Ogilvy PR has won a $100K grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create a platform to help younger generations rally around and promote global health and development causes.

Leo Burnett, Chicago, and Seattle-based Digital Kitchen also received communications-related grants under the Grand Challenges Explorations program of the Gates Foundation, which focuses on efforts to solve health and development challenges around the world.

The foundation in February said it would focus some grants in its latest round on "communications that could motivate the public in wealthy countries of the world to support foreign aid investments and take action to demonstrate that 

Ogilvy, which submitted a two-page online application for project dubbed "Cause Generation: A Platform to Define a Generation's Cause," was one of 50 winners in the latest round of grants.

Under its proposal, Tony Morain of Ogilvy/San Francisco will develop and launch an online platform for university student teams to campaign for chosen development challenges by using communication strategies. Team voting will be used to select a winning campaign to receive funding.

Successful projects can earn follow-on grants of up to $1M.

Robert Mathias, North American CEO of Ogilvy PR, said the firm is "honored" to take part in the initiative, adding that he looks forward to "seeing what the team come up with to take cause generation to new heights of engagement.”

Leo Burnett plans to create a working stock sticker on the New York Stock Exchange to track the daily performance of aid "to publicize that investment in humankind is working." LB will work to list the stock as HKMD and create a news site of daily updates on activities. The agency said by presenting aid in investment terms on a daily basis on the global stage, they hope to better highlight its success to a wider audience.

Digital Kitchen plans to set up a global news radio channel for kids aged 8 to cover aid and promote connections between the development and developed world.