To mark its 75th anniversary, the Ford Foundation has launched its Visionaries Awards, under which 12 social innovators who are working to improve the lives of millions of people around the globe will receive $100,000 each. The idea, which is similar to the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust’s Visionaries awards, launched in 2005 and running over five years (see the interview with Roy Head in Alliance, February 2011), is to raise the profile of these individuals whose work and ideas, Ford believes, have a potentially great impact and to provide them with the financial support to help them explore that impact.

Recipients include an indigenous women’s rights leader in Peru, a political cartoonist in Kenya and the founder of a centre for urban ecology in California. Recipients of the awards were selected for their pioneering work and exceptional leadership, as well as the potential scale and impact of their vision. The awards will help the honorees share their work with a broad range of new audiences, enabling them to promote their ideas and ensure that their insights inform and advance the work of others.

For more information
http://www.fordfoundation.org/newsroom/news-from-ford/480