The new Innovation Prize from the Heritage Foundation rewards conservative movement organizations developing solutions to the biggest problems facing America today.
Conservatives made important gains on Election Day. The not-so-silent majority delivered the popular vote for the GOP, battle-tested conservative governors won resounding victories, and Nancy Pelosi will no longer be the Speaker of the House. New state attorneys general will help push back on an expanding federal government, treasurers and auditors will provide a check on financial institutions more intent on advancing the Left’s woke ESG agenda than the financial return of taxpayers’ investments, and engaged parents intent on advancing education reforms won hundreds of school board seats across the country.
But elections are just the beginning. The hard work lies ahead, and new and innovative ideas are needed to counter much of the damage that’s been wrought over the last two years—ideas that cannot wait to be implemented.
The conservative movement must be present in every level of government; local municipalities, state capitals, and Congress have been enlisted to do the hard work of rescuing families struggling under Biden’s economy, restoring law and order, and putting parents back in the driver’s seat of their kids’ education. Conservatives must deliver on these and many other promises and demonstrate their willingness to fight for the future of America.
As America’s Outpost in Washington D.C., the Heritage Foundation is working to pick up the pieces and rebuild a country that values self-governance and human flourishing. But Heritage certainly doesn’t do it alone. We partner with other outstanding organizations because we know that the conservative movement works best when it works together. And one of the ways we have begun to do that is with the Heritage Innovation Prize.
We established the Innovation Prize this year to financially support innovative solutions to the most pressing issues facing America.
The prizes recognize and advance projects, strategies, and efforts of organizations that are seeking to ensure the future of American self-governance. They provide substantial financial awards that, in total, amount to $1 million each year to results-oriented nonprofits for projects involving research, litigation, education, outreach, or communications.
Innovation Prizes have already been awarded for such projects as Alliance Defending Freedom’s Viewpoint Diversity Business Index, which measures the level of corporate respect for religious and ideological diversity in the marketplace, workplace, and public square of companies on the Fortune 1000 list, like Meta (the parent company of Facebook), Twitter, and Bank of America. Its purpose is to laud good actors, draw attention to deficient ones, and equip companies to take concrete steps toward respecting diverse perspectives in their business practices.
Heritage also awarded the State Financial Officers Foundation an Innovation Prize for its campaign to educate policymakers and state financial officials about the dangers of so-called environmental, social, and governance standards that many companies and institutional investors have adopted. These ESG standards have nothing to do with sound economic and business decisions but instead concentrate investment power in a small group of woke governmental and business leaders who use it to force their radical agenda on the American people.
The Innovation Prize is intended to spark creative disruption within the conservative movement, particularly in the key areas of empowering parents to make education choices, securing America’s borders and reducing crime, ensuring free and fair elections, reducing the growth of spending and inflation, countering the threat of the Chinese Communist Party, holding Big Tech accountable, protecting unborn life and family formation, and preparing for the next presidential administration in 2025.
America is at one of the most critical turning points in her history. The only way we will save our republic is if the American people stand up and take action to defeat the radical Left and the destruction they continue to unleash on our country. That’s why the conservative movement must go on offense like never before against those trying to bring down the nation from within. The American people are looking for bold and innovative leaders who are willing to call out this radicalism and provide policy solutions that get our country back on track.
The Innovation Prize is about further uniting the conservative movement to defeat the destructive ideology and designs of the radical Left. As we have for nearly five decades, Heritage will be focused not just on winning policy fights in Washington, behind enemy lines, but also helping the movement take the battle to the Left—nationwide— as we fight to save America’s future.
More information on the Innovation Prize is available at heritage.org/innovationprize.
