Drucker Institute

DRUCKER INSTITUTE NAMES FINALISTS FOR 2015 NONPROFIT INNOVATION AWARD

• By druckeradmin

Today, we named the 10 finalists for the 2015 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.

The winner will be announced later this month. The prize is $100,000, thanks to a generous grant from The Coca-Cola Foundation.

The finalists are:

  •     92Y, which launched #GivingTuesday to catalyze philanthropic giving following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
  •     Child Care Services Association, whose Child Care WAGE$ salary supplement program encourages early childhood professionals to stay in the field and to seek college degrees in early childhood education.
  •     Kids v Cancer, which devised a market-based incentive for the development of drugs to combat pediatric cancer and other life-threatening illnesses in children.
  •     MIND Research Institute, which created ST Math, a highly effective visual approach to teaching mathematics based on neuroscience research.
  •     Operation ASHA, which has established decentralized networks of tuberculosis treatment centers, aided by technology, where services are provided free of charge to marginalized communities in India and Cambodia.
  •     Riders for Health, whose Sample Transport motorcycle courier service fights disease across sub-Saharan Africa by taking patient samples from remote health centers to laboratories for testing and diagnosis, returning the results swiftly and safely so treatment can start.
  •     Rocky Mountain Institute, which has been a pioneer in addressing today’s climate crisis by showing how to displace fossil fuels with efficiency and clean renewable energy.
  •     Sanergy, whose Total Hygienic Sanitation program includes the franchising of clean toilets to local residents in the slums of Nairobi, the safe removal and treatment of waste from communities and conversion of waste into saleable by-products.
  •     Team Rubicon, whose Veteran Disaster Relief Operations train military veterans to be first responders, providing help to areas struck by disaster while simultaneously supporting the needs of veterans transitioning back to civilian life.
  •     The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, whose Bedsider initiative has helped millions of single women in the U.S., ages 18 through 29, find the best method of birth control, stay on it and use it successfully.

In all, the Drucker Institute received 655 applications this year from nonprofits in 45 states and the District of Columbia. The annual budgets for these organizations ranged from less than $250,000 to well more than $10 million.

“As Peter Drucker wrote, ‘All social sector organizations share the ‘bottom line’ of changed lives,’” said Rick Wartzman, the Drucker Institute’s executive director. “Every one of the 10 finalists for this year’s Drucker Award has a very robust bottom line—each fueled by a clear capacity to seize innovative opportunities and make the most of them. It is a privilege and an honor to put forward these 10 amazing nonprofits for consideration by the final judges.”

Administered annually since 1991, the Drucker Award is granted to a social-sector organization that demonstrates Peter Drucker’s definition of innovation—“change that creates a new dimension of performance.” In addition, the judges look for programs that are highly effective and that have made a difference in the lives of the people they serve.

The final judges include Wartzman; Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind.; Sumita Dutta, managing director at Golden Seeds; Dave Gallon, national manager of Strategic Insight and Innovation at Toyota Financial Services; Geneva Johnson, former president and CEO of Family Service America and Families International; C. William Pollard, chairman emeritus of ServiceMaster Co. and a member of the Drucker Institute’s Board of Advisors; Patrick Soon-Shiong, the founder of NantWorks; Avi Steinlauf, CEO of Edmunds.com; Bryan Walker, associate partner at IDEO; and Kathy Waller, CFO and executive vice president of The Coca-Cola Company.