A glimpse at the nonprofits saving civil society—and America.
On June 4th, the Heritage Foundation announced the winners of its 2025 Innovation Prize awards, which totaled over $1 million in awards.
While the winners this year are diverse in their missions and programs, they share core traits: “These nonprofits are awarded prizes for projects involving research, litigation, education, outreach, or communications, particularly those focused on empowering parents in education, restoring digital sovereignty, countering the threat of the CCP, and putting family first.”
The 2025 awards mark the fifth round of Innovation Prizes awarded by the Heritage Foundation. They represent the organization’s continued dedication to supporting projects aimed at protecting America’s national security, families, and social values, among other crucial initiatives.
Meet the 2025 Winners!
The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) won a Heritage Innovation Prize for its “Doctor, Heal Thyself” initiative, and says that it will use the award to “expand its campaign to reach over 67,000 pediatricians, encourage them to reject harmful ideological mandates, and amplify a growing coalition of voices advocating for children’s health and evidence-based care.”
You can read more about their prize-winning initiative and larger work here.
American Reformer Center for Academic Faithfulness & Flourishing (CAFF) was awarded a $50,000 prize for its “CAFF College Guide,” which is described as a free directory of over 250 Christian colleges and universities in the U.S. that can be accessed online, bringing transparency to the Christian college search process.
CAFF was tremendously grateful for the prize from Heritage and noted that the award meant that they could continue to expand the guide without needing to charge its users a subscription fee.
You can check out more of CAFF’s work here.
The Ben Franklin Fellowship received a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation to implement its “JUNTO Outreach Project,” an initiative described by Heritage as “working to revitalize the state department by challenging entrenched bureaucratic norms and producing a new generation of diplomats committed to an America First vision.”
You can read more about the work of the Ben Franklin Fellowship here.
Do No Harm received the prize to support “its work in investigating and publishing medical school rankings based on the use of DEI in admissions and curriculum.” Do No Harm works to represent those in the medical field by protecting them from intrusive DEI measures and ultimately, a “politicization of medicine” and the healthcare world.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb from Do No Harm said that the organization was honored to receive the prize: “With this award, Do No Harm will invest in a project to rank and review medical schools according to their DEI activities and hold them accountable for their divisive and discriminatory practices. We thank Heritage for its support.”
You can check out more of what Do No Harm does here.
Families Empowered received a 2025 Innovation Prize “for its efforts to expand its educational advisory services to serve at least 50,000 new Texas parents” who are currently learning how to use the new education savings accounts that have been established in the Lone Star State.
Colleen Dippel, the organization’s founder and CEO, stated that “the Innovation Prize will enhance and expand our ability to provide parents, who are looking for school options, with unbiased school information and personalized educational advisory services.”
You can read more about Families Empowered here.
LifeWise Academy was recognized by the Heritage Foundation for its efforts to strengthen parental authority in the realm of education, specifically through the “Released Time Religious Instruction project, which enables parents to provide Bible based character education during the school day.”
Joel Penton is the founder and CEO of LifeWise, and he expressed his heartfelt gratitude for Heritage’s support of their initiatives: “By equipping communities to provide Bible education to public school students during school hours, LifeWise helps restore moral foundations and instill timeless values. We’re grateful for The Heritage Foundation’s leadership in promoting policies that strengthen faith, family and freedom across our nation.”
You can read more about LifeWise Academy here.
Napa Legal Institute was the winner of one of Heritage’s 2025 awards. They received the award in recognition of their “Faith and Freedom Index,” which tracks all 50 states and rates their favorability towards religious nonprofits. Heritage stated that NLI’s “Faith & Freedom Index is a bold and innovative project that incentivizes state legislators to pass laws that support faith-based nonprofits.”
The press release continued by saying that NLI was honored to receive the reward and encouraged those who had not participated in one of its programs or supported its mission through financial giving to contact their team.
You can learn more about what the Napa Legal Institute does here.
National Center on Sexual Exploitation was recognized for its work in helping protect minors from sexually explicit content online. According to Heritage, “NCOSE is creating legislation to protect minors and is pursuing legal action against online platforms violating state laws.”
NCOSE’s president, Marcel van der Watt, was grateful for Heritage’s award, which he said “will advance our work to increase child safety online.”
You can see more of NCOSE’s work here.
State Armor received an award for its initiatives to counter the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at a state level. Heritage stated that “the organization provides lawmakers with policy tools to enact strong, state-level legislation. In a time of international risk, State Armor strengthens America’s security by turning state governments into active defenders of national interests, ensuring that threats abroad are met with action at home.”
Michael Lucci from SA stated that he was honored to win an award from Heritage, and further emphasized that SA is “dedicated to executing an effective campaign against the Chinese Communist Party’s malicious influence operations, and we believe this campaign will honor the leadership Heritage has set forth for generations, and which remains central to American policymaking today.”
You can explore State Armor’s other projects here.
Them Before Us won an Innovation Prize for its efforts to make sure that children’s needs are put first, especially when at the center of conflicts within families. Their “children’s rights database,” highlighted by Heritage, “provides information on how well states are protecting the rights of children and families and proposes reform states can implement.”
TBU’s Executive Director, Katie Faust, said that the Heritage award will help the team complete and launch the Children’s Rights Database, which will provide advocates, lawmakers, and concerned citizens with state-by-state information about the status of children’s rights across the United States.”
You can read more about the work of Them Before Us here.
Wired Human earned a prize from the Heritage Foundation due to its projects combatting the exploitation of minors by Big Tech companies:
“Through education, advocacy, and public action, Wired Human exposes the damage caused by pornography, cyberbullying, and unethical tech. The organization trains young individuals to understand the risks, speak out, and facilitate an online environment that respects human dignity. Its curriculum and public campaigns encourage the next generation to fight against digital abuse and demand accountability.”
One initiative in particular that was mentioned was their “Childhood is Not for Sale” campaign, which works to connect different families and young people to help make them advocates for change in the digital realm.
You can read more about Wired Human here.
Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2025 Heritage Foundation Innovation Prizes! For more information about the prize, click here.
