This is the third year The Meridian Foundation will recognize nonprofit innovation in central Indiana with Arago Honor Awards. The number of $10,000 awards will depend on the pool of applications received.

We continue to be astonished by the number of innovative nonprofits in our community.

All nonprofits in the areas of arts, culture and humanities, education, environment and animal, health and human services in central Indiana are urged to apply. The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) system is used by the IRS and the Foundation Center to classify nonprofit organizations. In 2202 we began asking nonprofit nominators to self-select the appropriate focus area their project addresses and this will continue.

We continue to ask nominators in 2023 to help us understand if their innovation is designed to incrementally improve an existing body of work or should be seen as a brand new idea disrupting an entire sector. There is no right or wrong answer, but this is where we glimpse the vision of leadership.

How do we define innovation?

In 2023 we want to clarify that solving a problem creatively is at the heart of nonprofit innovation. For that reason, we have tweaked the short definition we used last year to be clearer. However, our basic concept of innovation has not changed. 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 as an innovating nonprofit.