Awards, Nov 29, 2007

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

Corporate giving. The Business Civic Leadership Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (Washington) has announced the winners of its 2007 Corporate Citizenship Awards in several categories:

— The Corporate Stewardship Award, Large Business: Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.), for its efforts to provide poor people worldwide with technology education and skills training, help communities develop self-sufficient software industries, increase its own work-force diversity, decrease its impact on the environment, and encourage its employees’ philanthropic activities.

— The Corporate Stewardship Award, Small/Midsize Business: ChoicePoint (Alpharetta, Ga.), for donating software worth millions of dollars to help nonprofit groups screen potential volunteers for work with children, as well as for its support of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and services for victims of Hurricane Katrina, helping refugees qualify for financial assistance.

— The International Community Service Award: Cisco Systems (San Jose, Calif.), for its participation in the Least-Developed Countries Initiative through the Cisco Networking Academy program, which trains people in developing countries how to use technology.

— The U.S. Community Service Award: Entergy (New Orleans), for its Low-Income Initiatives program to provide job training, low-cost housing, scholarships, and literacy programs to people who live in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

— The Partnership Award: Aflac (Columbus, Ga.) and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, to recognize the company’s services to the charity’s management and fund-raising departments and its corporate giving, including the endowment of medical-research teams that focus on treatments for pediatric cancer.

Health. Grantmakers in Health (Washington) has presented its 2008 Terrance Keenan Leadership Award in Health Philanthropy to Teresa Langston, senior program officer for health reform at the Public Welfare Foundation (Washington). Ms. Langston was recognized for her work over the past 20 years with dozens of small organizations, which she has helped cultivate as important advocates in local and national health-policy debates.

Human services. The Caring Institute (Washington) has announced the recipients of its 2007 National Caring Awards, which honor people who have worked to improve the lives of others. This year, the institute recognized six teenagers and five adults. The adult winners:

— Constantin Asavoaie, director of Prison Fellowship Romania, who has established homes for poor children, shelters for homeless adults, and care facilities for older people.

— Dominic Avellani, founder of the East Boston Adult Education Center, which provides educational opportunities for immigrants, refugees, and high-school dropouts.

— The Rev. Greg Boyle, founder of Jobs for a Future (Los Angeles) and Homeboy Industries (Los Angeles), which comprise five businesses that employ young convicted felons.

— Rose Espinoza, founder of Rosie’s Garage (La Habra, Calif.), which provides tutoring for low-income children.

— Karin Walser, founder and executive director of Horton’s Kids (Washington), a program that provides tutors and mentors for students in some of the poorest schools in the nation’s capital.

The young-adult winners:

— Lauren Beeder, 16, of Newbury Park, Calif., a cancer survivor who founded KidsCancerVive, which raises money for research and operates online support groups for children with cancer and their families.

— Mollie Singer, 18, of Las Vegas, who learned she had diabetes as a young child and founded Diabetic Angels with her twin sister, Jackie, to organize efforts to educate children about the disease.

— Davin Singleton, 18, of Pasadena, Md., who created a workshop for dyslexic children called “Dreamers: How to Become Your Dream,” which is now being taught in two Maryland schools.

— Jourdan Urbach, 15, of Roslyn Heights, N.Y., a violin prodigy who plays benefit performances with major symphony orchestras to raise money for Children Helping Children, a charity he founded that supports children’s hospitals and pediatric care.

— Emily Wemhoff, 18, of Creston, Neb., who founded Project Save a Friend Everyday to provide smoke alarms to households in her hometown and encourage people to develop fire-escape plans for their homes.

Nonprofit management. The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate U. (Calif.) has presented the 2007 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation to the “Made in NY” Production Assistant Training Program (New York). The $25,000 award recognizes the group’s efforts to enable low-income and unemployed residents of New York to start careers in the film and television industry. The award also recognized Rx Partnership (Richmond, Va.), which received $7,500 for its programs to distribute free medication to uninsured people throughout Virginia. Catholic Charities Community Services (Phoenix) received $5,000 for its Diginity Programs, which provide services to former prostitutes.

Nonprofit research. The Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (Indianapolis) has presented its 2007 awards honoring members’ accomplishments. The recipients:

— Joel L. Fleishman, a professor of law and public policy at Duke U. (Durham, N.C.), was presented with the Award for Distinguished Achievement and Leadership in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for his work to publicize the role of foundations and clarify important issues concerning public policy and charity work.

— Kieran Healy has received the award for Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for Last Best Gifts: Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs.

— Chris Einolf of the U. of Richmond (Va.) received the Gabriel G. Rudney Award for Outstanding Dissertation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research for “The Roots of Altruistic Behavior: A Gender and Life Course Perspective.”

— W. Richard Scott, Sarah Deschenes, Kathryn Hopkins, Anne Newman, and Milbrey McLaughlin shared the award for Outstanding Article in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly for “Advocacy Organizations and the Field of Youth Services: Ongoing Efforts to Restructure a Field.”

— Matthew M. Hodge and Ronald F. Piccolo shared the award for Outstanding Article in Nonprofit Management and Leadership for “Funding Source, Board Involvement Techniques, and Financial Vulnerability in Nonprofit Organizations: A Test of Resource Independence.”

— Fred A. Jacobs and Nicholas P. Marudas shared the award for Outstanding Article in the International Journal of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Marketing for “Excessive, Optimal, and Insufficient Fundraising Among the Nonprofit Times 100.”

In addition, the association, in collaboration with Independent Sector (Washington), has awarded the 2007 Virginia A. Hodgkinson Research Book Prize to Mary Ellen S. Capek and Molly Mead for Effective Philanthropy: Organizational Success Through Deep Diversity and Gender Equality.