Application Deadline: September 9th 2016
Nominations open today for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, an annual international humanitarian award. The Aurora Prize is seeking personal stories of individuals who have put themselves at personal risk for the sake of others.
Every year, an Aurora Prize Laureate is honored with a US$100,000 grant, as well as a US$1,000,000 award to be donated to charitable organizations that inspired their work.
The Aurora Prize is the philanthropic vision of co-founders Vartan Gregorian, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan, who sought to express gratitude and memorialize those whose heroic actions saved lives during the Armenian Genocide more than one hundred years ago. Continuing the cycle of giving, the Aurora Prize carries forward that legacy of gratitude.
Requirements:
- Anyone can nominate a candidate they believe has overcome great personal challenges to make an exceptional impact on preserving human life and advancing humanitarian causes.
Nominations will be carefully vetted and reviewed via a rigorous process, and the final selection will be made by the independent Selection Committee based on the following criteria:
Courage
The extent to which the nominated party’s actions demonstrate:
- Courage in helping others survive
- Having overcome significant risks for the sake of helping others survive
- Going beyond the call of duty of professional obligations for the sake of helping others survive
Commitment
The extent to which the Nominee’s actions demonstrate:
- An explicit intention to help others survive
- A direct involvement in helping others survive
- Being motivated by altruistic intentions
Impact
The extent to which the Nominee’s actions demonstrate:
- An impact of saving lives on the Nominee’s community, country or globally
- A long-term effect in saving lives
- Inspiration to others to save lives, directly or indirectly
- Saving lives of a large number of individuals
Any members of the public, including members of national assemblies, governments, academic and other institutions, may nominate candidates for the Aurora Prize.
The Aurora Prize Laureate is honored with a US $100,000 grant and has the unique opportunity to continue the cycle of giving by nominating organizations that inspired their work to receive a US $1,000,000 award.
Qualified organizations operate on a not-for-profit basis and act in the public interest with a mission to benefit humankind. This could include, but is not limited to, providing relief to the poor, advancing education, improving social welfare, preserving culture, preserving or restoring the environment, promoting human rights, establishing civil society and / or advancing healthcare.
Nominator eligibility
An individual or a group of people may be nominated by any individual or organization with consideration of the following requirements, designed to maintain the integrity of the selection process and prevent any possible conflicts of interest:
- Self-nominations are not permitted;
- The Nominator must provide full name and contact details. Anonymous nominations are not accepted.
The Nominator is also asked to acknowledge:
- If they are an officer or employee or any other individual receiving remuneration for their services from the Nominee;
- If they are a family member of an officer or employee of the Nominee;
- If they are affiliated with the Aurora Prize in any way (e.g. Secretariat, Selection Committee, Independent Observer, 100 LIVES Foundation, etc.) and are a family member of someone affiliated with the Aurora Prize (family member means mother, father, sister, brother, daughter, son or spouse, including by marriage, regardless where they live; or persons who reside in the same household, whether related or not).
Nominee eligibility
The Nominees may be individuals or groups of people from anywhere in the world, as long as they meet the following requirements:
- They are alive (the Aurora Prize is not given posthumously)
- They are not an individual or organization that is involved in any terrorist / extremist activity or hold and / or publicly declare any extremist viewsThey have never undertaken or participated in inhumane activities (including acts of war, genocide, any terrorist / extremist activity), do not hold and / or publicly declare any extremist views, have never been found guilty of committing violent crimes;
- They do not negate crimes committed against humanity through the history of mankind (including the Holocaust, the Armenian Genocide and other massacres);
- They have not been awarded the Aurora Prize before as a Prize Laureate;
- They, when being a group of people, are not a formally established organization of any legal nature.
The Nominee is also asked to acknowledge:
- If they are an officer or employee or otherwise receive remuneration for their services from any party affiliated with the Aurora Prize (e.g., Secretariat, Selection Committee, Independent Observer, 100 LIVES Foundation, etc.).
For More Information:
Visit the Official Webpage of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity