Reclaiming The American Dream: There's An Award For That. . .
The coming year will mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of an American social commentary classic, Richard Cornuelle's “Reclaiming the American Dream: The Role of Private Individuals and Voluntary Associations”. Cornuelle was a true American original: the son of an Indiana Presbyterian minister whose path of intellectual discovery led him to become a student of Ludwig von Mises and friend of Ayn Rand, all the time eschewing neat ideological labels.
“Reclaiming the American Dream” was a sensation in its time. Cornuelle's vision of a revived “independent sector” (he coined the term) of non-profit, civil society organizations to address social ills sought a middle way between an ever-expanding welfare state and (what he viewed as) the cold market calculus of the libertarian. In words that sound as fresh as our contemporary political gridlock, Cornuelle wrote:
“[T]he independent sector is on the brink of a great renaissance. It can again become the most vital element in our national life. Our most urgent new business is to bring our independent institutions to the full capacity our abundance makes possible. They can do much more of the country's serious business, with more efficiency, precision and understanding. They can break the bitter stalemate between doctrinaire conservatism and dogmatic liberalism.”
Look magazine, then an arbiter of popular culture, gushed in a cover story that Cornuelle had “chopped his way out of dark ideology toward a combination of principle and humane concern.” Central to Cornuelle's views was the belief that the non-profit independent sector, through a combination of philanthropy and business acumen, could become a force in American life, such that the public would not assume that government need address any, and all, social problems. It was, argued Cornuelle, neither likely to succeed, nor to provide the “satisfaction we once got from personal purpose and action.”
One is tempted to say, of course, that Cornuelle's vision was never fulfilled. Witness the character of today's polarized public discourse
In retrospect, though, Cornuelle proved prescient. Terms like “social entrepreneurship”—used to describe a wave of organizational founders intent on trying their own, non-governmental approaches to address social problems—have entered common parlance. Indeed, there are enough social entrepreneurs that, since 2001, my work at the Manhattan Institute has included the $25,000 Richard Cornuelle Awards for Social Entrepreneurship, which honor Cornuelle's legacy. Winners, up to five annually, include not-for-profit organizations, and their leaders, who address some of the nation's most important problems, matters often seemingly beyond the reach of even an expansive government.
Veterans seeking to continue helping their communities following their return from Iraq and Afghanistan—and to cope with the effects of that service—can look to 2010 winner The Mission Continues, with “service platoons” in 26 cities across the country, helping in ways the Veterans Administration seemingly cannot. For those concerned about Americans without access to health care, a 2006 winner, Vermont-based Volunteers in Medicine has organized a nationwide network of 95 free clinics, largely staffed by retired physicians and other volunteers. For those concerned about adolescents with mental health issues, there's the San Francisco-based A Home Within, a 2007 winner, which has built a network of volunteer therapists, providing help especially for youth in foster care. The list of important social problems being effectively addressed—and generally without government funds—is long and impressive: encouraging minority youth academic achievement (New Jersey Orators, 2002); helping elderly adults “age in place” (Beacon Hill Village, 2008); improving high school science and engineering education (Project Lead the Way, 2006); helping immigrants with professional backgrounds find suitable jobs (San Francisco-based, Upwardly Global, 2004); reducing prisoner recidivism (Getting Out and Staying Out, New York; 2010).
Cornuelle Prize winners have to get past a rigorous screening process. This includes site visits, as well as the scrutiny of a distinguished panel of judges, which has included: Les Lenkowsky, former head of the Corporation for National and Community Service and professor of philanthropic studies, Indiana University; Adam Meyerson, president of The Philanthropy Roundtable; Anne Marie Burgoyne of San Francisco's Draper-Richards Foundation; William Schambra of the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal; James Piereson, president of the William E. Simon Foundation, and Cheryl Keller, former program officer at the General Electric Foundation. It should not be surprising that many Cornuelle award winners have grown from a single, local office at the time they were recognized, to national reach and recognition.
Indeed, the independent sector Richard Cornuelle envisioned has become so integral a part of American society that there are social entrepreneurs who've become sufficiently prominent to merit another annual prize awarded by the Manhattan Institute: the $100,000 William E. Simon Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Social Entrepreneurship. The Simon Prize celebrates the careers of non-profit leaders whose organizations and approaches have become widely-known to the point that they've changed conventional wisdom about what is possible. Consider Geoffrey Canada (2011 winner), whose Harlem Children's Zone “cradle to college” approach to helping the disadvantaged changed expectations about what poor, minority kids can accomplish; or C-Span founder Brian Lamb (2012 winner) who demonstrated that cable television can be a vehicle for reasoned discourse; or George McDonald (2008 winner), whose New York-based Ready, Willing and Able program has shown that work can lead the homeless back into the social mainstream; or 2009 winners Dave Levin and Michael Feinberg, whose KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) charter schools for low-income students helped spark a movement.
2014 Winners
In 2014, the $100,000 Simon Prize and four $25,000 Cornuelle Awards will again go to organizations and their founders who have succeeded in building effective not-for-profits [KD1] based on original ideas about how to help those in need.
Simon Prize winner Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, realized that the plain-spoken, step-by-step homework help he provided to his cousin could form the basis for an online library, filled with lessons that could reach across the world. Today, through millions of You Tube subscriptions and a partnership with the College Board, Khan's internet lessons have achieved precisely that.
Cornuelle Award winner Andrew Yang, founder of Venture for America, has recruited some of the most able new college graduates to work with start-up businesses in distressed cities, including Detroit, Cleveland, and Baltimore.
Cornuelle Award winner Alice Chapman of Marietta, Ohio, devoted millions of her own resources to buy and renovate an abandoned high school. And, through her full-time effort at the Ely Chapman Foundation, turned the school into a year-round center for tutoring—focusing on restoring the work ethic and hope—in an Appalachian community struggling with drug abuse.
Cornuelle Award winner Beth Schmidt founded San Francisco-based Wishbone to link disadvantaged high school students to summer programs, allowing such students to develop their interests and enthusiasms—from art to airplanes.
Cornuelle Award winner Nick Ehrmann's Blue Engine group successfully recruits top college students to promote a novel approach to improving education outcomes for disadvantaged students. Blue Engine teaching assistants help public school teachers in some of New York's poorest neighborhoods, adopting an innovative, team-based strategy integrating teaching assistants into the classroom every day.
In the weeks to come—prior to the November 12 awards presentation in New York—I'll be profiling each of the winners, in this space. Together, they represent a tribute to a visionary: Richard Cornuelle.
This piece originally appeared in Forbes
This piece originally appeared in Forbes