Application still open for the J.M.K. Innovation Prize

April 24, 2025 BusinessTrumpet

The J.M.K. Innovation Prize seeks to identify and support bold problem-solvers leading transformative, early-stage projects in the fields of heritage conservation, the environment, and social justice.

In 2025, we will award up to 10 Prizes, each including a cash award of $150,000 over three years and $25,000 in technical assistance funds. Awardees will also receive guidance through the Fund’s resource network, accessing hands-on training and support to help turn their ideas into sustainable growth and impact.

Interested in Applying? The 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize

Start Your Application – Deadline: April 25th, 2025
Download Our 1-Page Overview
- English PDF // Spanish PDF

Funding Areas

Environment
Heritage Conservation
Social justice

About the Prize

With the consequences of climate change, cultural loss, and systemic injustice at our doorstep, the urgency for social-impact organizations and community leaders to act has never been greater. Our convergent crises demand not only resilience but also creativity, ambition, and new models of change-making. At the J.M. Kaplan Fund, we believe in the power of innovators to reshape our future – and we know that this work is already underway in unexpected places and through nascent projects across the country. We created the J.M.K. Innovation Prize to help transform these bold, early-stage ideas into lasting impact.

Since 2015, over five biennial cycles, the J.M.K. Innovation Prize has supported 50 wildly creative cultural, environmental, and social initiatives. Past awardees include efforts as varied as building a “revitalization accelerator” to preserve threatened languages, transforming mining runoff and fallen trees into new economic engines, and organizing a collective of birth workers to confront health inequities. Leveraging a legacy of catalytic grant-making at the J.M. Kaplan Fund, the Prize seeks out visionary nonprofit and mission-driven for-profit organizations that work within, across, or in a manner related to one or more of the Fund’s three program areas.

Heritage Conservation: Protecting the places and traditions that communities care about most.
The Environment: Advancing climate solutions for a more resilient, vibrant planet.
Social Justice: Working with communities to build a more welcoming and just society.

For the 2025 cycle, the Fund is proud to partner with The 1772 Foundation, Burnham Family Foundation, and Trinity Church NYC to expand the scope and impact of the Prize. These fellow funders will support our outreach efforts, assist in the review process, and explore our pool of applications for promising early-stage projects that align with their own grantmaking priorities – broadening visibility and funding opportunities for applicants.

The Prize Process – The 2025 J.M.K. Innovation Prize

Our application process is open to individuals or teams representing nonprofit or mission-driven for-profit organizations within the United States. The Prize will be awarded to projects or ideas that:

Represent a game-changing answer to a clearly identified need;
Innovate within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas;
Demonstrate the potential to develop an actionable pilot or prototype with Prize funding; and
Hold out the promise to benefit multiple individuals, communities, or sectors through a clearly articulated theory of change.

Most Prize awardees are organizations or fiscally sponsored projects that have been active for less than five years and operate with annual budgets of less than $500,000. While the Prize welcomes bold ideas of all kinds, we encourage applicants to carefully consider whether their work aligns with the Prize’s focus on early-stage, impactful innovation.

The first-round application will be available on the JMKFund.org website from February 11–April 25, 2025. Select applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed second-round application in the late spring. Finalists will present their ideas to the trustees of the J.M. Kaplan Fund in the fall, with awardees formally announced in November 2025.

What is the timeline for fund disbursement? Is this restricted funding?

The $150,000 award is paid over three years, $50,000 per year. This funding is unrestricted (“general operating support”), allowing awardees to deploy resources where they are needed most.

An additional $25,000 of technical assistance is offered to reimburse organizations for strategic expenses that are otherwise difficult to fundraise for; technical assistance funds are not meant to plug a gap in an operating budget. These T.A. funds may be deployed at any time over the three-year Prize term, in consultation with Fund staff.

How will my first-round application be scored?

All eligible applications will be evaluated based on the following equally-weighted selection criteria:

Represent a game-changing answer to a clearly identified need;
Are innovative within one or more of the Fund’s three program areas;
Demonstrate the potential to develop an actionable pilot or prototype with Prize funding;
Hold out the promise to benefit multiple individuals, communities, or sectors through a clearly articulated theory of change.

The first round of our Prize’s selection process is conducted by 500+ volunteer reviewers, meaning your application will be read by numerous “smart generalists.” We average these scores to identify the top ~20% of scoring applicants, who are invited to submit a second-round application that will be read by 30+ subject matter experts.