We’re excited to announce that the Bush Prize is returning – with a twist! We will be awarding the Bush Prize to organizations identified by our four community grant partners – Good Relatives Collaborative, Headwaters Foundation for Justice, South Dakota Community Foundation and Strengthen ND.
The purpose of the Bush Prize remains the same – to celebrate organizations that are most valued and admired within their communities and have a track record of successful community problem solving.
Bush Prize winners in each region still receive a flexible grant of up to 25% of the organization’s last fiscal year expenses, with a maximum of $500,000.
What changes is that each of our community grant partners will operate and select the Bush Prize in their respective communities, which encompasses our grantmaking region of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native Nations that share the same geography.
We paused the Bush Prize in 2020 and 2021 to focus on the more pressing needs of that period. We also used the time to rethink the program and invite community input on its future. We heard strong enthusiasm for the Bush Prize and its transformational impact.
At the same time, we saw this as another way to share funding decision power and deepen our work with the community grant partners.
The new Bush Prize will now be four separate Bush Prize selection processes: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography.
Our community grant partners are working with their respective communities to inform the program and processes. The four partners also will select and announce the Bush Prize winners, as well as provide any support along the way.
Each partner will operate the Bush Prize using similar criteria and announce the winners at the same time yet have the flexibility to run different application and selection timelines. They are:
March 15, 2023 - Applications open
Bush Prize: North Dakota – see Strengthen ND for information
April 2023 – specific dates TBD
Bush Prize: Native Nations – see Good Relatives Collaborative for information and updates
May 2023 – specific dates TBD
Bush Prize: South Dakota – see South Dakota Community Foundation for information and updates
Bush Prize: Minnesota –see Headwaters Foundation for Justice for information and updates
October 2023 – specific date TBD
Bush Prize winners announced by all four community grant partners
We will keep all the current and basic information on our website – as well as links to each community grant partner website for information on how to apply – at bushfoundation.org/bushprize.