hi Horrido,
I would like to thank you for your effort to organize this competition.
But for the amount you are asking (30K USD), I don't expect that much people to participate if you don't give them
more feedback and information on your project. You have too look how successful crowdfunding campaigns are working.
Recently, one of my friend Gael Duval organize a crowd campaign to fund a a new mobile OS that is privacy-enable and ask 25K Euros (less than you, but receive 95K Euros at the end) and put a lot of energy and info during several months too convince people:
Ok, the subject is completely different and maybe his topic is sensible for a lot of people but the concerns are the same. At the end, you need to convince people to give you money.
What is your budget ? what kind of competition you will organize ? how you will convince schools/university to participate ?
How you will reward people for their participation ?
Sorry to say, people will not give money just because you wrote a half-page statement.
Best,