Awards, Mar 08, 2007

The following awards have been presented for work in advocacy, fund raising, nonprofit leadership, philanthropy, and other areas:

Corporate philanthropy. The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (New York) has presented its Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Awards, which honor companies for their executives’ commitment to philanthropy, innovation in corporate giving, and dedication to evaluating the effectiveness of their philanthropy.

The award for companies with annual revenue in excess of $3-billion was given to GlaxoSmithKline (Philadelphia). The pharmaceutical corporation was recognized for giving more than $650-million in 2005 to its philanthropic programs. It is also a founding member of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (Decatur, Ga.), to which it has provided medical services for more than 100 million poor people worldwide who suffer from the disease.

The award for companies with annual revenue of less than $3-billion went to Salesforce.com (San Francisco), which manages customer services and sales data for other corporations. Its foundation donates 1 percent of the company’s equity, time, and products to benefit more than 1,500 nonprofit groups.

In addition, the National Academy Foundation (New York) received the Directors Award, which is accompanied by a $25,000 prize, for its partnerships with Citigroup (New York) and Pearson (London) to support a network of college-preparatory internship programs that help high-school students pursue their future careers.

Criminal justice. The Open Society Institute (New York) has announced its 2007 Soros Justice Fellows, among whom are advocates, lawyers, journalists, and scholars committed to improvements in the U.S. criminal-justice system. Each fellow conducts a one- to two-year project and receives a stipend that ranges from $45,000 to $71,250. The fellows and the institutions with which they are affiliated:

— Patricia Allard, lawyer and advocate, Rebecca Project for Human Rights and Vera Institute for Justice (New York)

— Ruben Austria, advocate, W. Haywood Burns Institute (New York)

— Ricardo Barreras, scholar and advocate, Bronx Defenders (New York)

— Reginald Gossett, advocate, Critical Resistance (New York)

— Pippa Holloway, scholar, Middle Tennessee State U. (Murfreesboro)

— Kristin Houlé, advocate, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (Austin)

— RaeDeen Karasuda, scholar and advocate, based in Honolulu

— Subhash Kateel, organizer and advocate, Florida Immigrant Coalition (Miami)

— Ken Lamberton, author, based in Tucson

— Alison Little, advocate, American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (Austin)

— Jonathan Mahler, journalist, based in New York

— Laura Mansnerus, journalist, based in Philadelphia

— JoAnn Mar, journalist, based in Berkeley, Calif.

— Johonna McCants, scholar and advocate, Institute for Community Peace (Washington)

— Jonathan Rapping, lawyer, Southern Center for Human Rights (Atlanta)

— Wilbert Rideau, journalist, based in Baton Rouge, La.

— Robert Rooks, grass-roots organizer, Justice Strategies (DeSoto, Tex.)

— Lauren Sudeall, lawyer, Southern Center for Human Rights (Atlanta)

Libraries. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle) and Library Journal (New York) have presented the Best Small Library in America Award to Grand County Public Library, in Moab, Utah. The annual award carries a $15,000 cash prize and recognizes public libraries that serve populations smaller than 25,000.