared on the challenge website and may include (but is not limited to) the following application responses for each participant: Lead Organization, Lead Organization Website, Solution Title, Solution Statement, Executive Summary, Video Pitch, and Solution Description.

Note: Applicants will have the opportunity to opt-out of the searchable database if they prefer.

Applicants will retain the intellectual property (IP) for their solutions. Review section 9 of the Rules for more information about the treatment and use of intellectual property.

You may share login credentials with your team members as needed, but only one person can be logged in at a time to complete the submission. Applicants may collaborate as a team to complete the application offline and/or on the platform. It does help to designate one person responsible for entering your responses into the online application.

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McElhattan Foundation has compiled data about fatal workplace electrocution. We encourage participants to review these resources as you prepare your application.

Your work saves automatically and the status of your application is available to view on your dashboard.  

You have the option to request an automated confirmation email after clicking Submit – be sure the checkbox is clicked to opt into this email when the confirmation message appears.  

The platform works best when using Google Chrome as your browser on a laptop or desktop computer, with view zoom at 100%. If you experience technical issues while using other browsers, please try Chrome and email us if you need additional technical support.