Wharton's Lipman Family Prize doubles to $250,000

By Rebecca LaPointe 08/26/15 7:09pm

With its fifth year just around the corner, the annual Lipman Family Prize has doubled its award.

The Barry & Marie Lipman Family Prize is an annual global prize that celebrates leadership and innovation among organizations striving to create social impact. Administered by the Wharton School on behalf of Penn, a steering committee comprised of University faculty, staff and Lipman family representatives decide the recipients.

Compared to last year, the first place recipient will now receive $250,000 instead of $125,000, and the second and third prizes will increase from $12,500 to $25,000, respectively.

Lipman Family Prize Director Umi Howard said the decision to increase the prize amount this year “really came from the extent to which he [Barry] was impressed with the applications that we’ve gotten over the past four years.” Howard had nothing but praise for 1970 Wharton graduate Lipman and his wife Marie, explaining how much Lipman cares for his staff, his team of fellows and the competing organizations.

Lipman Family Prize Coordinator Mariah Casias added that the increase stemmed from “not only seeing the quality of the applications, but then hearing back from the previous winners and finalists, what it meant to them and seeing their continued impact.”

Last year’s winner, Andrea Coleman, who is the CEO and co-founder of Riders for Health, a social enterprise focused on enabling public health care to reach rural communities in Saharan Africa, strived to create an organization with her husband that implemented a significant change to areas of Africa in need of it most. Founded in 1996, the organization focuses on the mostly inaccessible routes and roads and Coleman decided that the best way to get medicine, health care and other essentials to the areas in grave need was via motorcycle and other vehicles.

“Funding is vital. It is hard to get funding for all of us. And the Lipman Family Prize offers a significant funding opportunity,” Coleman said.

The selection committee aims to remain unbiased in its choice.

“We’ve tried to make sure that there is a clean separation between our selection process and the way that we’re supporting organizations,” Howard said, adding that Barry and his wife want to focus on making the prize more powerful and effective for the participating students and organizations. “Things like doubling the money and figuring out how to do that are the places where he is putting his attention.”

A big part of this second gift, the last one being in 2013, is the effect that it has on Lipman himself. He works hard to make sure he gets to know the fellows well, but more importantly, he feels deeply for the participating applicants.

“It’s just every time Barry is around you can see how much he cares and how much he just wants to make sure that everything is going as well as it can, and he’s always really excited to see the students and engage with them,” Casias said.

Whether the prize will continue to grow in the future will be seen in the years to come. The man behind the gift finds it rewarding and satisfying to help organizations that are in the most need. “He [Lipman] knows really well the value of unrestricted funding of organizations that are trying to get off the ground, or have an idea and are working on proof of concept,” Howard says.

As many of the other recipients have done in the past, Riders for Health has put the prize money to good use. “I hope that we will have a new CEO within the next two years, and that succession and making it more Africa-centric requires much more training for our very gifted colleagues in the Africa programs,” Coleman said.

Previous winners are excited to see what the award hike will bring. “We think it is exciting — we just wish we could also win this year!” Coleman said. “I am quite proud of that because I feel as though they must think that those who have won the prize in the past have made the most of it, and that is something that is valuable.”

Applications for the Lipman Family Prize close on Aug. 31, 2015.

Applications for the Lipman Family Prize Fellows close on Sept. 13, 2015.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.