Grants & Awards
About Grants & Awards
Atlas Network’s grants and awards provide startup funding and international recognition that help promising projects succeed. Unlike top-down government aid programs like USAID, we rely on private philanthropy and peer competition to ensure resources go directly to the best locally led ideas. Partners compete with their peers for support, raising the bar for excellence and accountability across the network. For donors, this means a clear return on investment: more victories for liberty worldwide.
Atlas Network Makes Investments In...
Expanding Opportunity with Dignity
We support projects that remove barriers to work and entrepreneurship, helping people move out of poverty by making it easier to start a business, find a job, or operate in the legal economy. By advancing policies that respect individual dignity and unleash human potential, our partners help people build better lives for themselves and their families.
Seeding New Institutions
We help launch new think tanks and policy groups—giving courageous leaders the startup funding to build organizations that can become trusted voices for liberty in their countries.
Spreading Ideas
We fund efforts to translate, publish, and promote the timeless works of classical liberal thought, bringing essential ideas of freedom to new generations and cultures.
Defending Freedom
We support partners resisting authoritarianism and statism, whether by safeguarding free expression, pushing back against illiberal policies, or building defenses against corruption and abuse of power.
Measuring and Inspiring Reform
We equip think tanks with tools that help visualize how their countries can improve economic freedom. By benchmarking progress, partners can chart a roadmap to reform that resonates with citizens and policymakers alike.
Join us in Nairobi, Kenya, for Africa Liberty Forum 2025 — a vibrant gathering of liberty advocates, leaders, and changemakers from across the continent. In partnership with our cohost, Students For Liberty, we’ll explore pressing issues facing Africa’s future.
Engaging Hearts & Minds
We invest in content that changes culture—books, podcasts, media campaigns, and educational initiatives that reach new audiences and inspire them with the values of a free society. By shaping the conversation, these projects foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for liberty.
Freedom on Film
Through our competitive grant programs and Atlas Network's own documentary series, we elevate our partners' public policy solutions through film and video storytelling, helping their exemplary projects reach broader audiences and make a lasting impact on how societies understand freedom.
Our Awards Include...
The Templeton Freedom Award is Atlas Network’s most prestigious prize, carrying a $150,000 award—the largest of its kind in the worldwide freedom movement. Each year, six outstanding partners are nominated as finalists, chosen from a competitive field of organizations in more than 100 countries. From this distinguished group, one organization is honored for a transformative breakthrough for liberty—whether by changing laws, shifting public opinion, or opening new space for human flourishing. More than recognition, the Templeton Freedom Award sets the gold standard for achievement in our movement, inspiring peers to aim higher and showing donors how bold investments in liberty deliver extraordinary results.
Smart Bets is Atlas Network’s signature accelerator for rising institutions, spotlighting up-and-coming partners that are primed for major impact. At each Regional Liberty Forum, organizations compete in live pitch competitions, and the winners qualify as Smart Bets finalists. These finalists advance to Liberty Forum in New York, where they pitch on a global stage before donors, peers, and a panel of judges who select the grand prize winner. Every finalist also participates in our Smart Bets accelerator, receiving coaching and support to strengthen their leadership, refine their strategy, and scale their mission. Smart Bets not only identifies standout organizations—it equips a new generation of leaders to achieve major breakthroughs for liberty worldwide.
The Sir Antony Fisher Achievement Award is Atlas Network’s lifetime honor, recognizing individuals whose exceptional leadership has advanced liberty in ways that endure. Named for Atlas Network’s founder, this award celebrates true heroes among us—leaders whose vision and courage have built lasting institutions, shifted public debate, or achieved reforms that changed the course of history. By elevating these extraordinary peers, the Sir Antony Fisher Achievement Award inspires future generations and affirms that individual leadership can transform societies.
Your investment matters
Your investment in Atlas Network’s grants and awards fuels locally led projects in more than 100 countries—from expanding opportunity for street vendors to resisting authoritarianism in the world’s most unfree countries. By supporting these competitive programs, you multiply freedom worldwide, inspire greater ambition, and see a clear return on your generosity.
When you make a generous donation to Atlas Network, you’ll get much more than the satisfaction of supporting excellent free-market think tanks and nonprofits—you’ll also get get access to special benefits, including a print subscription to our Freedom’s Champion magazine and exclusive opportunities to meet unforgettable liberty advocates from around the world who will continually amaze and inspire you.
On principle, Atlas Network has never taken a penny of taxpayer money, and we can only fulfill our mission with your voluntary support. Will you join Atlas Network today?
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