George And Amal Clooney Receive Second-Ever Elevate Prize Catalyst Award From Elevate Prize Foundation For Inspiring Action Against Human Rights Abuses

Source: Elevate Prize Foundation

The Elevate Prize Foundation, together with its founder, Joseph Deitch, named George and Amal Clooney the second-ever recipients of The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award today for their work with the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), which advocates for justice through accountability for human rights abuses around the world.

The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award recognizes prominent individuals who use their influence to inspire social action and provides $250,000 in unrestricted funding in addition to valuable development resources and partnership opportunities to advance their mission and scale their work. The inaugural award recipient was Trevor Noah. The Elevate Prize Foundation selected George and Amal Clooney for consistently using their influence and platform to shine a light on injustice throughout the world and encourage countless others to do the same, demonstrating that no problem, nor problem-solver, is too small to be ignored.

I caught up with founder Joseph Deitch and Carolina Garcia-Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Foundation to learn more about their inspiring philosophy and work.

Joseph Deitch, Founder of Elevate Prize Foundation | ELEVATE PRIZE FOUNDATION

Afdhel Aziz: Joe, welcome. What was it that you saw missing in the world that lead you to think about creating the Elevate Prize?

Joseph Deitch: While on a trip to India years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Mother Teresa at her orphanage and she shared some of the most powerful words of wisdom that still stick with me to this day: “If you have money in the bank, don’t just leave it there doing nothing. Put it to good use. Do something with it.” This led to the realization that helping others would be the best investment I could ever make, and it was my time to pay it forward.

In the years following that trip, I studied philanthropy, looking for ways I could merge her advice with my business skills. I came across the term “entrepreneurial philanthropy” and realized that this was the way for me to do just that. Having been an entrepreneur my whole life, I saw it as a way to combine what I already knew about philanthropy in order to do good and elevate human consciousness, leaving a positive impact on the world.

From this chain of events, The Elevate Prize Foundation was born, an organization that aims to empower social entrepreneurs and activists by giving them the resources they need to scale their impact and amplify their visibility, with the hope of inspiring others to follow in their footsteps.

Aziz: Thanks for sharing that Joe. Carolina, welcome. How would you articulate the Purpose and ambitions of the Elevate Prize Foundation?

Carolina Garcia-Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Foundation | ELEVATE PRIZE FOUNDATION

Carolina Garcia-Jayaram: There is a void across philanthropy and social impact – a lack of established infrastructure for finding, following, and celebrating social entrepreneurs and leaders, like there is for movie stars and athletes. This is a missed opportunity that could provide a tremendous value given the impact that role models and personal stories can have on motivating people to act.

Our mission at The Elevate Prize Foundation is to build an ecosystem that helps fill this gap. By creating the world's first fanbase for social good and “Making Good Famous,” we believe we can make philanthropy more inclusive and accessible, enabling people from all walks of life to do good and create positive change. To achieve this, we are working with a network of leaders and organizations around the world, giving them the resources they need to scale their impact, amplify their visibility, and inspire more to join and/or follow them in their footsteps.

Aziz: Joe, what do you think it would look like if we were truly to ‘awaken the hero within?’ What promise does it hold for humanity?

Deitch: The world is at a tipping point. After bearing witness to the hardships experienced over the past two years alone, the desire to support each other is larger than ever before. Individuals, especially younger generations, are looking for ways that they can help drive positive change.

By creating the world's first fanbase for social good, we believe we can motivate and equip more people to join this growing movement. Each and every one of us holds more power to make positive change than we could ever dream of. Whether inspired to act in our own communities or on a global scale, we can create a chain reaction that accelerates our ability to drive collective, positive change around the world.

Aziz: Carolina, What are some of the key initiatives that you are proudest of launching?

Garcia-Jayaram: Our work began with The Elevate Prize, which recognizes social entrepreneurs for their innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing issues and provides them with $5 million in funding and tailored resources to help expand their work. We partner with the winners for two years, granting each a minimum of $300,000 in unrestricted funding, as well as leadership development services, mentorship, and capacity-building opportunities to help grow the impact and visibility of their work. The program is designed to meet each recipient where they are and provide them with what they need. Although we are only in our second year, the program has had a clear impact on winners already, such as Amanda Nguyen, 2020 Elevate Prize recipient and founder of Rise. According to Amanda, The Elevate Prize Foundation gave her the tools needed to grow her following exponentially, get in front of key media, and secure sponsorships with major brands, from the NBA and to Gucci – all within less than a year. Seeing what Amanda and her peers have been able to achieve already makes me so thrilled for the future of this program and network.

The Elevate Prize recognizes social entrepreneurs for their innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing issues and provides them with $5 million in funding and tailored resources to help expand their work.

We also recognize prominent individuals who use their influence to inspire social action through the Catalyst Award, which comes with $250K in unrestricted funding in addition to valuable development resources and partnership opportunities to advance their mission and scale their work. The award is grounded in the belief that we can inspire more people to do good if we raise visibility of both the problems and problem-solvers. Trevor Noah, comedian, host, and humanitarian received the inaugural Elevate Prize Catalyst Award in recognition of his work with The Trevor Noah Foundation and use of his influence to mobilize public support around pressing global issues.

Aziz: Finally, for both of you, what does the future hold for the work you are doing and how can brands help support your efforts?

Deitch: Younger generations want to use their voice to drive positive change and feel a greater sense of purpose in both their personal and professional lives. As these generations will soon dominate the workforce, it’s time for brands to explore ways in which they too can make social good ingrained in their value proposition and workplace.

Giving circles are an easy and impactful way to start. Companies can facilitate giving circles through employee resource groups, offering like-minded colleagues the opportunity to make a difference in the world together at the workplace, and with organizational support. While these types of activities can bolster employee retention and engagement, we also believe they can open the door to a life-long philanthropic journey.

Garcia-Jayaram: We have seen success with a similar program we offer called Elevate Giving, where we invite individuals to join a fast-paced, pop-up giving circle experience. People from around the world come together, pool what they can, discuss their interests and donate collectively to a specific cause. The Elevate Prize Foundation then matches contributions – up to $75K. It’s unique in that we provide seed funding for each giving circle, as well as curate and vet the organizations that receive funding. Elevate Giving can be customized in partnership with other foundations, corporations, and media to help them achieve their social impact, employee engagement, and community-building goals.

ELEVATE PRIZE FOUNDATION