News

The Bush Prize is about inspiration. We tell the stories of Bush Prize winners to inspire problem solvers across the region — and we do it to inspire others to apply for the Bush Prize. If you work with an organization with a track record of solving tough problems in your community, we want to hear from you. 

The Community Innovation grant program evolved from one of our three “Goals for a Decade,” announced back in 2008. Now the decade has passed. We now are considering the continued evolution of our organizational strategy. For Community Innovation grants, one thing we are thinking about is whether we can make the program both higher impact and easier to understand if we focus less on the particulars of the problem solving process and more on the potential of the idea being developed and tested.

Published 2020

The Bush Prize recognizes organizations that have a culture of innovation and a track record of creating innovative solutions to challenges in their communities. The first key to a culture of innovation is to think bigger about what’s possible. Bush Prize winners often pursue solutions that haven’t been tried before, because they think about root causes and the levers that are critical to shifting how things operate.

Our tagline is also our strategy: Investing in great ideas and the people who power them. This focus on people has been part of our work from the very beginning. It is not a typical foundation approach. In fact, programs like our Bush Fellowship require special approval from the IRS. (With good reason; the IRS wants to be very careful about how foundation dollars flow to individuals.) While we’ve been known for our Bush Fellowship program for decades, in the past several years we have dramatically expanded the number of additional opportunities we offer to individuals.

Published 2020

Ecosystem grants are designed to provide operating support to the programs and organizations that do the most to support the people creatively solving problems throughout our region. 

Relationships move at the speed of trust. Some of us have heard this phrase before; for those of us who live this phrase in our daily work, it’s a powerful truth. Since 2014, the Bush Foundation has partnered with Headwaters Foundation for Justice, South Dakota Community Foundation and The Consensus Council as intermediaries for our Community Innovation grant program, helping us reach further and have far more impact than we could alone.

The organizations who received Community Innovation grants in 2019 are great examples of the community-led problem solving that's happening in our region.

This year we’ve been asking ourselves big questions, focusing on how we can be more simple, more cohesive, and more open and responsive to the communities we serve. I think of it as a strategy push – pushing ourselves to do better. 

Published 2019

The Bush Foundation is proud to introduce the 2019 Bush Prize for Community Innovation winners: five organizations with a track record of successful problem solving in their communities.

Bush Prize finalists come to life in the “due diligence” part of the selection process, which includes reference calls, a site visit to each finalist to meet with staff and partners, and a look at the organization’s financial picture.