WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation announced Monday that it has selected the Claremont Institute to receive the Heritage Innovation Prize. 

The Claremont Institute, with the support of this $100,000 award, will spearhead the American Heartland Fellowship. This transformative initiative will educate promising leaders in critical industries and states with the principles of the American Founding and will equip and connect them to use that knowledge in practical and influential ways to ensure that Americans have robust, independent structures of capital, media, communications, and other vital infrastructure free from the influence of progressive institutional power.

Heritage President Kevin Roberts released a statement congratulating the Claremont Institute on receiving this award:

“The Heritage Foundation’s Innovation Prize was established with a clear mission: to bolster our stalwart allies—like the Claremont Institute—in the conservative movement's battle against the Left and its anti-American agenda. Claremont's American Heartland Fellowship embodies a noble pursuit, shaping the next generation of leaders to uphold the timeless values of our nation's Founding Fathers. Heritage takes great pride in endorsing this remarkable organization.” 

The Claremont Institute's president Ryan Williams released the following statement upon announcement of the award:   

“The Claremont Institute has been teaching American founding principles and their application to our pressing national controversies to American leaders since we were founded in 1979. Our alumni are now everywhere, in media, policy, law, academia, politics, speechwriting, and law enforcement. We are grateful to The Heritage Foundation for their support of our newest expansion of this vital work, The Heartland fellowship, a program for civic-minded business leaders who want to understand how we got to our current crisis and how best to defend and revive the American way of life.” 

This is the fourth round of Heritage Innovation Prizes to be awarded. In 2023, winners of the Prize included Communio, the National Association of Scholars, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Speech First, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. These awards are sponsored by The Heritage Foundation’s robust endowment for innovative conservative projects. 

For more information on the most recent Innovation Prize awards, read here, or for information on the inaugural awards, read here. For more information about the prize itself, read here.