The Barry and Marie Lipman Family Prize at the University of Pennsylvania is an annual global prize given to one organization that celebrates leadership and innovation in the social sector with an emphasis on impact and transferability of practices. The award will recognize and amplify the work of organizations devoted to positive social impact and creating sustainable solutions to significant social and economic challenges. The ultimate goal is to spread the global lessons found in local success.

Right now, organizations of all types and sizes are creating new ways to address the world’s most significant challenges. Some of these organizations will succeed, some will fail, and some will learn, adapt, and try again.

Which of these organizations can share what they are learning and potentially help their colleagues improve what they do? Winners of the Lipman Family Prize will be models for the good that they achieve as well as for their approach and implementation. The winner of the Prize will be tackling universal problems in a local setting — and, as such, should offer an approach, model, or innovation that can be adapted to create a positive impact elsewhere. The Lipman Family Prize seeks to recognize and support these organizations, and provide a service to the broader social sector by connecting agencies across areas of service in a learning community. A hopeful future depends on the success of these types of efforts.

Impact and Transferability

Placed at an academic institution, the prize puts great emphasis on understanding what works, capturing that knowledge and disseminating it to the communities empowered to affect change. For that reason, the elements of impact and transferability will be central in the selection of the Prize winner.  Is the impact of the approach significant and sufficiently demonstrated? How transferable is the knowledge embedded in the approach to practitioners and students alike?

With a core emphasis on education, the Lipman Family Prize will:

1. Reward exemplary work in the social sector.
2. Support the organizational sustainability of its finalists through educational and consultative partnership.
3. Convene leaders from exemplary organizations to learn from one another.
4. Gather the accumulated knowledge from these organizations, complement it with rigorous academic study, and provide a conduit to collective knowledge for students and practitioners in the field.

Award Components

Announced each spring at an awards ceremony at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, the Lipman Family Prize includes:

• A $100,000 cash award for the winning organization.
• An ongoing partnership with the University dedicated to knowledge sharing and support of the organization. Examples of available supports include development of a case study, peer learning events, a tuition-free executive education program, student projects, pro-bono consultation from University faculty and staff, and access to faculty research and research centers.
• Media and University recognition.

Finalists for the Lipman Family Prize also receive the same non-cash benefits as the winner. Together with the University and Wharton, each year’s winner and finalists help to build new knowledge, resources, and solutions for the social responsibility community.

Eligible Organizations

We encourage organizations from around the globe to apply. We are looking for an organization that has already received some attention for having an innovative or effective model, with a focused mission and set of programs leading to a unified goal. It should be building a track record of success, but may not yet have gained significant recognition outside its subsector. For the winner, this prize will help bring its work to a larger audience, attract new potential donors, and provide resources that will help it scale the work or improve its organizational sustainability.

The Lipman Family Prize is targeted toward organizations addressing social and economic issues that are usually addressed by the Nonprofit/NGO/Civil Society sector. As such, we expect that the majority of organizations considered for the award will be considered “nonprofit” organizations. However, in recognition of the variations in international law, as well as the organizational innovations occurring globally (i.e., social enterprises, for-benefit corporations, and 4th sector organizations), organizations not considered traditional nonprofits will also be considered.

Phase 1 of this year’s application process takes place between September 1, 2012 and September 21, 2012. For more information on the Prize and the application process, see How to Apply and Frequently Asked Questions.