The prominent conservative group awards nearly $1 million to pro-family and ed-reform nonprofits.
The Heritage Foundation has announced the much-anticipated selections of its popular Innovation Prize program. Over eighty organizations applied for the prize, now in its sixth round of significant grant-making that recognizes nonprofits “executing bold ideas and providing innovative solutions to the most pressing issues facing America.”
The current round targeted projects “that build on recent education reforms and expand options for families.” The criteria included that organizations must:
"Improve the practice of health care while increasing transparency and choice for patients, encourage the responsible use of technology, address predatory practices in gambling, fight poverty in ways that empower individuals toward self-sufficiency, promote business practices that support families, and train reform-minded leaders who will develop and implement effective policy solutions in the future.”
The twelve organizations awarded the 2026 Innovation Prize are the Cardinal Newman Society, Center for Responsible Technology, College of St. Joseph the Worker, Election Integrity Network, FACTS About Fertility, Independent Medical Alliance, Inter-State Security Organization, Love Your School, Reformers Academy, Stop Predatory Gambling, True Charity, and Voices for the Voiceless.
The cumulative amount of the 2026 prize grants totaled nearly $1 million. Since the Innovation Prize’s inception in 2022, Heritage has awarded close to $5 million to forty-seven organizations.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said prize winners “exemplify the partnerships and love of neighbors that lead to flourishing families and civil societies. We are grateful for their work and honored to support their noble efforts to preserve the permanent things in our republic.”
Heritage established the Innovation Prizes in 2022 to “recognize and advance innovative projects, strategies, and policy solutions of organizations to ensure the future of American self-governance.”
A Heritage statement announcing the 2026 prize recipients said:
"These nonprofits are awarded prizes for projects that strengthen families, communities, and civil society through research, education, outreach, communications, and advocacy. Their work includes advancing educational excellence and parental engagement, promoting responsible technology, supporting election integrity, improving health and medical freedom, expanding vocational formation, and protecting the dignity of vulnerable and underserved populations."
Election Integrity Network President Sharon Bemis said the prize grant “will significantly advance” EIN’s mission “to build permanent, state-based infrastructure for election integrity nationwide. . . . With this support, we will onboard new state coalitions and provide the mentorship and resources needed to implement the US Citizens’ Election Bill of Rights principles via our Model Elections Laws Handbook in communities across America.”
Another prize recipient, the pro-life Voices for the Voiceless, will use its Innovation Prize award to launch “a national initiative to reshape how companies support pregnancy, motherhood, and family life. The project will introduce the Motherhood Opportunity Metric (MOM Score), evaluate states and corporations against a Blueprint for Supported Motherhood, and pilot a corporate Human Resources (HR) consulting and benefit program.”
Background on all the projects selected for an award can be found here.
