Lodestar Foundation Announces Judges For 2011 Collaboration Prize

July 6, 2010 – The Lodestar Foundation, an organization dedicated to maximizing the growth and impact of philanthropy, today announced the members of the Final Selection Panel for the 2011 Collaboration Prize, a national award designed to identify and showcase models of collaboration among nonprofit organizations.

The Panel is composed of philanthropists and heads of major philanthropic foundations that actively support and utilize collaboration. Together this prestigious team will select the eight collaborations that best exemplify the positive impact that can result from working together. Each of the eight finalists will receive $12,500 and the grand prize winner, to be chosen from among the eight, will receive an additional $150,000.

Members of the Final Selection Panel include:

• Selection Panel Chairman Sterling Speirn, President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Chris Daggett, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
• Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of the Boston Foundation
• Jerry Hirsch, Founder and Chairman of the Lodestar Foundation
• Feather Houstoun, President of the William Penn Foundation
• Gara LaMarche, President and CEO of The Atlantic Philanthropies
• Carol S. Larson, President and CEO of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Michael Marsicano, President and CEO of Foundation For The Carolinas
• Mario Morino, Co-founder and Chairman of Venture Philanthropy Partners and Chairman of the Morino Institute
• Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation
• William S. White, President and CEO of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

“It is a privilege to have this influential group of philanthropic leaders select the 2011 Collaboration Prize winners, as they share a real-life appreciation and knowledge of collaboration and have embraced the concept as a strategy to increase their impact in the grantmaking sector,” said Lois Savage, Lodestar Foundation President. “We look forward to celebrating this year’s finalists and to sharing their innovative accomplishments and best practices with the rest of the nonprofit community.”

Application and Eligibility Details

To be eligible for the 2011 Prize, the collaboration must involve two or more nonprofit organizations. Each collaboration will be judged on the extent to which it:

• demonstrates improved effectiveness in achieving social good;
• more effectively uses human and financial resources;
• represents an innovative response to a specific challenge or opportunity;
• and exhibits characteristics that would demonstrate that the collaboration is a model for the field, sector, or community.

Please visit www.thecollaborationprize.org for a full list of eligibility requirements, the online submission form, general information and answers to frequently asked questions. Submissions will be accepted until July 16, 2010.

 The Judging Process

The Prize recipient will be chosen by the Final Selection Panel. Additional parties involved in the review process include the Arizona-Indiana-Michigan ( AIM) Alliance, a collaboration comprising The Lodestar Center for Philanthropy & Nonprofit Innovation at Arizona State University, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and The Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership at Grand Valley State University (Michigan); and La Piana Consulting , the nation’s leading management and consulting firm dedicated to helping nonprofits and foundations become stronger and more effective through collaboration.

 The eight Prize finalists will be announced in early January 2011 and the grand prize winner will be announced in April 2011.

The Lodestar Foundation

The Lodestar Foundation is a grantmaking organization devoted to maximizing the growth and impact of philanthropy and provides funds nationally and internationally to organizations that support its mission. In support of this mission, Lodestar created the Collaboration Prize in 2009 to identify achievements in collaboration as models for inspiration and replication. True to the spirit of collaboration, the Lodestar Foundation has partnered with AIM Alliance, the Foundation Center, La Piana Consulting and other foundation and nonprofit leaders to support the 2011 Prize. Please visit www.lodestarfoundation.org for more information.