Awards, May 02, 2002

The following awards have been presented for achievement in fund raising, management, philanthropy, and research:

Environment. The Goldman Environmental Foundation (San Francisco) has awarded its 2002 Goldman Environmental Prize to eight outstanding grass-roots environmental leaders hailing from six regions. Each prize carries a “no strings attached” $125,000 award. The recipients:

— Africa. Fatima Jibrell (Somalia), who persuaded the regional government in northeastern Somalia to create and enforce a ban on charcoal exports to the Persian Gulf states, saving old-growth acacia trees from massive logging projects.

— Asia. Pisit Charnsnoh (Thailand), a Buddhist ecologist who works with Muslim fishers to protect and restore coastal ecosystems in Thailand that have been devastated by increased logging and industrial fishing.

— Europe. Jadwiga Lopata (Poland), a conservationist who created an ecotourism program to save Poland’s traditional family farms, to promote sustainable agriculture, and to preserve natural habitats from large-scale industrial farming.

— Islands and Island Nations. Alexis Massol-González (Puerto Rico), an entrepreneur who led a successful campaign to convert a mining zone into Bosque del Pueblo (the People’s Forest), Puerto Rico’s first community-managed forest reserve.

— North America. Jonathon Solomon, Sarah James, and Norma Kassi (United States and Canada), Gwich’in tribal leaders who have defended the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge against the Bush administration’s efforts to open the refuge for oil drilling, despite estimates that such drilling would produce a limited amount of oil while decimating caribou that have sustained Gwich’in culture for 20,000 years.

— South and Central America. Jean La Rose (Guyana), an indigenous woman who, despite sustained harassment, has worked with the Amerindian Peoples Association to file a land-rights lawsuit seeking to end mining practices that have devastated Guyana’s rainforests and harmed its indigenous communities.

Fund raising. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (Alexandria, Va.) has announced the recipients of its 2001-02 Awards for Philanthropy, presented in several categories:

— Excellence in Fund Raising, Large Category: Baylor College of Medicine (Houston), which raised more than $31-million in staff and faculty donations during its most recent campaign; more than 1,700 of the institution’s 5,000 faculty and staff members participated, with an increase in the average donation from $1,700 to $8,400.

— Outstanding Achievement in Internet Fund Raising: Lawrence Technological U. (Southfield, Mass.), which runs an online “eAnnual Giving” campaign that has resulted in a 10-percent increase in its annual pledge rate.

— Outstanding Corporation: May Department Stores Company (St. Louis), which, along with its associate retail chains, has contributed more than $140-million to thousands of nonprofit groups over the past seven years.

— Outstanding Foundation: Community Foundation Silicon Valley (San Jose, Calif.), which raised more than $254-million during its fiscal year 2001, while distributing grants averaging a total of $1-million each week; the foundation was also the first to accept gifts of stock before their initial public offering, setting a precedent that other foundations now follow.

— Outstanding Fund-Raising Executive: Dianne Lister, president and chief executive officer of the Hospital for Sick Children Foundation (Toronto), inaugural chair of the AFP Canadian Council and the AFP Canadian Government Relations Committee, and a former president of AFP’s Toronto Chapter.

— Outstanding Philanthropist: Wynton M. (Red) Blount, founder of Blount International, a manufacturing company, and a former Postmaster General of the United States who has donated millions of dollars to the arts, education, and historic preservation. His gifts have included $22-million in land and funds to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (Montgomery) for a state-of-the-art theater complex and $7-million to the U. of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) for the Blount Undergraduate Initiative.

— Outstanding Volunteer Fund Raiser: Ebby Halliday-Acers, who over the past 50 years has worked with more than 30 nonprofit groups in Dallas and elsewhere in Texas, including as honorary chair of the fund-raising gala held annually by Trinity Works (Dallas).

Nonprofit organizations. The National Alliance for Nonprofit Management (Washington) has presented the 2001 Terry McAdam Book Award for the best book about nonprofit organizations published in 2000-01 to Kevin P. Kearns for Private Sector Strategies for Social Sector Success: The Guide to Strategy and Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations, published by Jossey-Bass in 2000. The award is underwritten by the New York Community Trust.

Online volunteerism. NetAid (New York) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (Bonn) have awarded the UN/NetAid Volunteers Award to 10 recipients, recognizing them for their exemplary performance as online volunteers and the outstanding support they have provided to development groups worldwide. The recipients and the organizations for which they volunteered: Angelica Hasbun (Costa Rica) and People with Disabilities Uganda, Cynthia Holland (Canada/New Zealand) and Reach Out International (USA/Guatemala), Natalya Korobeynyk (Ukraine) and Gardarika (Russia), Joanne K. Morse (USA) and Christian Rural Aid Network (Ghana), Laurie Moy (USA) and People with Disabilities Uganda, Adedoyin Onasanya (Nigeria) and Horizon International (USA), Terry Rosenlund (USA) and Kenya AIDS Intervention/Prevention Project Group, Yvonne Swain (USA) and Overcomers Visionary Faith Centre (Kenya)/Learning and Development Kenya, Paula Santos Vizcaino (Uruguay) and La Leche League International (USA), and Javier Wilson (Nicaragua) and Nile Basin Society (Canada).