Celebrating the latest recipients of the Heritage Foundation’s Innovation Prize: six organizations standing against the Radical Left.
From its early years in the 1970s until now, the Heritage Foundation has championed state-based think tanks, issue-advocacy groups, and leadership development efforts in the conservative movement.
Today, the 49-year-old conservative policy organization is backing those efforts with sizable grants that come in the form of the Heritage Innovation Prize.
Heritage announced three prizes earlier this year and just named six more prize winners bringing the total grants awarded to $1 million in 2022. Heritage plans to give away the same amount next year and into the foreseeable future.
The goal of the prize is to serve the movement and unite conservatives—particularly outside the Beltway—to defeat the destructive ideology and designs of the radical Left.
Heritage’s first round of gifts were presented at the organization’s Resource Bank meeting in June. Winners in June included Alliance Defending Freedom, Independent Women’s Forum, and the State Financial Officers Foundation. Each organization received $100,000 from Heritage’s robust endowment fund for innovative conservative projects.
The latest recipients include the Alliance for Opportunity, Americans United for Life, Charlotte Lozier Institute, Defense of Freedom Institute, Forge Leadership Network, and the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy.
To be eligible for the Heritage Innovation Prize, organizations must be results-oriented nonprofits with projects involving research, litigation, education, outreach, or communications. Heritage puts a particular emphasis on seven key issues: empowering parents in education, holding Big Tech accountable, countering the threat of the Chinese Communist Party, securing America’s borders and reducing crime, ensuring free and fair elections, reducing the growth of spending and inflation, and promoting life and family formation. They are also focused on efforts to develop conservative leadership and capacity for the next conservative Administration.
The six newest recipients of the Heritage Innovation Prize include:
The Alliance for Opportunity, a coalition of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Georgia Center for Opportunity, and Pelican Institute for Public Policy, will receive a $225,000 award over two years in support of the organizations’ efforts to lift Americans out of poverty and promote human flourishing.
Americans United for Life will receive a $60,000 award in support of its work to help protect un-born Americans—specifically, advancing its newly launched AUL.org Digital Advocacy Platform database, augmenting AUL’s “Defending Life” state-by-state playbook with interactive maps and providing Americans with real time information about pro-life efforts in their states, including the status of pro-life pieces of legislation.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute will receive a $65,000 award in support of its work to determine the tangible, real-world consequences of abortion for women, families, and communities in the United States in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the Dobbs case.
The Defense of Freedom Institute will receive a $100,000 award in support of its work to expose the Biden administration’s refusal to counter the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party, particularly the regime’s efforts to influence and take advantage of universities and research institutions in the United States.
The Forge Leadership Network will receive a $500,000 award over three years to expand its programs to new states and double the number of young leaders trained and mentored.
The Thomas Jefferson Institute will receive a $150,000 award in support of its efforts to advance parental rights and empower Virginia families to make their own education choices. The institute helps lead the Virginia Education Opportunity Alliance, a vast coalition of groups assembled to promote parental rights in education.
Heritage will consider applications for the Innovation Prize twice per year. The next deadline is Feb. 1, 2023. Applicants must be a 501(c)3 organization in good standing. New or existing groups, and those operating at the state or national level, are welcome to apply. Learn more about the application process and selection criteria at heritage.org/innovationprize.
