Drucker Institute

FINALISTS NAMED FOR 2014 NONPROFIT INNOVATION AWARD

• By druckeradmin

Today, we named the 10 finalists for the 2014 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 created #GivingTuesday to catalyze philanthropic giving following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
    • Arogya World, whose mDiabetes program spurs people to adopt healthier lifestyles through text messages.
    • Community Environmental Defense Council, whose Taking Local Control initiative makes innovative use of local regulations to give municipal governments the power to stop environmental degradation from fracking.
    • Found in Translation, which is helping to lift low-income bilingual women out of poverty through its Medical Interpreter Job Training Program.
    • Freedom from Hunger, which is conveying vital health information to millions of impoverished women in the developing world by reaching them through microfinance institutions.
    • HopeLab Foundation, whose Resilience Initiative is using digital games and social technology to help people effectively tackle various physical and psychological challenges.
    • Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which has diversified its revenue streams, reduced its reliance on philanthropy and added value to the larger arts community through its consulting arm, Lincoln Center Global.
    • MIND Research Institute, which has created ST Math, a highly effective visual approach to teaching mathematics based on neuroscience research.
    • SightLife, which works with partners across 29 countries to establish eye banks and support more than 17,000 corneal transplant surgeries each year.
    • Water.org, which has a new approach to establishing sustainable access to water and sanitation for people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

In all, the Drucker Institute received 687 applications this year from nonprofits in 46 states and the District of Columbia. The annual budgets for these organizations ranged from less than $250,000 to well more than $10 million.

“The first-round judges have probably never debated harder or longer to get down to just 10,” said Rick Wartzman, the Drucker Institute’s executive director. “Peter Drucker taught that the first requirement for successful innovation is to look at changes in technology or the structure of society or demographics as a potential opportunity instead of as a threat. Each of the finalists is an exemplar of putting this principle into practice.”

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; Tim Brown, president and CEO of IDEO; Sumita Dutta, managing director at Golden Seeds; Geneva Johnson, former president and CEO of Family Service America and Families International; Mario Morino, co-founder and chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and chairman of Morino Institute; Sally Osberg, president and CEO of Skoll Foundation; Susan Phillips, vice president of human capital at Omidyar Network; C. William Pollard, chairman emeritus of ServiceMaster Co. and a member of the Drucker Institute’s Board of Advisors; David Porges, national director of Corporate Citizenship at Deloitte; and Kathy Waller, CFO and executive vice president of The Coca-Cola Company.

Hailed by Businessweek magazine as “the man who invented management,” Peter Drucker not only consulted for major corporations; he also advised the Girl Scouts of the USA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and countless other social-sector organizations. He called the nonprofit “America’s most distinctive institution.”