Lodestar Foundation announces $250,000 Collaboration Prize
The Lodestar Foundation, an organization dedicated to maximizing the growth and impact of philanthropy by efficiently and effectively leveraging philanthropic resources, announced the Collaboration Prize, a $250,000 prize recognizing nonprofit collaborations that achieve exceptional impact and significantly eliminate duplication of efforts. Nominations for the prize will be accepted between June 1 and July 21, 2008. Among eight finalists, the winning collaboration will be announced on March 6, 2009, at the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation’s 11th Annual Forum on Nonprofit Effectiveness.
The annual Prize was created and is funded by the Lodestar Foundation in association with the Arizona-Indiana-Michigan (AIM) Alliance, of which the ASU Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation is a member. Designed to inspire cooperation among nonprofits, the Prize will be awarded to one collaboration that demonstrates through quantifiable evidence that it has achieved exceptional impact and significantly eliminated the duplication of efforts through programmatic collaborations, administrative consolidation or other joint activities. The collaboration must be composed of two or more organizations that each would otherwise compete for clients, financial resources and staff. The $250,000 prize must be used for charitable purposes, such as enhancing the winning collaboration’s continued service to its constituents or clients.
“A core mission for the Lodestar Foundation is to create financial and programmatic efficiencies among nonprofits–making sure philanthropic dollars achieve their maximum impact,” said Jerry Hirsch, Lodestar Foundation chairman. “The Collaboration Prize is an excellent way to reach this goal. We hope to uncover the most successful techniques and business models that will heighten the productivity and effectiveness of the nonprofit world.”
The Prize recipient will be chosen by a Final Selection Panel, which will be chaired by Sterling Speirn, president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and will include representatives of both the nonprofit and business worlds, as well as representatives of AIM. All submissions will be reviewed for eligibility by La Piana Associates, the nation’s leading management and consulting firm dedicated to helping nonprofits and foundations become stronger and more effective through collaboration.
In addition to the $250,000 award, the eight finalists’ collaboration models will be compiled for study and use as blueprints by academics, nonprofit leaders and grantmakers in order to advance the practice of nonprofit collaboration.
"We are delighted to partner with the Lodestar Foundation and our AIM partners on this new Collaboration Prize," said Dr. Robert F. Ashcraft, director of the ASU Lodestar Center and professor nonprofit studies in ASU's School of Community Resources and Development. "Our Center is about the creation and dissemination of knowledge and tools that build the quality of life in communities. Appropriate collaboration is one of the strategies that effective nonprofits use to meet their mission and achieve impact. So this is just the sort of innovative programming we seek as an expression of our own values to partner for the common good."
A full list of eligibility requirements and nomination details can be found at: http://www.thecollaborationprize.org.
The Lodestar Foundation is a grantmaking organization devoted to maximizing the growth and impact of philanthropy by efficiently and effectively leveraging philanthropic resources. Based in Phoenix, Arizona, the Foundation funds nationally and internationally to organizations that support its mission. The Lodestar Foundation was established in 1999 as a support foundation of the Arizona Community Foundation. Please visit www.lodestarfoundation.org for more information.
The Arizona-Indiana-Michigan (AIM) Alliance is a collaboration composed of The Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation at Arizona State University, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, and the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University (Michigan). The work of the AIM Alliance started in 2003 and is dedicated to furthering the sector by improving nonprofit management practice, generating and sharing scholarly and practical knowledge, increasing communication and collaborating on research.
The mission of Arizona State University’s Lodestar Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Innovation (formerly the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management) is to help build the capacity of the social sector by enhancing the effectiveness of those who lead, manage, and support nonprofit organizations. As part of the College of Public Programs and in partnership with the School of Community Resources and Development, the Center provides knowledge and tools to build the capacity of nonprofit organizations, professionals, board members, and volunteers by offering research, technical assistance, workshops, conferences, classes, and capacity building programs. For more information, visit: http://nonprofit.asu.edu.