LONDON (AlertNet) - As fundraising becomes ever harder and aid budgets stay tight, where should a charity or aid agency look for a seven-figure boost to its budget, raise its profile and reward its dedication? Once a year the answer is simple: the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.The $1 million prize is awarded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation at its annual humanitarian assembly in New York or Geneva to "an organisation making extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world". The international prize is the world's largest humanitarian award and ranks as one of the biggest monetary prizes in any category.There are only four prize awards at or near the one million-dollar level: the Nobel Prizes, the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, the recently-announced Gates Award for Global Health -- to be awarded for the first time this year -- from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Hilton.The next biggest awards usually go to individuals and are worth far less, such as the those of between 1 million and 500,000 Swiss francs from the International Foundation Prize E. Balzan, the $250,000 Heinz Awards from the Heinz Family Foundation, the $100,000 Africa Prize for Leadership for the Sustainable End of Hunger from the Hunger Project, and the biennial 150,000-euro King Baudouin International Development Prize.The Hilton Prize deadline is usually in mid-December, and there are normally scores of nominations: for 2001 it was almost 140, slightly fewer than for 2000 -- split roughly 50-50 between U.S.-based and non-U.S. agencies.NOT TOO EARLY FOR NEXT YEARIt is never too early to be thinking about the next year's prize. Would your agency like a $1 million boost? The answer is obvious, especially since the Hilton Prize can be spent any way you want: on equipment or staff, or may be banked to earn interest.Less obvious is why so few people nominate a candidate or why so few agencies find a supporter to propose them.The Hilton Prize was launched in 1996 to have a major direct and indirect impact in the humanitarian field -- direct, by giving an agency a strong financial boost and providing the impetus for a leap in growth, plus a higher profile offered by the recognition of such an award, and indirect, since the prize itself and the annual Hilton Humanitarian Assembly "call attention to the worldwide need for humanitarian aid and to encourage others to increase their support", by governments, foundations, affluent individuals or corporations, large and small.In 1979, the foundation -- established in 1944 -- received the estate of hotel magnate Conrad Hilton, who declared in his will: "There is a natural law...that obliges you and me to relieve the suffering, the distressed and the destitute". Foundation funds total nearly $1.8 billion, and about $330 million has been distributed so far.The foundation does not generally accept unsolicited proposals. Instead, it initiates major long-term projects in specific funding priority areas, including "worldwide blindness and the multi-handicapped blind, clean water supplies for developing countries; early childhood development for infants and toddlers with disabilities; prevention and intervention efforts to stop domestic violence and combat substance abuse among youth and services for the mentally ill homeless".Although some spending meets domestic U.S. needs, plenty goes into the developing world. In the 1990s, the foundation put more than $40 million into projects in Africa, for example. Among its grant recipients to implement specific projects were Helen Keller International, the Carter Center and AlertNet member World Vision International. Besides the name, the Hilton connection continues through the involvement of family members, notably Barron and Eric Hilton, Conrad Hilton's sons who are foundation board members. Eric Hilton is also a prize jury member, and the Hilton Foundation president is Steven Hilton, grandson of Conrad Hilton.JURY PREFERENCES AND TRENDSAs the 2002 Prize will be the seventh, past results can be examined to look for jury preferences and trends. The prize rules offer guidance and should be studied carefully to ensure a minor mistake does not bar a bid.The first award in 1996 went to U.S.-based Operation Smile, which offers surgery for young people with painful and disfiguring facial deformities, from cleft palates to burn scars, in more than 20 countries. A year after receiving the award, Operation Smile's revenues of $3.7 million had almost doubled.In 1997, the choice was AlertNet member the International Rescue Committee, founded in 1933 to assist refugees and displaced people, while the 1998 Hilton Prize -- foreshadowing the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize -- went to Médecins Sans Frontières. In 1999, the Hilton Prize was the first major international award given to an African organisation, African Medical and Research Foundation, which is also a member of AlertNet. The agency, run almost entirely indigenously, provides direct health care for millions in eastern and southern Africa and training to assist many more millions throughout the continent.Another smaller recipient was chosen in 2000. Casa Alianza works in Central America to help thousands of street children through practical assistance and tough international campaigning about sex tourism, killings by police and the illegal international baby trade.The 2001 prize went the British-based St. Christopher's Hospice, whose care, research, teaching and high-profile advocacy of its president, Dame Cicely Saunders, has fostered the growth of the modern hospice movement into more than 90 countries.While no one can second-guess the jury, those six prizes started with three global organisations, including two larger agencies, then returned to small organisations with a tighter focus, first on Africa, then Central America and finally a hospice with global impact.Will it be Asia's turn in 2002, and will the medical emphasis -- four of six prizes -- be maintained?At least the jury is willing to roam the world, go beyond the obvious candidates, think indigenous and back controversy, such as Casa Alianza's human rights campaigning.So it is wide open, though the rules insist on formal status as "established, non-governmental, charitable or non-profit organisations" -- U.S. tax-exempt status or equivalent -- and bar any organisations with "substantial" past Hilton funding.DIRECT KNOWLEDGECan anyone nominate? Almost. Nominators should have direct knowledge of the agency, though not as an officer or employee, or family member of an officer or employee. But "board members may nominate, providing they do not also serve as officers and receive no remuneration for their services".Recipients are chosen on merit and a thorough review of their records of accomplishment but many enlist high profile nominators -- Casa Alianza was nominated by Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, who established the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights -- another reason to get working early.Hilton emphasises that the prize is not a grant; nominators should set out the agency's recent and past achievements, not future plans, and show in a nomination letter of five pages or less:
Extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering
Organisational capacity and administrative efficiency
Established record of achievement
Programme design innovation
Collaboration with others
Long-term impact
The paperwork is not difficult. It must be in English with principal figures in U.S. dollars and include the nomination letter, annual report or brochure, latest financial report, if available, and an "identification sheet" of basic contact details. If Hilton needs more information, it contacts nominees directly.The rules warn against "any attempted contact with the Hilton Prize jurors about the nomination". It's an interesting jury and -- perhaps unexpectedly for an American foundation -- well balanced between the United States and Europe, Asia and Africa.The "southerners" are Francis Deng from Sudan, the U.N. Secretary-General's Representative on Internally Displaced Persons, and Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank.From Europe are former Italian Foreign Minister Susanna Agnelli and Norway's actor-director Liv Ullmann, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador and co-founder of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children.U.S. jurors are Dr William H. Foege, Presidential Distinguished Professor, Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University and senior adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, plus two Conrad N. Hilton Foundation directors.The nomination letter should be a strong sales pitch, since the first stage of the selection process is conducted in-house by an experienced prize team, led by the prize director, Judy Miller.At this competitive stage, many agencies will get left behind, though there is nothing to stop them from being nominated again next year. The foundation then sends out a number of experts to make detailed assessments by visiting projects and seeing at first hand the impact of the agency's work on beneficiaries.The resulting shortlist, which can vary in number, is presented to the jury for two days of deliberations and a final decision, and the result is announced at the Hilton Humanitarian Assembly, usually in September or October, when the celebrations -- and the spending -- can begin.
The next deadline for nominations is November 1, 2002.
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