Beacon Awards
The Beacon Awards were designed to reward and support Lipman Family Prize winners who demonstrated success in growing their social impact efforts. The Beacon Awards were established to continue investing in the promising practices and leaders that join the Lipman Family Prize community each year. The Beacon Awards provided a follow-up opportunity to encourage, highlight, and reward winners that are collaborating with others to advance collective knowledge and improve the quality of social impact work.
“With this additional $500,000 award, we are growing the Prize’s commitment to expand positive social impact. Our past winners have already proven to be game-changing leaders in innovation and impact. Who better for the Prize to support to maximize the expansion of positive social impact, both within the organization and throughout the social sector?”
Barry Lipman
Founder of the Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize
About the Beacon Awards
The 2020 Beacon Awards will be presented in April 2021. Eligibility for the Beacon Awards included all Lipman Family Prize winners from 2012 to 2017. Two previous winners, CareMessage and Hope Enterprise, each received $250,000 in unrestricted funds.
We established the Beacon Awards because we wanted to continue investing in the promising practices and leaders we meet each year through the Lipman Family Prize. We designed the Beacon Awards to engage and encourage these organizations and leaders to share with and learn from their peers and collaborators for the betterment of the social impact sector.
Why This Approach
While pursuing our mission to resource and connect change-makers to bring innovative ideas to new places and problems around the world, we have discovered a few gaps in the funding landscape.
- Most awards and philanthropic investments focus on early stage investments to drive innovation, rather than mature organizations that are reaching their stride.
- Collaboration and knowledge sharing are not adequately rewarded.
- While follow-on investments are common, follow-on awards are rare.
With the Beacon Awards, we seek to fill that gap by rewarding and supporting previous Lipman Family Prize winners who have demonstrated success in scaling up their social impact efforts by collaborating and sharing knowledge across their sector. By creating a $500,000 pool of unrestricted funds, we are doubling down on scaling up by investing deeper in change-making organizations that are growing what works.
Sharing For Scale
While the annual Lipman Family Prize identifies groundbreaking innovations, the Beacon Awards work to understand each organization as a vehicle for change and expanded social impact. The criteria for choosing winners is designed to value transferability and knowledge sharing as a method of scaling impact; identify leaders who are pushing the sector forward; and highlight organizations with continued impact that are poised to expand to another level.
Applicant-Friendly Process
In consultation with potential prize recipients, we designed the Beacon Awards to follow best practices in prize design and award process. Our application process is intended to provide clear decision-making points, ensuring candidates can identify early whether they meet the criteria to progress to future selection rounds. Candidate selection is based on objective analysis using multiple data sources and investigators, including Awards Committee members.
Timeline
OCT. 16 – DEC. 4, 2019 – Eligible winners submit Expression of Interest form
JAN. 6 – FEB. 7, 2020 – Eligible winners submit Phase I Growth Narrative application
MARCH – APRIL 2020 – Phase II Interviews and Analysis conducted
JUNE 2020 – Awards Committee determines Beacon winners
OCTOBER 2020 – Beacon Winners announced
Beacon Evaluation Criteria
The Beacon Awards reward and highlight organizations that demonstrate collaboration and leadership in the sharing of knowledge to realize greater social or environmental impact. The Awards are intended to highlight both past achievements and future potential:
- Looking backward, the Awards recognize how recipients have expanded their impact since their original awarding of the Lipman Family Prize.
- Looking forward, the Awards recognize recipients that have high potential for and strong intentions to further collaborate and share their approaches.
The Beacon Awards are based on four criteria:
1
EVIDENCE OF IMPACT: Evidence of continuing positive social impact since being named a Lipman Family Prize winner;
2
LEADERSHIP CULTURE: Leadership demonstrated through intentional action at all levels within the organization to effectively execute the mission and ensure organizational sustainability;
3
EVIDENCE OF COLLABORATION: Evidence of knowledge sharing, partnership, and collaboration with other entities in order to achieve greater social impact and contribute to the social sector;
4
POTENTIAL FOR EXPANDED SOCIAL IMPACT: Clear vision, plans, and potential for collaboration and knowledge sharing leveraging the organization’s expertise and learnings for the betterment of the social impact sector.
Beacon Awards FAQs
What are the Beacon Awards?
The 2020 Beacon Awards were presented to two previous Lipman Family Prize winners, Care Message and Hope Enterprise, that have demonstrated success in growing their social impact efforts. Each winner received $250,000 in unrestricted funds. The Beacon Awards was announced in October 2020 and will presented during a special celebration in April 2021.
Why launch the Beacon Awards?
We have consulted with 18 previous Lipman Family Prize winners from 2012-2017 – all of whom are potential recipients of the Beacon Awards – about their progress and their challenges. Based on their feedback and in-depth research conducted, we conceived of the Beacon Awards to fill two main purposes:
- To provide additional financial resources to the Prize community members in mature stages of solution development
- To encourage and reward those winners that are collaborating with others to advance collective knowledge and improve the quality of social impact work.
Who is eligible for the Beacon Awards?
Eligibility for the Beacon Awards includes all Lipman Family Prize winners from 2012 to 2017.
Will the Beacon Awards replace the Lipman Family Prize?
The 2020 Beacon Awards will not replace the Lipman Family Prize. In 2020, the Lipman Family Prize will be awarded in April 2020, and the Beacon Awards will be awarded in October 2020.
What is the selection criteria for the awards?
The selection criteria includes:
- Evidence of continuing positive social impact since being named a Lipman Family Prize winner
- Leadership demonstrated through intentional action at all levels within the organization to effectively execute the mission and ensure organizational sustainability
- Evidence of knowledge sharing, partnership, and collaboration with other entities in order to achieve greater social impact and contribute to the social sector
- Clear vision, plans and potential for collaboration and knowledge sharing leveraging the organization’s expertise and learnings for the betterment of the social impact sector
Who are the Beacon Award judges?
The Lipman Family Prize leadership team recruited experts from its institutional networks, inside and outside the University of Pennsylvania, to analyze the applicant organizations. From there, the Awards Committee, comprised of leaders from the social sector, academic and business worlds, selected the two winners of the Beacon Awards.
How do I apply for the Beacon Awards?
The Beacon Awards application is closed until further notice.
What is the application timeline?
No timeline at the moment. The Beacon Awards application is closed until further notice.
Who can we contact if we have additional questions?
Please contact us at lipmanprize@wharton.upenn.edu.
Virtual Panel Event
Breakthrough Insights: Creating Access in Healthcare and Economic Opportunity
The Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize, in partnership with the Stanford Social Innovation Review, hosted a virtual panel event titled: Breakthrough Insights: Creating Access in Healthcare and Economic Opportunity on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 at 3pm EDT.
This virtual panel event featured the CEOs of the two inaugural winners of the Beacon Awards, Hope Enterprise Corporation and CareMessage, who were each selected for their leadership in innovation and impact both within their organizations and also in partnership with others throughout the social sector. At the end of the panel discussion, audience members were invited to participate in a Q&A.
Featuring
Special Introduction from Barry Lipman, W’70
Founder of the Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize and Beacon Awards
Eric Nee
Moderator
Editor-in-Chief of Stanford Social Innovation Review, and
Interim Executive Co-Director, Stanford PACS
Bill Bynum
CEO, Hope Enterprise Corporation
2020 Inaugural Beacon Awards Winner
2016 Lipman Family Prize Winner
Vineet Singal
CEO & Co-founder, CareMessage
2020 Inaugural Beacon Awards Winner
2015 Lipman Family Prize Winner
Kat Rosqueta
Founding Executive Director
Center for High Impact Philanthropy