THE WORLD OF AWARDS--WHY THEY ARE GIVEN--AND WHO'S RESPONSIBLE
Larry E. Tise, Ph.D, President
International Congress of Distinguished Awards and
Director, International Center for Data on Awards
[1st issued 1.30.2005; revised April 2014]
I. The Origins of Awards
Awards, prizes, honorifics, and other symbols of merit, heroism, or outstanding achievement derive from the most ancient and primitive practices of human beings in society. Among the earliest evidences of human existence may be found carvings, medals, trinkets, heroic tableau and ceremonial devices indicating that some persons were singled out for honor or recognition in the most primitive of societies. It seems that the need to single out individuals for honor grew almost instinctively out of primordial efforts for organizing social existence in a meaningful manner. And, of course, also to recognize behaviors that were of benefit to a particular society.
And if awards may be traced to the genesis of human existence, the practice of presenting awards has grown and developed with the evolution of societies and social polities into ever more complex societies. Whether one examines ancient Greek civilization—where men were given laurels for victory in Olympiads; Roman society—where Roman warriors and generals were singled out for titles of reverence or the right to wear a signet; Native American tribes—where hunters and warriors won the right to wear distinctive feathers or other tokens of valor; or modern Anglo-European nations—where persons of distinction might be so honored with baronies or dukedoms, induction into honorary academies and societies, or the presentation of badges and medals, awards of commendation have been a part of every society.
The more republican or democratic a modern society, the greater the presence of awards and honors for human achievement. In societies with a monarchical structure or with a unitary head of government, there is a greater likelihood that the presentation of awards and honors will be the prerogative of the head of government. In republican or democratic societies, the business of giving awards is more commonly the prerogative and responsibility of foundations, voluntary societies, and professional associations. While some of the world’s largest and most historic awards for individual achievement have appeared in monarchical societies (e.g., Nobel, Heineken, Erasmus, Kyoto, Blue Planet), the financial initiative for these awards has come from private and philanthropic sources. Other of the world’s most distinctive awards have been established by ruling monarchs in their nations (King Baudouin, King Faisal, Kuwait, Zayed). Still others have derived from the initiatives of single individuals—irrespective of the nature of government in their host nation)—Wolf and Dan David (Israel), Onassis (Greece), Right Livelihood (Sweden), Heinz (United States), and many others. Some great awards have been launched by corporations—Rolex, Pillsbury, General Motors, and many another.
And beyond these great and distinguished awards are thousands of others presented by virtually every organization, association, society, or fraternal group in the world. Indeed, the giving of awards seems to be an early prerequisite of almost every organization in the world. Thus giving awards is one of the most common activities of human societies whatever their form for virtually every type of human achievement.
And while the giving of an award can be a simple and straight-forward matter, rarely does it turn out to be so. For the very impulse that leads individuals and organizations to consider giving an award drives them to make the giving of the award ever more complex, more dramatic, and more likely to attract public attention. In a sense the same driving forces that cause the most reasonable of humans to convert a simple marriage ceremony, bar mitzvah, building dedication, or commemorative event into an incontrovertibly memorable and newsworthy event, also cause individuals and organizations to make award-giving occasions noteworthy events.
II. The World of Awards
The World of Awards is just as large as the population of the world itself, crisscrossing all societies, virtually all organizations and thousand of individuals.
By actual count through the pages of the old reference work Awards, Honors, and Prizes—published annually by Gale Research a division of Thomson Scientific—there were in 2004 more than 30,000 awards and award programs in the world. Well over half of these were located in the United States. Over the past decade, the Gale reference work has pretty much lost track of the dynamic expansion of the number, variety, and generosity of both old awards and many new ones.
The origin and incidence of awards is virtually coincident with the emergence of every new organization. Indeed, the creation and presentation of awards is one of the common outgrowths of new organizations. First organizations form and become incorporated. They next establish a website and a method of contacting their members. And very soon thereafter the typical organization will launch an awards program.
If one looked at the 30,000 awards included in the Gale Research reference work in 2004, the annual expenditure for these awards alone (prizes, medals, trophies, administration, promotion, ceremonies) was easily in excess of $2 billion worldwide. My estimate in 2004 was that if one included all of the other types of awards presented yearly in all of their cost aspects, the total world of awards encompassed expenses in excess of $10 billion.
By 2014 the situation had changed dramatically. With the growth of the internet and the emergence of thousands of new organizations, corporations, and entities worldwide hoping to make use of the tool of awards to recognize achievement, there was no real mechanism for measuring the scope and economies of the world of awards. Through the use of search engines on the internet, it became clear that searches for "awards" combined with almost any noun or adjective one can imagine produced a linkage to some emergent awards program. Whereas the world of awards comprised expenditures of perhaps $10 billion per annum in 2004; by 2014 that level of expenditure had at least quadrupled and is growing at an expanded rate reminiscent of the expansion of the universe itself. The world of awards in 2014--despite a Great Recession and other international financial defaults was still growing exponentially and increasing in speed as time elapses. .
III. The Origins of Awards and Awards Orginizations
Awards originate in many diverse ways. However, it is possible to categorize the origins of most awards and the manner in which they come to be administered. There follow a general description of the ways in which most awards come into existence.
Origin of Awards
Awards are most commonly established through the mechanism of wills or living trust arrangements. Alfred Nobel (Nobel Prizes), Henry Bower (Bower Award for Achievement in Science), John D. and Katharine T. MacArthur (MacArthur Awards) and Robert Alonzo Welch (Welch Award in Chemistry) established a body of significant awards through bequests established in wills that set forth the nature of these awards.
By contrast Andrew Carnegie (Carnegie Medals), H. Charles Grawemeyer (Grawemeyer Prizes), Jerome Lemelson (Lemelson-MIT Prize), and Dan David (Dan David Prizes) established prizes through trusts established during their lifetimes; and subsequently watched the awards develop.
Namesakes and Memorials:
Many awards have been established as namesakes or memorials for deceased individuals—usually to perpetuate their individual memory or to honor realms in which they were interested. The Heinz Awards (Heinz Family Foundation), the Bagnaud Aerospace Prize (Francois-Xavier Bagnaud Foundation), and the Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Prize (Conrad N. Hilton Foundation) were established as memorials to deceased individuals.
Some awards have been created to focus upon or to honor fields of accomplishment that have been historically overlooked by other major awards. The Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was established to honor fields of science overlooked by the Nobel Prizes; the Templeton Prize in Religion was established by the John Templeton Foundation to underscore the importance of religion in life; the Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation was established to honor one of the most historic fields of human investigation; the John W. Kluge Prize in the Human Sciences was established by John W. Kluge at the US Library of Congress to draw attention to research in the humanities.
Many awards have been established with or without large cash prizes to recognize the highest level of achievement in particular professions. Among these are the Fields Medals of the International Mathematics Union in the realm of mathematics; the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society in chemistry; the Critchlow Trust Prize of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics developments in aeronautics; the Pritzker Architecture Prize of the Hyatt Foundation in architecture; and the Lasker Medical Research Awards by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation in medicine.
Some awards seek to encourage new research and to recognize new research innovations in fields where specific human needs have been identified. The General Motors Cancer Research Medals promote new findings in cancer treatment; the Genetics Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation stresses new findings and applications in genetics research; and the Japan Prize of the Science and Technology Foundation of Japan innovations in science.
Some awards—particularly in literature and the arts—are made through rigorous competitions where true “winners” are chosen. These include such prestigious awards as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition, and the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in music; the Booker Prize in English literature; and the Truman Capote Awards in Literary Criticism.
In some instances national governments have created special awards and prizes to recognize unique achievements. Among these are King Baudouin International Development Prize (third world development) of Belgium; the Indira Gandhi Prize (Peace) of India; the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science of Australia; and the Enrico Fermi Awards (Energy) and the Baldridge National Quality Award (corporate identity) of the United States.
Some of the world’s most excellent award programs have been established and maintained by major international corporations. These include most notably the Rolex Awards for Enterprise of the Rolex Watch Company of Geneva, Switzerland; the Honda Prize of the Honda Foundation of the Honda Company of Japan; the Carlsberg Architecture Prize of the Carlsberg Corporation of Denmark; and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Achievement Awards in Scientific Research of the Bristol-Myers Corporation in the United States.
Challenges and Mega Awards:
Since around 1990 extraordinarily large bodies of wealth have come into the hands a relatively small group of billionaires worldwide who have found the world of awards a realm in which to attempt to make things happen. Whether through new philanthropies, challenges, or the awarding of mega prizes, they have created extraordinarily large new awards that have begun to transform the world of awards.
IV. Award Sponsors and Administrative Organizations
Awards are typically sponsored and administered by a large variety of organization types. However, awards sponsored by corporations are frequently administered and presented by other organizations more closely aligned to the field or profession of the award field. Among the types of awards organizations are the following:
Historically the most typical organization for both the sponsorship and the presentation of awards has been the professional or peer group society or national societies in the arts or sciences. Examples of such societies would be the Royal Society of the UK (London), the Royal Society of Edinburgh and other similar societies for specific fields in the UK; the American Philosophical Society (1743), the oldest scientific organization in the United States; and more specific scientific societies such as the American Chemical Society and similar organizations.
Professional Associations, Institutes, or Unions:
Little different from earlier professional societies, but a terminology more common to professional organizations emerging in last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Examples of these would be such as the American Physical Association, the American Astronomical Association, the American Historical Association, the American Geophysical Union, the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and countless others. On the international level many additional awards are presented by the large international unions in such realms as physics, mathematics, astronomy, and other fields of research.
Many awards have been established by philanthropic foundations—even though it is well known that the costs associated with the administration and presentation of awards normally far exceed the cost ratios for the awarding of grants—the more prevalent activity of foundations. Major foundations presenting internationally significant awards include the International Balzan Foundation (Balzan Prizes) in Italy, the Asahi Glass Foundation (Blue Planet Prize) and the Honda Foundation (Honda Prize) in Japan, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (Guggenheim Fellowships) and the Conrad Hilton Foundation (Conrad Hilton Humanitarian Award) in the United States, and the Reuter Foundation (Reuter Foundation Fellowships) in the United Kingdom.
Some awards are presented by museums. One of the oldest science and technology awards programs in the United States has been the Science and Arts Medals program of The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, USA. The Institute also sponsors one of the larger general science awards—the Bower Award for Achievement in Science. The Pew Fellowships in Marine Science are administered by the New England Aquarium in Boston.
Many awards are sponsored by government agencies. The Fermi and Lawrence Awards of the US Department of Energy are government sponsored awards in nuclear research. The King Faisal Awards of Saudi Arabia are sponsored by its government, although technically presented through a government funded research institute. An interesting variation on this theme is the National Science Awards (National Science Foundation) and the National Technology Awards (Department of Commerce) of the United States. Although funded by government appropriations, the awards are technically presented in ceremonies organized and funded by a separate privately operated foundation—the National Science and Technology Medals Foundation.
Although some corporations sponsor and administer award programs directly (e.g., the Rolex Awards of the Rolex Watch Company and the General Motors Cancer Research Medals of the General Motors Corporation), many more corporations sponsor and fund prizes to be presented by separate organizations. Chemical companies typically sponsor awards given by the American Chemical Society. Engineering firms typically fund awards given by engineering associations. Corporations in applied physics fund awards given by national physical associations.
Some philanthropists have funded awards to be presented by specific universities. The Pulitzer Prizes in the United States are administered by Columbia University. The Grawemeyer Awards are administered by the University of Louisville. Two separate Truman Capote Awards are administered by the University of Iowa and Stanford University. The Sonning Awards are administered by the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. The Wexner Prize in the Arts is handled by Ohio State University.
Other Award Organizations:
The variety of organizations sponsoring awards is almost as varied as the range of awards themselves. Among the more unusual sponsors of awards are the Norwegian Nobel Institute formed precisely to administer the Nobel Peace Prize; the Hunger Project to administer the Africa Prize; the Philadelphia Festival of the Arts to direct the Marian Anderson Award; and Discover Magazine which has sponsored a popular technology award program in the United States.