The Awards annually recognize cohorts of four to six leaders whose innovative solutions to critical state challenges improve people’s lives, create opportunity, and contribute to a better California. The goals of the Awards program are to:

• Recognize and support leaders whose work improves people’s lives, creates opportunity, and contributes to a better California
• Advance innovative, effective solutions that merit expansion or replication
• Inform local and statewide policy to expand opportunity for the people of California

All nominations are carefully reviewed by the Leadership Award team, including staff and consultants to The James Irvine Foundation and Capitol Impact. The nominations most closely aligned with the Awards criteria are submitted to an independent Selection Committee of California leaders. The Selection Committee reviews nominations materials and identifies 10-12 finalists. Leadership Awards staff, consultants, and issue experts conduct site visits and additional research with each finalist. The Selection Committee utilizes findings from the site visits and research to identify four to six Award recipients.

Recipients will be notified of their selection work closely with the Awards team from November through February on several key activities:

• Strategic Planning Sessions (November-February): Collaborate with the Awards team to prepare for announcement and review materials, requiring an estimated 4-8 hours per month.
• Video Production (November-December): Participate in video production including a two-day video shoot and coordination with production staff, beginning immediately after selection.
• Announcement Reception (February): Attend the announcement reception in Sacramento. Travel expenses will be covered by the Foundation.
• Grant Proposal (Rolling deadline): Collaborate with the Awards team to complete a simplified grant proposal and fund disbursement process.

We introduced a two-step nomination process for the 2026 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards as a simpler, more inclusive way to nominate leaders. The new process significantly reduces work for nominators which we hope will open the doors to a wider range of Californians to participate in the process. It also empowers nominees to share their own insights and provide accurate, up-to-date information about their work.

Additionally, we wanted to provide an option for leaders to nominate themselves for an award. In that case, nominees will identify a validator who can answer the same minimal questions a nominator would have answered.

Step 1: Nomination Deadline: Extended to March 14, 2025

Nominations for the 2026 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Awards were accepted between February 10, 2025 and March 14, 2025 at noon.

Step 2: Nominee Submission Deadline: April 30, 2025

The second step of the nomination process—when nominated candidates provided detailed submissions—closed on April 30, 2025. In the case of self-nominations, validators forms were also due by the April 30, 2025 deadline.

We anticipate publicly announcing Award recipients in February 2026.

Award funds typically are directed to the organization that the award recipient leads. If the recipient is a pair of leaders who work for different organizations, grant funds will be directed to only one of their organizations. The leaders may share the funds as they see fit. Recipients may determine how funds will be spent, though funds must support activities in California and may not be earmarked for lobbying or directed toward projects that receive more than 50 percent of their total funding from government resources.

When James Irvine established the Foundation in 1937, he stipulated that its funds “shall be used for such charities that do not enjoy substantial support through taxation.” As a result, we may only make a grant to a publicly funded organization if the grant supports a specific project that does not receive most of its funding from public dollars. For the Leadership Awards, if a recipient’s organization receives more than 50 percent of its total revenue from government sources, the award funds would need to be applied to a specific project that is not supported in majority by government funds. Additionally, Award funds may not be granted to organizations that have policies or practices that discriminate on the basis of race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics.

If you’ve thoroughly reviewed the FAQs on our website and still have questions, here are your next steps:

• Contact Us: Email us at hello@IrvineAwards.org with your questions.

Please note: To ensure fairness, staff may not advise on the specific content or competitiveness of individual nominations.

We recognize leaders whose work improves people’s lives, creates opportunity, and contributes to a better California. The most competitive nominations describe leaders addressing critical issues with innovative approaches that have been proven effective. We ask nominators to review the selection criteria and nominations questions carefully before nominating.

Nominated leaders may:

• Be an individual or a pair of leaders
• Work in any sector (nonprofit, public, or private)
• Work in any field (such as education, health, housing, economic development, or the environment)

Nominees must be residents of California.

The Leadership Awards eligibility requirements consider the following ineligible for an Award:

• • Leaders who are no longer alive (more information below)
  • Leaders who are not residents of California
  • Leaders found to have conflicts of interest with members of the Leadership Awards Selection Committee, staff or board of directors of The James Irvine Foundation, or staff or partners of Capitol Impact Consulting, LLC (more information below)
  • Most leaders whose organizations have recently received funding from The James Irvine Foundation (exceptions apply, more information below)
  • Leaders who anticipate concluding their current role within one year of receiving a Leadership Award (more information below)

Additionally, we seek nominees who have not been extensively recognized for their work through other awards. Nominees with extensive, recent public recognition of their work through other high profile Awards programs are eligible, but less competitive than other nominees.

The following criteria are used to evaluate Leadership Awards nominations.

• Significance: The leader’s work addresses an issue that is critical to California, and the issue is anticipated to affect the quality of life of a substantial number of Californians into the future.
• Innovation: The leader is advancing an innovative strategy that directly improves people’s lives. The work represents an entirely new approach, is not widely known or practiced, or applies a proven approach in a new way or within a new context.
• Effectiveness: The leader has been highly effective in achieving positive change. Their work has a measurable record of accomplishment.
• Inclusiveness: The leader helps build bridges among people with differing viewpoints or different backgrounds. The leader serves and/or creates opportunity for communities that represent a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.
• Timing: The leader’s project is at a stage conducive to replication and informing policy, and there exists urgency or opportunity for the nominee to expand their work.
• Leadership Capacity: The leader is well-positioned and prepared to take the next step in advancing change.

Irvine does not consider nominations for leaders who have financial or close family relationships with representatives of Irvine (defined in this case as members of the Leadership Awards Selection Committee, staff or board of directors of The James Irvine Foundation, and staff or partners of Capitol Impact Consulting, LLC). If a representative of Irvine could benefit financially from a nominee’s receipt of a Leadership Award, the nominee is not eligible.

No representatives of Irvine may nominate leaders for a Leadership Award or help prepare individual nominations.

Additionally, anyone participating in the nominations review process, including staff and members of the Selection Committee must alert Leadership Awards management if they have any potential conflict of interest with nominees they are assigned to evaluate. This includes any relationship or knowledge that would prevent the representative from evaluating a nomination fairly and without bias. In such cases, management determines whether a conflict of interest exists and, if so, requires recusal from decision-making on that nomination.

Most current and recent Irvine grantees are not eligible for Leadership Awards.

We want to ensure the Awards program is accessible to leaders who might not have extensive access to philanthropic funding. Additionally, prioritizing nominations of leaders and organizations not currently or recently associated with Irvine, the Foundation hopes to benefit from new perspectives, develop new relationships, challenge our existing thinking, and sharpen our capacity for innovation.

Exceptions may be made if one or more of the following apply:

• The nominee’s organization does not currently receive funding from Irvine and any recent grants concluded more than two years before submission of the nomination.
• The leader is nominated for a project that is not financially supported by Irvine and is not aligned with Irvine’s current grantmaking priorities.
• The nominee is part of a leadership pair, working in partnership with a leader from a separate organization that is not supported by Irvine.
• The current or recent grant Irvine made to the leader’s organization was for work not associated with Irvine’s priority grantmaking initiatives (for example, Research & Development).
• The current or recent grant to the leader’s organization totaled less than $250,000 and is unlikely to renewed.
• The funding the leader’s organization received was a regrant or subgrant of funds initially provided by Irvine but awarded by a separate entity. However, this exception is applicable only when the separate entity is responsible for choosing the organization to receive the regrant or subgrant.

We recommend nominating a leader who expects to remain in their role for at least one year after their Leadership Award would be announced. The Awards were designed to help leaders inform policy, scale their operations, and inspire replication. Irvine aims to help leaders leverage their Awards by providing extensive resources, tailored support services, and recognition among policymakers and the public that we hope will be useful for years to come.

No. The awards are designed to provide an opportunity for recipients to educate policymakers and others in their field about the solutions they have implemented, thereby expanding the number of Californians who benefit from their work.