The Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize is the world’s largest humanitarian award established by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 1996. It carries an award of $1.5 million annually and it is considered to be “one of the largest monetary prizes in any category – equal to the Nobel Prize. The award honors a charitable organization or an NGO which has made “extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world. “The Prize is not only intended to recognize and advance the efforts of the recipient organization, but also to call attention to the worldwide need for humanitarian aid and encourage others to expand their support.”
The Prize is currently seeking nominations to honor an NGO or charitable organization “making extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world.” The eligibility criteria for nominees are as follows:
- Nominees must be organizations, not individuals.
- Nominees must be established, non-governmental, publicly supported charitable organizations. U.S. Internal Revenue Service tax-exempt status—or the equivalent for international organizations—will determine eligibility. (International nominees will be contacted by the Foundation for appropriate documentation.)
- Nominees must be legally established for at least five years (established prior to January 2005) in order to be considered.
- Nominees must have an operating budget (expenditures) greater than U.S. $500,000 in their most recent (audited fiscal) year of operation.
- An organization that has received a single grant of $1.5 million or more from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation must wait 3 years before being eligible for nomination.
The nominator should have the direct knowledge about the organization for which he or she is nominating, but should not an officer or employee or any other individual receiving remuneration from the organization for any of its services and also should not be a family member of any officer or employee of that organization. An independent international panel of jurors will make the final selection and the evaluation criteria can be based upon the criteria such as “extraordinary contributions towards alleviating human suffering, established record of achievement, innovation in program design, organizational capacity and administrative efficiency and demonstration of long-term impact.” To make the nomination, the Identification Sheet available at the Foundation’s website should be completed and the nominating letter should give details (no more than 5 pages) about the reasons for the nomination.
The last date to submit the nominations is 30 April 2010. For more details, visit this link.
