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Inside this week’s issue is our annual Forty Under 40 publication, featuring 40 young leaders who are already doing amazing work in tourism, manufacturing, government, nonprofits, education, law, real estate and more.
We celebrated the group Thursday at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, where we also caught up with Maureen Weber, a 2010 honoree we named this year’s Alumni Award winner. Maureen is president and CEO of Early Learning Indiana, which focuses on helping children learn in their earliest years by operating early learning centers, helping families find quality child care, improving the quality of child care and advocating for greater access to early educational opportunities for all Indiana families.
We honored Maureen in part for her work on the Early Years Initiative, which has received $60 million from the Lilly Endowment to help organizations meet the developmental needs of infants and toddlers. This is the kind of work that deserves support and recognition. And we know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other nonprofits and foundations in central Indiana that are doing great work, as well.
To that end, IBJ this month opened nominations for our newest awards program: the Nonprofit Excellence Awards.
This program aims to lift up and support top organizations with three Nonprofit of the Year awards and one Foundation of the Year award. Honorees will win prizes ranging from $20,000 to $50,000, thanks to support from KSM CPAs & Advisors.
In addition, IBJ will name honorees in these categories:
◗ Nonprofit Executive of the Year
◗ Foundation Executive of the Year
◗ New Nonprofit Program of the Year
◗ Fundraising Event of the Year
◗ Philanthropist of the Year
◗ In-kind Supporter of the Year
◗ Volunteer of the Year
◗ Business Supporter of the Year
◗ Best Collaboration Between a Business and Nonprofit
One of our goals with this program is to recognize the people and businesses that help drive the great work done by nonprofits. That’s why we have categories that recognize in-kind contributions and business collaborations. We know that some of the most important work done by nonprofits happens in cooperation with or is driven by the private sector.
You can learn more about the Nonprofit Excellence Awards by going to IBJ.com. You’ll find more detail about each of the categories and eligibility.
You’ll also find links to the nomination forms. Give the form a read before you begin. You can’t save and return to the form. So you’ll want to gather the information needed before you dive in. The Nonprofit of the Year and Foundation of the Year forms require several financial documents.
Letters of recommendation are encouraged in all categories. And we encourage you to be detailed in explaining why your nominee or your organization is deserving of an award. We expect the competition to be stiff, so anything you can do to provide specific examples and data is helpful!
We can’t wait to read about all the great work central Indiana nonprofits are doing. And we’re equally excited about sharing their stories with readers.•
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Weidenbener is editor and assistant publisher of IBJ and assistant publisher of The Indiana Lawyer. Reach her at [email protected].
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