The Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University is accepting applications for the 2026 Drucker Prize for Social Sector Innovation, a healthcare focused competition for eligible Southern California nonprofit organizations. Ten organizations will be selected as finalists. Two finalists will each receive a $25,000 grant from the Drucker Prize Endowment, and all ten finalists will receive a one year grant of Esri ArcGIS technology valued at $31,500 each, along with a Drucker workshop and finalist showcase.
Applicants must be registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that have held that status for at least three years. The submitted program must primarily serve communities in Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, or San Diego County; address health outcomes or a social determinant of health; and be completed, substantially completed, or active with at least one full year of documented outcomes. Applicants must also be willing to create an ArcGIS StoryMap and either have a current ArcGIS subscription or participate in a 90 day trial provided through Esri.
Eligible program areas include community health, behavioral and mental health, food security, housing and homelessness, environmental health, healthy aging, youth and family well being, access to care, community resilience, and other initiatives improving health outcomes or social determinants of health.
The application requires organizational and program information, eligibility certifications, narrative responses within published word limits, a public ArcGIS StoryMap URL and title, evidence based outcome summaries, and an executive leadership letter confirming organizational support. A partner, community, or evaluator letter is optional but strongly encouraged, and outcomes documentation is optional. The application also requires authorized certification and signature. Applications are submitted through the Drucker Institute online form.
Applications opened September 3, 2026. The Drucker Institute currently displays 6:00 p.m. on Monday, September 28, 2026 as the existing deadline, but its authoritative Prize and application pages now state that the deadline will be extended to October and that the updated date will be announced shortly. No deadline time zone is currently published. Atlas therefore treats the controlling deadline as unresolved and does not infer a time zone. No mandatory match or cost share is identified on the controlling Prize or application pages.
The application is evaluated on mission aligned innovation and replicability, GIS integration and spatial reasoning, demonstrated outcomes and evidence quality, population reach and equity, and organizational capacity and sustainability. Final award decisions are subject to Claremont Graduate University leadership approval.