Call for Nominations
The 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards

Advancing Solutions for California's Future

We are pleased to invite nominations for the 2009 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards. Nominations are due by January 16, 2009, and awards will be announced in the summer of 2009.

The Awards

The James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards recognize individual leaders who are advancing innovative and effective solutions to significant state issues. We anticipate making four to six awards in 2009, the program’s fourth year. The leaders we seek to recognize may be working in any sector — nonprofit, public or private — and in any field, such as education, health, housing, economic development or the environment.

Award recipients will each receive $125,000 to support their work to benefit the people of California. At least $100,000 will be designated for core support of the leader's project or organization and up to $25,000 may be designated for the leader's own professional development, as determined by the recipient. The award also includes strategic communications activities, undertaken together by the award recipients and the Foundation, to educate policymakers and practitioners of the effective solutions implemented by these leaders.

Past Award Recipients

Past recipients of the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award represent a variety of backgrounds and experiences. What they have in common is that they are implementing innovative and effective models for addressing important state issues.

Nomination and Selection Process

We welcome nominations from people who are well-acquainted with the leader or leadership group and can attest to their qualifications. We have outlined selection criteria for nominees. Leaders from any sector or field may be nominated.

The selection process has several stages, over approximately five months:

• After nominations are received (due January 16, 2009), Irvine staff will conduct an initial review of the nominations and begin to check references and conduct due diligence.
• An independent Selection Committee, composed of nine leading Californians, will review the nominations and develop a list of final candidates.
• Foundation staff and an expert in the nominee’s field of work will visit each finalist and his or her organization or project to more deeply understand the nominee's work and style of leadership.
• The Selection Committee will then select four to six award recipients, who will be announced in the summer of 2009.

Submitting Nomination Materials

We encourage all materials to be submitted online here: Submit Your Nomination. The nomination process is relatively simple, and it should take you no more than two hours to prepare the materials. Detailed instructions are provided here: How to Nominate.

If you are unable to submit materials electronically, we will accept completed hard-copy materials mailed to The James Irvine Foundation’s San Francisco office by the deadline.

Deadline for Nominations

Completed nomination materials — both online and mailed submissions — must be received by 5:00 p.m. (PST) on January 16, 2009.