Recognizing individuals who are addressing some of America’s most difficult social problems SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARDS MANHATTAN INSTITUTE 2013 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARDS MIssION STATemeNT he Manhattan Institute’s Social Entrepreneurship The William E. Simon Prize for Awards honor nonprofit leaders who have founded Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship Tinnovative, private organizations to help address some of America’s most pressing social problems. The The Simon Prize recognizes individuals who have founded Awards include two prizes. The William E. Simon Prize and led organizations that have been clearly effective in their for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship is work and who have emerged as prominent public leaders in presented to the leader of an organization that has been their fields. Past winners include Geoffrey Canada, whose both demonstrably effective and widely influential. An Harlem Children’s Zone has helped thousands of families honorarium of $100,000 accompanies the Simon Prize. break the cycle of intergenerational poverty; Brian Lamb, whose C-SPAN networks have brought the business of the The Richard Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship American government into the homes of ordinary citizens; is given each year to up to five organizations that have dem- Eunice Kennedy Shriver, whose key role in the Special onstrated both effectiveness and the promise of significant Olympics helped change how the developmentally disabled impact. A prize of $25,000 is presented to the organization are viewed; and Daniel Biederman founder of the Bryant founded or led by the award winner. Park Corporation, 34th Street Partnership, and Grand Cen- The Manhattan Institute Social Entrepreneurship Awards are supported by funds from the William E. Simon Foundation, the J. M. Kaplan Fund, and Nick Ohnell. Howard Husock, vice president for policy research at the Manhattan Institute, is director of the program. For both the Cornuelle Award and the Simon Prize, nominations may be submitted by anyone familiar with a person’s or group’s activities except for a current employee of that person or group. Award applications for 2014 will be available online at www.manhattan-institute.org/se after January 1, 2014, and will be accepted until March 1, 2014. Winners are selected by the Manhattan Institute with the assistance of the following selection committee: Anne Marie Burgoyne, formerly of the Draper Richards Foundation; Howard Husock, Manhattan Institute; Cheryl Keller, foundation consultant; Leslie Lenkowsky, Indiana University; Adam Meyerson,The Philanthropy Roundtable; Lawrence Mone, Manhattan Institute; James Piereson, William E. Simon Foundation/Manhattan Institute; and William Schambra, Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal at the Hudson Institute. SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARDS 2013 1 tral Partnership, whose vision and use of private, nonprofit but acceptance of some government funding does not, in itself, management and finance has restored and maintained some preclude consideration. The Cornuelle Award recognizes the of New York City’s greatest public spaces. creative energy of the nonprofit sector by highlighting new ideas and approaches even by mature organizations. Nominations are accepted for the Simon Prize, but potential winners are not limited to those nominated. Any nonprofit organization that provides a direct service to address a public problem can be nominated for this award. Richard Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship Examples of such organizations include: Throughout its history, the United States has been distin- • Private social-services groups that assist the poor and disad- guished by the capacity of citizens to address social prob- vantaged with services designed to improve their prospects lems through new organizations established through private for success and upward mobility in American society; initiative. From Clara Barton and the American Red Cross • Reformative organizations that help people cope with to Millard Fuller and Habitat for Humanity, Americans moral or psychological problems, such as drug addic- have consistently come forward, without prompting or tion and criminal behavior; assistance from government, to organize nonprofit action • Education groups that improve children’s educational to improve American society by providing services to those achievement and possibilities through mentoring, in need. It is those who follow in such footsteps whom the counseling, or other after-school programs; Manhattan Institute seeks to recognize with its Richard • Community groups that improve the quality of life in Cornuelle Award for Social Entrepreneurship. their neighborhoods; and • Conservancies that use private donations from corpo- The characteristics of winning organizations have rations or individuals to purchase land and preserve it included: from development. • Energetic founding leaders with a strong vision; As many as 10 organizations may qualify for site visits, the • Provision of specific services to a clearly-targeted impressions and information from which will augment that group of those in need; provided by written nominations. Nonprofit organizations • Creative, entrepreneurial ways of meeting the that engage in political advocacy or that bring legal actions, organization’s goal; or whose primary activities are in response to government • Significant earned income and a diverse base of donors; grants are not eligible for this award. Individual schools • Clear and measurable results; and are not considered for the award, but novel approaches to • Use of volunteers. education may be considered. Recognition is reserved for those organizations whose guiding A complete list of award winners, 2001-13, can be found at purpose and function stem from private initiatives and ideas, http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/se_winners.htm. 2 THE MANHAttAN INStitUTE The Man Who Named the ‘Independent Sector’: the Legacy of Richard Cornuelle By William Schambra May 5, 2011 a libertarian economic genius like Mr. Libertarianism may have offered a philo- von Mises could find in the late 1940s, sophically devastating analysis of the when big-government devotees utterly failures of government social programs dominated the American academy. and the superiority of free markets, in his view. But it failed to speak to our Mr. Cornuelle became a program officer irrepressible humanitarian impulses, for at one of the early foundations on the which government programs, however right, the William Volker Fund, where faulty, seemed to be the only politically he mined economics journals for telltale plausible expression. indications of libertarian tendencies. Once he discovered these scholars—typi- In Reclaiming the American Dream, Mr. cally scattered and disconnected loners Cornuelle outlined a way to deal with at lower-tier colleges—the foundation urgent social needs in a manner both Richard C. Cornuelle (1927–2011) would offer them what modest financial humane and free. Drawing on Alexis de support it could afford. Tocqueville (by no means as commonly ith the death of Richard cited then as today), he noted that “as Cornuelle last week at In a time when lurid headlines tell stories a frontier people, accustomed to inter- Wthe age of 84, America’s of behemoth conservative foundations dependence, we developed a genius for “independent sector” has lost one of its buying and selling public policy at will, solving common problems. People joined most faithful and vigorous champions. it is hard indeed to imagine these hard- together in bewildering combinations to scrabble origins. As Mr. Cornuelle put found schools, churches, opera houses, Indeed, one of his claims to fame it, free-market advocates could fit in a co-ops, hospitals, to build bridges and was the very invention of the term phone booth, possessed by the “haunt- canals, to help the poor.” “independent sector,” deployed in his ing, subliminal suspicion that we were landmark 1965 volume Reclaiming the fighting not just a losing battle but a war Mr. Cornuelle maintained that we had all American Dream as a way to describe, already lost.” but forgotten this vast array of voluntary in the words of the book’s subtitle, “the civic associations—an “important third role of private individuals and volun- In a sentiment familiar to any founda- force” which he termed “the independent tary associations” in our national life. tion program officer, Mr. Cornuelle soon sector”—in our growing reliance on gov- cast covetous glances at the Volker grants ernment-financed, centrally administered, Richard Cornuelle was a life-long lib- going not to his projects but rather to professionally delivered social services. ertarian, convinced that “man’s power the small, local humanitarian groups over man should be strictly limited and that William Volker, who created the But he insisted that the human “desire that any design for social improvement foundation, said his philanthropy should to serve” was just as primal and power- that depended on government for its also support. Instead of converting those ful as the yearning for political power execution was ill-advised.” grants to his cause, however, they soon or material gain, and once unleashed, it converted Mr. Cornuelle to theirs—the could re-energize our voluntary associa- He developed this political outlook notion that human suffering was best tions and address our problems without in his studies with one of its pioneers, reduced by local voluntary efforts. Mr. oppressive bureaucracies.