Global Witness wins two $1m prizes
Howard Lake | 6 March 2014 | News
Investigative and campaigning organisation Global Witness has been awarded two million dollar prizes. TED and the Skoll Foundation will both give their annual prizes to the charity.
TED will make its award to Charmian Gooch, Global Witness Co-Founder and Director, and The Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship will be presented to all three Co-Founders and Directors – Patrick Alley, Charmian Gooch, and Simon Taylor – and the organisation itself.
Although both organisations decided separately to make their awards to the charity and its founders, they have decided to make the announcement together, with the aim of further highlighting the 20 year record of Global Witness. The organisation investigates, analyses and campaigns against natural resource-related conflict and corruption and associated environmental and human rights abuses.
TED Prize
TED is “the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading”. Chris Anderson, TED curator, said:
“That both TED and Skoll independently selected Charmian and Global Witness as recipients of these prizes is a remarkable testament to their daring investigative and campaigning work. The TED Prize is granted annually to an inspiring individual with a world-changing wish – one that Charmian will reveal at the TED Conference in just two weeks’ time.”
Its annual prize is awarded to “an extraordinary individual with a bold, creative vision to spark global change”. Charmian Gooch will announce her wish live from the main stage at the annual TED Conference. This will be broadcast live on 18 March.
Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship
The Skoll Foundation presents the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship each year to “transformative leaders who are disrupting the status quo, driving large-scale change, and are poised for even greater impact”.
Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation, said:
“Social entrepreneurs are, by definition, disruptors. Patrick, Charmian, and Simon’s leadership epitomises great social entrepreneurship in Global Witness’s quest to expose global conflict, corruption, and environmental degradation, lifting millions out of poverty and protecting the environment. We are delighted to announce Patrick, Charmian, and Simon as among our 2014 Skoll Awardees.”
The awards will be made at the Annual Skoll World Forum which takes place in Oxford from 9-11 April.
Charmian Gooch, Co-Founder and Director of Global Witness, said that the awards were “a rocket boost to our work – making it possible for us to carry out even more cutting edge investigations, report on matters in the public interest, and launch hard hitting campaigns that challenge vested interests and change the system.”
[message_box title=”About Global Witness” color=”blue”]Founded in 1993, Global Witness is a UK not-for-profit based in London and Washington DC.
Global Witness investigates and campaigns to change the system by exposing the economic networks behind conflict, corruption and environmental destruction. The organisation focuses on undertaking hard-hitting investigations into matters of public interest that expose the companies, the corrupt, the bankers, the corporate executives, and the middlemen of various kinds who willfully enable corruption to take place on a grand scale. Global Witness reports on these matters, and launches campaigns that change the terms of debate and set the global agenda.[/message_box]
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.