To boost the standard of living and benefits of freedom worldwide, the Foundation supports research and programs that create and promote the free enterprise system, including enterprise-based solutions to poverty. For self-sustaining growth, the Foundation funds and seeks partners to create goods, products or services that will support themselves in the marketplace, give developers and providers increasing economic benefits, and link to the global economy.
“Liberty depends on a practical understanding of several key ideas, which are always falling into neglect,” says Templeton Prize laureate Michael Novak. To breathe life into these ideas, the Foundation is partnering with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, offering the Templeton Freedom Awards—a four-year pledge of $2 million, begun in the fall of 2003—in ethics, poverty, entrepreneurship and student outreach.
The 21st century opened with unparalleled stories of greed and corporate corruption. Enron, Worldcom, Healthsouth became household words overnight as news of high-level fraud spread. The world was reminded of the role of ethics in free markets: intangible assets like goodwill and trust produce real-dollar value; companies that serve social needs can be profitable; honesty in reporting contributes to good business decisions.
The Templeton Prize for Ethics and Values honors research institutes that study the relationship between free enterprise and enlightened systems of ethics and values.
To mitigate widespread poverty through free enterprise is economically and socially complex. Hernando de Soto has written extensively about barriers to a democratic, free enterprise system in a culture without legal property rights. “The big issue in most emerging markets,” notes de Soto, “is that the majority of people live, work and use land for which they have no legal title, even though their neighbors recognize it as theirs, and governments wouldn’t even dream of tampering with that land. Without such a title, however, there is no way to build a system of securitization that gives them access to credit, water, telephones or electricity.”
To alleviate poverty on a small scale, the work of micro-credit agencies can play a role. Through loans for equipment like a simple sewing machine, these agencies transform workers into entrepreneurs, able to repay loans from a new small business.
The Templeton Freedom Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty will honor nonprofit institutes that research and promote solutions to poverty through free enterprise, sound legal institutions and entrepreneurship.
The Templeton Freedom Prize for Social Entrepreneurship will honor nonprofit research institutes engaged in innovative and successful projects that strengthen society.
The Templeton Freedom Prize for Student Outreach honors nonprofit research institutes engaged in innovative projects to improve students’ understanding of the causes and consequences of individual freedom.
