Templeton Freedom Award Categories
Free Market Solutions to Poverty
The Templeton Freedom Award for Free Market Solutions to Poverty honors non-profit institutes that research and promote solutions to poverty that utilize free enterprise, sound legal institutions, and entrepreneurship.
Sir John Templeton has suggested that efforts to minimize future poverty and sickness are more cost-effective, and therefore more beneficial, than popular efforts to relieve existing poverty and sickness. This award was established in that spirit to encourage greater innovation in developing and implementing effective solutions to poverty.
Think tanks have made important contributions to popularize the ideas of pioneering scholars, such as Hernando de Soto, Peter Bauer, and Milton Friedman, and to demonstrate how market-oriented reforms in public policy can lead to improved living standards in societies scarred by poverty.
The Templeton Freedom Award for Free Market Solutions to Poverty recognizes think tanks that are making a difference in preventing future poverty by opening opportunities for achievement and wealth-creation.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Free Market Solutions to Poverty is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations that research and promote solutions to poverty that are consistent with the Atlas vision of a society of free and responsible individuals, based upon private property rights, limited government under the rule of law and the market order.
Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project to win in the same or different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the proposed solution
- Quality of the research involved in the project
- Potential for transforming public understanding of this subject
Ethics & Values
The Templeton Freedom Prize for Ethics and Values honors non-profit research institutes that study the symbiotic relationship between free enterprise and enlightened systems of ethics and values.
Ethical behavior tends to be rewarded in a free market, since business success requires establishing trust, finding profitable opportunities to provide value to others, and delaying gratification in order to save and invest. At the same time, institutions of free enterprise themselves depend upon ethical practices, and can be seriously undermined by unethical practices.
Think tanks can play an important role both in drawing attention to the values that sustain free societies, and in exposing unethical practices (whether in government or private sector entities) that undermine sound institutions.
The former might be achieved by showing how keeping the faith of shareholders by achieving the highest possible profits is an ethical endeavor, or by recognizing voluntary service or contributions to charitable efforts that create a more virtuous and prosperous society. The latter can take the form of revealing corruption or studying the negative consequences of weak transparency or negligent governance of institutions.
The Templeton Freedom Award for Ethics and Values recognizes think tanks that complement or add new insights to the understanding of the ethical benefits of the free society and free economy.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Ethics and Values is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations that study and/or conduct programs about the relationship between ethics and values and the institutions of a free society.
Organizations competing for the Award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the application of ethics and values to the study of free enterprise and the institutions of a free society
- Quality of the research involved in the project
- Potential for transforming public understanding of this subject
Student Outreach
The Templeton Freedom Award for Student Outreach will honor non-profit research institutes engaged in innovative and successful projects to improve students’ understanding of the causes and consequences of individual freedom.
As they seek to have a positive impact on the climate of ideas, research institutes must be innovative in transmitting the results of their work. The earlier stages of life are when most individuals form opinions about what institutions and principles are beneficial to human progress, yet few research institutes organize programs for students, let alone the very young.
With the Templeton Freedom Award for Student Outreach, Atlas will recognize outstanding work by think tanks in creating educational programs, or working with existing educational institutions (formal and informal), to advance the understanding of the free society. Judges will favor efforts that go beyond traditional teaching in classrooms by career teachers.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Student Outreach is open to privately-funded, non-profit research organizations that conduct or collaborate in delivering educational programs. Strong candidates will advance the understanding of the principles of the free society within formal educational programs (kindergarten; primary and secondary schools; college, universities and seminaries; adult education), or informal, non-traditional programs (such as home schooling, distance learning, non-profit organizations). The award is open to any institute that has not been a previous Templeton Freedom Prize winner in this category.
Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Pedagogical approach that fosters free inquiry in the rigorous pursuit of truth
- Organized in an independent manner, protected from the influence of vested interests
- Evidence of increased involvement among target audience
- Measurable results achieved
Social Entrepreneurship
The Templeton Freedom Award for Social Entrepreneurship will honor non-profit institutes that link ideas and action. The Prize will honor non-profit research institutes engaged in innovative and successful projects involving social entrepreneurship and building a stronger civil society. Social entrepreneurship is defined as: voluntary, private solutions developed by citizens in response to social problems.
The Award for Social Entrepreneurship acknowledges that “think tanks” can enhance their impact by also showing themselves to be “do tanks” – putting ideas into action and collaborating with others seeking to build a society marked by higher living standards and greater opportunities.
The Templeton Freedom Award for Social Entrepreneurship recognizes think tanks that reach out to other organizations and leaders who apply their entrepreneurial talents to solving civic and social problems. In so doing, the intellectual entrepreneurs that drive successful think tanks will thus be able to expand their area of influence. At the same time, by rewarding those who working with people with stronger expertise in the civil and social arena, Atlas expects that intellectual entrepreneurs will be more humble about their approach to public policy and expand their enthusiasm for new research and discoveries.
Atlas further recommends that think tanks involved in Social Entrepreneurship make a serious effort at measuring the effects (changes in attitude and behavior) of their work. While it is tempting to believe that it is self-evident that a given activity is good and important, true social entrepreneurs will seek out independent, objective criteria to measure whether their work is achieving its desired results.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Social Entrepreneurship is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations that have started or collaborated in social entrepreneurship programs. Strong candidates for this award will be institutes that imbue social entrepreneurship efforts with the principles of the free society, or institutes that include social entrepreneurs within their broader educational efforts (for example, showcasing certain social entrepreneurs as providers of “private solutions to public problems”).
Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Entrepreneurial approach to conceiving and achieving goals related to social problems
- Improving public understanding of the causes of social problems and possible solutions to these problems
- Derives support (in financial and human capital) from non-public sources
- Measurable results achieved
Initiative in Public Relations
The Templeton Freedom Award for Initiative in Public Relations will honor non-profit research institutes that have achieved outstanding success in reaching the public through the media on an important topic related to the free society.
F.A. Hayek described the inordinate influence of members of the media professions (and other “second hand dealers in ideas”) in shaping the climate of ideas in his 1947 essay, The Intellectuals and Socialism. This observation very much impressed Sir Antony Fisher, a think tank industry pioneer and the founder of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Fisher encouraged think tank leaders to operate in a business-like manner with sharp attention to the task of disseminating ideas – not just generating them. Sir John Templeton, for whom this Prize is named, also feels strongly that engagement with the media is essential to productive research efforts.
Atlas established the Templeton Freedom Award for Initiative in Public Relations to create an additional incentive for promising, young institutes to devote sufficient time and attention to the task of achieving widespread publicity and broad dissemination of their ideas, publications and programs, through successful and sustained engagement with the media.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Initiative in Public Relations is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations. Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the initiative
- Quality of execution of the initiative
- Potential for transforming public understanding of a free and virtuous society
Innovative Media Award
Recognizes outstanding think tank projects that use film or multimedia technologies to promote the principles of a free society.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Innovative Media Award is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations. Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the project
- Quality of execution of the project
- Potential for transforming public understanding of a free and virtuous society
Award for Special Achievement by a University-Based Center
Recognizes outstanding projects and achievement by university-based centers in promoting liberty.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Special Achievement by a University-Based Center is open to non-profit organizations. Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the achievement
- Quality of execution of the project
- Evidence of increased involvement among target audience
- Organized in an independent manner, protected from the influence of vested interests
Award for Special Achievement by a Young Institute
Recognizes outstanding performance by an institute that is less than five years old. One winner will be chosen from a developed country, and another one from a more difficult part of the world.
Eligibility
The Templeton Freedom Award for Special Achievement by a Young Institute is open to privately-funded, non-profit organizations. Organizations competing for the award must submit a nomination that describes a completed project (or an ongoing project with an existing track record). Recognition will not be awarded to proposals. Previous winners may nominate a different project in the same or in a different category. Nominations will be assessed according to the following criteria:
- Vision and mission that are consistent with a free and virtuous society
- Innovation of the achievement
- Quality of execution of the project
- Potential for transforming public understanding of a free and virtuous society
