Awards, Mar 21, 2002

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

Corporate community service. The Points of Light Foundation (Washington) has named six companies to receive the 2002 Awards for Excellence in Corporate Community Service for their employee-volunteering programs: Cargill Inc. (Minneapolis), EDS (Plano, Tex.), Legacy Health System (Portland, Ore.), MTV Networks (New York), 3M Company (St. Paul), and Washington Mutual (Seattle).

Direct marketing. The Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation (Washington) has presented its 2002 Nonprofit Achievement Award to Roger Craver, founder of Craver, Mathews, Smith & Company (Arlington, Va.). The award recognizes individuals who have been direct-response fund-raising professionals for many years, employ innovative techniques or philosophies, and contribute to the professional development of others.

The DMA Nonprofit Federation also presented an award of appreciation to Geoffrey W. Peters, vice president at Creative Direct Response International (Croton, Md.), for his work with the American Charities for Reasonable Fundraising Regulation. Mr. Peters volunteered to represent fund raisers in a lawsuit filed in Pinellas County, Fla., in 1997, which ended with a ruling that direct-marketing firms that work with nonprofit groups do not have to register with the county.

Economic development. The International Franchise Association (Washington) has presented its Free Enterprise Award to Students in Free Enterprise (Springfield, Mo.) for fostering business principles. Students in Free Enterprise helps college students develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills through learning, practicing, and teaching the principles of free enterprise.

Grant making. The Council on Foundations (Washington) has presented three awards. The council named William S. White to receive its 2002 Distinguished Grantmaker Award. Mr. White, president and chief executive officer of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation (Flint, Mich.), led the foundation in coordinating a partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and corporations to support after-school programs nationwide.

The council also has presented its 2002 Robert W. Scrivner Award for Creative Grantmaking to Marie C. Wilson, president of the Ms. Foundation for Women (New York). Ms. Wilson spearheaded the foundation’s award-winning Take Our Daughters to Work Day program.

The group also awarded its inaugural Paul Ylvisaker Award for Public Policy Engagement to the McKnight Foundation (Minneapolis) for demonstrating courage, passion, and vision in its public policy-related activities.

Housing. The Fannie Mae Foundation (Washington) has presented its 2001-02 Maxwell Awards of Excellence to six organizations. The awards, which include a $50,000 grant, recognize nonprofit organizations that develop and maintain affordable housing in urban areas and neighborhoods, metropolitan communities, and small cities. The winners are: Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center (San Francisco), Better Housing Coalition (Richmond, Va.), Davidson Housing Coalition and the Affordable Housing Group (Davidson, N.C.), Fifth Avenue Committee and Community Access (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Lakefront SRO (Chicago), and New Road Community Development Group (Exmore, Va.).

Human rights. Delta Airlines (Atlanta) and the U. of Georgia (Athens) have awarded the 2002 Delta Prize for Global Understanding to Sadako Ogata of Japan, former United Nations high commissioner for refugees. The prize includes a $10,000 award.

Religion. The Rev. John C. Polkinghorne has received the 2002 Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities from the John Templeton Foundation (Radnor, Pa.). The award, which includes a £700,000 prize (approximately $996,000), recognizes work that advances understanding of God or spirituality. Mr. Polkinghorne resigned as a professor of mathematical physics at the U. of Cambridge (England) to pursue theological studies in 1979, became an Anglican priest, and established himself as a scientist and theologian. His writings and lectures have applied scientific habits to Christianity, defending science’s role in advancing understanding of the workings of the universe.

Research. The Dan David Foundation (Tel Aviv) has awarded the inaugural Dan David Prizes, which honor people or institutions whose innovative and interdisciplinary work increases understanding of the past, present, and future of science, technology, the arts, or the humanities.

— Past: Warburg Institute Library (London), for expanding knowledge of the past through the study of Western civilization and its convergence with Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

— Present: W. Daniel Hillis, chairman of Applied Minds (Glendale, Calif.), a research and development company, for his pioneering work on parallel processing in computing.

— Future: Sydney Brenner, founder of the Molecular Sciences Institute (Berkeley, Calif.); John Sulston, founding director of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (Cambridge, England); and Robert Waterston, chairman of the department of genetics at Washington U. in St. Louis, for their work in biogenetics.