2025 GSP Convening Award Nominations
About Grantmakers for Southern Progress
Grantmakers for Southern Progress (GSP) is a network of funders whose mission is to help achieve significant and sustained progress in the economic, social, and political outcomes of those least well-off in the South. We believe this goal is achieved through the critical efforts of movement and grassroots leaders who center racial, gender, and economic equity and social inclusion in their work daily.
About the Awards
GSP will be honoring two outstanding movement leaders driving exceptional work in the areas of equitable, structural change, and/or power building across the Southern United States during our 2025 Convening. Our theme, The Seeds of Sovereignty, honors the history of movement work in the rural South and will be hosted in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 14-16, 2025.
Nominations open on May 1, 2025 and close at midnight on May 30, 2025. Submit your nominations here.
This year, we will uplift two movement leaders who have demonstrated impact across structural change and power building efforts by presenting them with our Structural Change Award and Power Building Award. Please utilize the “When We Say…We Mean” statements below to help identify leaders on the frontline that you have worked with and been inspired by.
Structural Change Award
When we say structural change leader, we mean leaders who are working to transform the unjust structures in our society that collectively hold us back: laws, norms, and biases whose complex effects have built up over time and continue to hinder people today. The work of these leaders has improved the quality of life and increased the power of marginalized communities, such as people of color, immigrants, poor people, LGBTQ people, and directly impacted groups in our society.
Power Building Award
When we say power building leader, we mean leaders who are educating communities and organizing future leaders to highlight the participation, decision-making roles, and visibility of the people most negatively impacted by structural racism. These leaders address decision-makers in multiple systems, and their work helps build new norms, institutions, and systems that center and support marginalized people.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who is eligible to be nominated?
- Nominees must be living and working within at least one of the thirteen Southern states GSP represents. (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia)
- Nominations can be made by funders and GSP partners. Nominations from funders must be of grantees who are in good, working relationship with the nominating foundation.
- What’s the nomination and selection process?
- Nominations for each award are submitted by GSP members, partners, and allies. The recipients are selected by committee. The award recipient and nominator will be notified of the committee’s decisions in late June 2025. For those not chosen, nominators are welcome to resubmit in subsequent years. The decisions of the committee are final and not subject to review. Please submit your nominations by midnight on May 30, 2025.
- What does it mean to be an awardee?
- The awardees will participate in a presentation ceremony during GSP’s 2025 Convening, where they will receive an honorarium and a memento of recognition. The Convening will take place October 14 – 16, 2025 in Little Rock, Arkansas.
- Who can I contact with questions?
- If you have questions about the awards, please contact GSP’s Director of Membership and Strategic Partnerships, Veronica Hemmingway, at vhemmingway@g4sp.org.
To submit your nomination, please fill out our form here.
We look forward to receiving your nominations and learning more about the incredible leaders driving progress across the South!