The AARP® Purpose Prize® award is a national award in the United States that celebrates people 50 and older who are using their life experience to make a difference. Through the Purpose Prize award, AARP celebrates the creativity, innovation, and inspiration that life experience brings.
Donor Name: AARP
Country: United States and District of Columbia
State: All States
Type of Grant: Award
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 01/17/2022
Size of the Grant: $50,000
Details:
The AARP Purpose Prize Contest consists of an application process in which founders of 501 (c)(3) and 501 (c)(4) nonprofits organizations will apply for prizes awarded to Winners and Fellows based on the judging criteria outlined in these Official Rules.
Applicant’s Founded Nonprofit must be mission-drive and be able to show the social impact of its work. Creative endeavors that do not include social impact work will not be considered. While Sponsor does not limit the types of social impact issues that will be considered, the following areas are of particular interest to Sponsor:
- Intergenerational work (opportunities for different generations to come together to share their experience, knowledge, and skills)
- Rethinking the workplace (jobs, work environments, alternative approaches)
- Caregiving and caregiver resources (support for vulnerable populations and the people who care for them)
- Healthy living (food and nutrition, physical fitness, mental health, etc.)
- Financial health (financial stability, resilience, economic opportunity, etc.)
- Hunger (food insecurity, waste, distribution, etc.)
- Affordable housing (safe, well-managed, and affordable housing and services)
- Social connections (isolation among vulnerable community members)
Other general areas include:
- Civic engagement and community development (helping people be active participants in building and strengthening their communities)
- Environmental issues (combatting the challenges facing the planet)
- Children and youth (helping kids and young people reach their full potential, in school settings and elsewhere)
- Arts and culture (using art and culture as tools to engage communities in positive change)
- Peace and security rights (establishing or preserving justice and equality by peaceful means)
- Homelessness (addressing the needs of homeless populations)
- Veterans (providing services for veterans, advocating for veterans’ rights, empowering veterans)
- Animal protection (ensuring animal welfare, promoting animal companionship with vulnerable populations)
Prizes
Each Winner’s Founded Non-Profit will receive $50,000 in celebration of the Winner’s achievement and in furtherance of the Founded Non-Profit’s mission. The Winner will receive: (1) The opportunity to participate in a 1-year AARP Purpose Prize peer cohort; (2) Attendance at the AARP Purpose Prize Award Event (virtual or in-person); (3) Media engagements via AARP facilitation and/or delivery channels; (3) Access to internal AARP and external resources to support their work;
Eligibility Criteria
- Applicants must be US citizens living in the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia, who are at least fifty (50) years old as of the date of entry and who started the work for which they are applying for at the age of forty (40) or older. ????There must also be a connection between the Applicant’s own life and their work .
- Applicants must have founded a 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) non-profit organization with its principal place of business located in the United States in good standing in its state of origin and tax exemption under the Internal Revenue Code at the time of Applicant’s submission and throughout the Purpose Prize Contest selection process (“Founded Non-profit”). The mission of the Founded Non-profit should be consistent with the Applicant’s social impact work. Officers, directors, and employees of AARP (“Sponsor”), its subsidiaries, affiliates, advertising/promotion agencies, and/or their affiliates, assigns, agents, vendors or representatives (hereinafter referred to collectively as “Sponsor & Others”), and all other persons or entities associated with the development, administration, judging, promotion, execution of this Purpose Prize Contest are not eligible to apply.
- AARP-appointed volunteers and staff and their immediate family members are not allowed to apply.
- Additionally, past Purpose Prize and AARP Purpose Prize Winners, past Fellows from the previous two (2) years of AARP Purpose Prize classes, current AARP or AARP Foundation grantees, elected officials, individuals involved in a project that is exclusively religious or sectarian, individuals that work for organizations that share a board member with AARP and members of the same household and immediate families, (e.g. parents, children, spouse, siblings) are not eligible.
There will be a total of five (5) Prizes awarded to Winners selected from a pool of eligible Applicants. In addition, up to ten (10) Fellows will be selected from a pool of eligible Applicants. Sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any Applicant at any time and for any reason should Sponsor determine that Applicant does not properly represent Sponsor’s mission, goals, and policies or if the actions of Applicant or his/her Founded Non-Profit bring tarnish of any kind to the AARP brand/trademark. An individual may only submit one (1) application which will require the submission of the following documents:
- A resume
- Three letters of references
- A copy of your organization’s IRS determination letter
- Your organization’s annual budget
- An organizational chart
For more information, visit AARP Purpose Prize.