We have heard about the famous “first-make-people-laugh-and-then-make-them-think” IgNobel Prizes awarded to so-called scientific achievements that should have not been achieved. How about organizing such an award in the civil society sector? The Just Awards in the United States have been set up for just this purpose. They “will highlight the irrational, the irresponsible, and the irrelevant organizational behaviors that most damage the work of the nonprofit sector” for the year 2009. But the official website of the awards also says that though they may be fun involved in this, but the objective is also to bring about change. “In the case of philanthropy, this means looking sharply at how funders behave in ways that separate them from the people they serve, damage the organizations they support, and subvert their missions. In the case of the press, this means calling attention to the worst coverage of civil society.”
Only US-based nonprofits can be nominated for this and possibly, nominations can only be submitted by US citizens only. However, this event can draw attention of the international development community as well which is also scandalized by the fact that few big organizations access majority of funds constantly while small and remotely located NGOs in poor and developing countries continue struggling for resources and skills.
The eligibility criteria for Just Awards are:
- For the Narcissism in Philanthropy award, nominees may be private, family, public, corporate foundations or trusts operating in the United States.
- For the Abominable Media Coverage of the Nonprofit Sector award, nominees may be any media — print, web, email, radio, television, etc… — covering the United States nonprofit sector.
There is an urgent need for deeper introspection amongst international donors who fail to believe in the equity of NGOs and every year they end up announcing the same names as grant recipients and sometimes, even in multiple countries while small organizations continue to remain missing from the entire picture, despite putting in overwhelming efforts in writing and submitting high-quality proposals. If the international donors do not wish to introspect on these matters, maybe then they also deserve something like the Just Awards…
