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Aspen Institute

Washington, D.C.

Grants

2023 (1 year)
$500,000

The Aspen Institute, founded in 1949 and based in Washington, D.C., is a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society. The Institute has earned a reputation for gathering diverse, nonpartisan thought leaders, creatives, scholars, and members of the public to address some of the world's most complex problems and to provoke, further, and improve actions taken in the real world. This grant provides The Aspen Institute with flexible support for general operations.

2023 (1 year)
$100,000

The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE), a program of the Aspen Institute, is a global network of over 300 organizations that promote entrepreneurship in 150+ countries. ANDE's members offer crucial financial, educational, and business support services to over one million small and growing businesses, aiming to foster thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and enhance local institutional capacity in emerging markets. ANDE focuses on key thematic areas aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: gender equality, environmental action, and decent work/economic growth. Its activities encompass increasing awareness and support for small businesses in developing countries, providing funding and resources to members, knowledge sharing and networking, supporting research, publishing reports, and running skill-building programs. In India, the ANDE chapter supports its members and actively works towards a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. The chapter's efforts involve strengthening local networks, fostering collaboration, and developing programs and services for the benefit of members and the broader sector. Additionally, ANDE has developed a special focus on women entrepreneurs and plans to further expand its endeavors to encompass South Asian countries such as Bangladesh and Nepal.

2023 (2 years)
$350,000

A program of the Aspen Institute, which is a Washington, DC-based educational and policy studies organization, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs is a global membership network comprising more than 300 organizations that propel entrepreneurship in over 150 countries. Its members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to more than one million small and growing businesses in order to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and local institutional capacity in emerging market regions. The Foundation’s grant supports the network’s operations as it focuses on the three key thematic areas related to a subset of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: gender equality, environmental action, and decent work and economic growth. Its six activity areas include a) increasing awareness of, and support for, the small and growing business sector in developing countries; b) making funding and resources available to members; c) sharing knowledge and providing networking opportunities; d) supporting it's Metrics and Research Learning Lab; e) releasing topic-specific knowledge briefs and an annual “State of the Sector” report; and, f) running programs that offer members skills building, training, and leadership development.

2020 (2 years)
$300,000

A program of the Aspen Institute, which is a Washington, DC-based educational and policy studies organization, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs is a global membership network of more than 280 organizations that propel entrepreneurship in in more than 150 countries. Its members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses to build thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and local institutional capacity in emerging market regions by breaking down barriers to entrepreneurial growth and educating a diverse set of actors about ways they can create efficiencies to accelerate enterprise growth. Its members support more than one million small business entrepreneurs annually. ANDE is playing a critical role supporting its members during COVID-19 and will continue to provide additional resources, funding access and visibility to these organizations. The Foundation’s grant supports ANDE’s core operations as it focuses on the three thematic United Nations Sustainable Development Goal areas of gender equality, environment, and decent work and economic growth through its activities in advocacy and education; knowledge sharing and awareness; funding resource creation; metrics and evaluation and research and training and talent development.

2019 ( 4 months)
$50,000

The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. The award supports the 25th session of the Aspen Ministers Forum (AMF) in Vienna, Austria. Chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, the AMF assembles former foreign ministers to develop concrete, nonpartisan recommendations addressing pressing matters in global affairs. The session will focus on new thinking around norms for the 21st-century battlefield, focusing on great power competition and arms control, emerging threats and new technologies, and nuclear proliferation.

2018 (1 year)
$100,000

A program of the Aspen Institute, which is a Washington, DC-based educational and policy studies organization, the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global membership network of more than 290 organizations operating in more than 150 countries that provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses to propel entrepreneurship in emerging markets. ANDE’s core work focuses on building thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and local institutional capacity in emerging market regions by breaking down barriers to entrepreneurial growth and educating a diverse set of actors about ways they can create efficiencies to accelerate enterprise growth. Its members support more than one million small business entrepreneurs annually. The Foundation’s grant supports ANDE’s core operational activities across its focus areas of advocacy and education; knowledge sharing and awareness; funding resource creation; metrics and evaluation; research and training and talent development.

2018 ( 6 months)
$50,000

The Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan forum for values-based leadership and the exchange of ideas. This grant supports a congressional conference titled “Finding a Diplomatic Solution to the North Korean Crisis.”

2017 (1 year)
$250,000

The mission of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions is to support community collaboration, including collective impact, that enables communities to effectively address their most pressing challenges. With support from the Foundation, the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions — in collaboration with the Schultz Family Foundation and Starbucks — launched the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative in July 2015. The 100,000 Opportunities Initiative established the nation's largest employer-led, private sector coalition committed to creating pathways to employment for youth who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market. The Aspen Forum serves as the intermediary for the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative and provides direct leadership, technical assistance, and program support for its implementation. This award supports the newly established Pathways to Careers Fund, which enables the Aspen Forum to invest in five Demonstration Cities across the country. The Pathways to Careers Fund seeks to create new knowledge and advance the field's ability to serve opportunity youth.

2016 (1 year)
$300,000

Based in Washington, D.C., the Aspen Institute (Aspen) is an educational and policy studies organization that seeks to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues of the day. Its Communications and Society Program focuses on analysis, consensus building, and problem solving in the areas of communications, media, and information policy. In 2012, the Foundation made an initial grant to Aspen to create a task force to explore, study, and identify a set of recommendations for advancing the use of the Internet for learning and innovation, while also ensuring the privacy of individual data and the safety of children and youth. The task force issued recommendations in a final report in May 2014, which included actions for fostering trusted online learning environments. This grant builds on past activities of the task force to develop a privacy guide for schools and local communities to implement trusted Connected Learning environments that comply with current privacy policies governing student educational data. At a time when there is apprehension about technology in the classroom and the use of data to customize learning, this privacy guide will provide practical advice to those wishing to innovate with the tools of the digital age to better meet the needs of today’s youth. 

2015 (1 year)
$100,000

The mission of the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions is to support community collaboration, including collective impact, that enables communities to address effectively their most pressing challenges. The new I 00, 000 Opportunities Initiative, launched by the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions (AFCS) in collaboration with the Schultz Family Foundation and Starbucks, establishes the nation's largest employer-led, private sector coalition committed to creating pathways to employment for youth who are neither enrolled in school nor participating in the labor market. AFCS serves as the intermediary for this initiative and provides direct leadership, technical assistance, and program support for its launch and implementation. This grant will enable AFCS to manage a national network of employers and service providers to develop accelerated employment pathway prototypes and to share lessons learned from these efforts for large-scale impact, both locally and nationally.

2015 (1 year)
$50,000

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC that works to foster leadership based on enduring values, and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical social issues. The annual Aspen Ideas Festival, managed by the Aspen Institute in partnership with The Atlantic magazine, is a public event that enables global leaders in many disciplines to present and discuss ideas and issues that shape individual and public life. This award will support the Ideas Festival, which is hosting two panel discussions with MacArthur staff and grantees, one concerning criminal justice and mass incarceration, the other concerning data and ethics.

2014 (1 year 6 months)
$600,000

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization that seeks to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues of the day. In 2012, the Foundation funded the Institute to create a task force, the Aspen Task Force on Learning and the Internet, chaired by Jeb Bush and Rosario Dawson, established to explore, study, and identify a set of recommendations for advancing the use of the Internet for learning and innovation while also ensuring the privacy of individual data and the safety of children and youth. This grant supports the continued dissemination of the Task Force’s recommendations.

2013 (2 years)
$250,000

The Franklin Project intends to create a system that supports one million civilian national service opportunities every year for 18-28 year olds with a mixture of public and private funds. Community service helps young adults get valuable job experience, learn to work across race, class and geographic lines, and prepare them more fully for education or careers. It can be particularly valuable for veterans in their transition from military to civilian life. Volunteers conduct work valuable to their communities, including early childhood education, maintaining public lands and waterways, building housing and parks, and assisting the elderly.

2013 (1 year)
$25,000

The Inclusive America Project is part of the Aspen Institute’s Justice and Society Program. It addresses societal challenges related to religious conflicts by promoting religious pluralism, freedom of worship, and honoring the rights of others. Acting through a panel co-chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Harvard Kennedy School Professor David Gergen, the Project will seek to ensure greater respect in the public sphere for the identities of religious communities, foster more positive relationships between people of different faiths, and create partnerships among disparate organizations in service to the common good.

2013 (2 years)
$240,000

This grant will allow the Aspen Institute’s Global Health and Development Program to serve as Secretariat to the Global Health Worker Advisory Council, an independent authority. The objective of the Council and Secretariat is to maintain momentum for the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel by promoting the Code and helping countries to implement it in their national laws, policies, and programs. The Council and Secretariat’s activities will include high-level advocacy, implementation of an annual Innovation Award, and participation in global fora such as the UN High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development and the Global Forum on Migration and Development.

2012 (1 year)
$500,000

Based in Washington, D.C., the Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization that seeks to provide a non-partisan venue for dealing with critical issues of the day. Its Communications and Society Program will use this grant to establish and manage a task force to explore policy issues that best support learning and innovation. The task force will bring together leading thinkers from around the country, with a broad range of expertise and views, to analyze and assess current Internet policy from the perspective of learning.

2011 (1 year 3 months)
$20,000

In support of the US-China Legal Experts Dialogue.

2011 (1 year)
$75,000

In support of the Business and Society Program's Finance Roundtable.

2010 (2 years 1 month)
$300,000

To promote effective implementation of the World Health Organization's Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel (over two years).

2008 (3 years 3 months)
$1,800,000

In support of the Congressional Program (over three years).

2005 (1 year)
$150,000

In support of a conference examining the future of China's foreign and security policy and East Asian security.

2005 (1 year)
$30,000

In support of The Community Development Finance Scale and Sustainability Project.

2003 (1 year 2 months)
$175,000

For research on community development finance.

2001 (1 year 2 months)
$300,000

In support of a series of seminars for key members of Congress from both parties on issues related to the September 11 attacks

1999 (2 years)
$300,000

To support networking and public education activities related to U.S. foreign policy and international security (over two years).

1999 (1 year 11 months)
$250,000

To support the Global Interdependence Initiative (over two years).

1997 (2 years 7 months)
$300,000

To support networking and public education activities related to U.S. foreign policy and international security (over two years).

1996 (1 year 3 months)
$50,000

To support the Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families.

1994 (1 year)
$50,000

To support a public education campaign about the International Conference on Population and Development.

1994 (1 year)
$50,000

To support the Roundtable on Initiatives for Children, Families, and Communities (over two years).

1992 (1 year)
$50,000

To support the Enterprise Development Study.

1989 (1 year 1 month)
$273,087

To support the project Communist East Europe: Building a Congressional Core Group.

1989 (1 year 2 months)
$132,250

To support a re-examination of programs related to the changing issues faced by corporate leaders and the new skills needed as commercial institutions change and develop.

1983 (1 year)
$25,000

To support Waldemar A. Nielsen's revision of his "The Big Foundations" (1972).

1981 (1 year)
$25,000

To support Waldemar A. Nielsen's revision of his "The Big Foundations" (1972).