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This is a critical time to honor nonprofit innovation

While this is a new innovation honor for central Indiana nonprofits, applicants should understand it builds on previous work of the Indiana Achievement Awards (2000-2005) and Impact 100 Greater Indianapolis (2006-ongoing) by the founder of the Meridian Foundation, Donna Oklak.  

Current issues have spurred a high level of innovation by nonprofits that need to adapt quickly to meet community needs while staying connected. We hope these new awards will shine a light on nonprofit innovation and help reduce risk while making innovation stickier and more replicable. Can these awards improve the culture of accelerated innovation and make it a driving ethic of the social sector in central Indiana?  Will funders invest more in the best quick-paced innovation ideas? Can nonprofits cite improved outcomes to validate program success? Can the collaborations that were built as a result of the pandemic be strengthened further? 

The Arago Honors by The Meridian Foundation will honor nonprofit innovation with unrestricted awards in 2025.

How do we define innovation?  

How do we define innovation?

To help nominators focus on the concept of innovation, we have added a shorter innovation definition from Stanford Social Innovation on the narrative portion of the application form.  Writers will benefit by keeping this definition in mind when applying.  Innovation is a creative break in practice, large or small, solving a community problem.

Thinking broadly, our work in providing these awards remains driven by these words: 

“Innovation is the organization’s ability to break the culture, to do things in a new and different way, to take advantage of new opportunities and/or deal with new threats.  Innovation results by serving new clients, delivering new services, collaborating with others, or developing new revenue streams.  Innovation is a substantial change in practice and positively compliments the mission of the organization. “

When considering if their work fits the definition, nonprofits should be able to prove their innovative program is distinctive and adds value to the community.  Innovative organizations know how to use their environment to promote change.  Successful innovating organizations rely on their mission, use collaboration to accomplish goals, promote ideas among staff members, listen to stakeholders and continually measure performance.  Evidence that the innovation adds to the organization’s sustainability also builds the nonprofit’s case.

Other Eligibility

Invited nonprofits to complete a full application will be asked to share the number of Full-Time Employees (FTEs) of the nonprofit in their LOI as a method for determining an organization’s size. The ranges in the FTEs will be used to sort the applicants and ensure that liked-size nonprofits are being considered. The ranges will be 1-10, 11-25, and 26-100 with consideration, as well for nonprofits with more than 100 employees. The variety of nonprofit sizes will determine the applicant pool and may vary from year to year. 

We have added more flexibility to when your innovation began then when our recognition program was originally established. However, keep in mind that innovation does have a timeline and stronger innovations are newer concepts.

Applicants must be a nonprofit organization under section 501c3 of the Internal Revenue Service Code and be based In Marion county, Indiana or the seven donut counties of Boone, Hamilton, Hancock, Shelby, Johnson, Morgan, or Hendricks. Applicants may self-nominate or apply on their own behalf.  

Process Requirements

The first step in the application process will be for a nonprofit to complete the short inquiry form linked above on the Meridian Foundation website and submit it with two attachments—proof of IRS 501c3 eligibility from the IRS and a budget for the nominated program. The “rolling” deadline for LOI submission will be Midnight on September 15, 2025.

Nonprofits that are deemed to be worthy of further consideration will be contacted to submit information in the following stages of due diligence by The Meridian Foundation. 

Nonprofits selected to receive an unrestricted grant/honor from The Meridian Foundation for innovation will not be required to submit grant reports. Recognition for the innovation award by the nonprofit will be posted on The Meridian Foundation website.