Dear John,
In case you missed it, three excellent partners walked away as winners from the Smart Bets Virtual Pitch Competition last week. The American Conservation Coalition, Liberty Sparks, and Ideas Beyond Borders are all advancing to the next round in the race to $50,000, where they will compete on stage in November at Liberty Forum in New York City.
Atlas Network is all about our Coach, Compete, Celebrate!™ model because it empowers changemakers to pursue excellence, and when they raise the standard for advancing freedom, we celebrate their achievements at our events, in addition to awarding them with prize money.
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Liberty Sparks, founded in 2016, is already becoming a force to be reckoned with in Tanzania and throughout East Africa. Fresh off their Think Tank Shark Tank win in 2022, and winner of the Africa Liberty Award before that in 2021, Liberty Sparks is now going for the trifecta of being the top Smart Bets winner.
The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) is dedicated to reaching young people who care about the environment, and showing them an alternative to “big government environmentalism.” They’re hoping to reach newer and larger audiences and show them that there are better ways to enact their policy preferences without embracing other bad ideas. Not bad for an organization that’s only been around since 2017.
Ideas Beyond Borders focuses on bringing classically liberal ideas to the Middle East, and has several impressive projects to showcase, but specifically, are working to increase entrepreneurship in the Kurdish part of Iraq. They have previously been recognized for their work to translate liberal writings into different languages. Like with ACC above, they’ve got a great deal to be proud of for only being founded in 2017, and recently won the 2023 Middle East & North Africa Liberty Award.
It’s important to remember that each of these organizations listed above are quite new, when you consider the number of established institutions in our network and the broader freedom movement. Sometimes older organizations outshine new perspectives and ideas, but our Smart Bets stand amongst giants. Their example shows other partners that you don’t have to work for decades with a big budget to make an impact.
The other Smart Bets that didn’t advance deserve honorable mention. Center for Indonesian Policy Studies is a regional powerhouse that won the Templeton Freedom Award in 2020, which we think of as our Super Bowl. Livres was in the running for the same award just last year. The others, such as the Badger Institute, Free the People, Instituto OMG, Ostrom Institute, and Prometheus are a mix of older, more accomplished partners and similar start-ups with equally worthy causes, but only three could advance. Every one of them received $25,000 this year, and will receive $10,000 next year in recognition of their effort.
If you weren't able to vote for your favorite last Wednesday, you have one more chance to decide our winner in New York. At Liberty Forum, the voters will be our supporters in the room with us, rather than just our fans online. I think our supporters are particularly astute, which is why I’m proud to announce that our Liberty Forum attendees will decide the recipient of the top prize. You know a good argument when you hear one, so I hope you’ll be there to cast your vote. Just like with any other sport—it takes more to win in the playoffs than in the regular season.
I hope you’ll join me and 700+ of my closest friends as we celebrate the winner. If you want to decide who the best Smart Bets finalist is for 2024, you can register to join at atlasnetwork.org/events ([link removed]) , and click on “Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner.” In just six weeks, we can celebrate the best together.
All my best,
Kam
P.S. If you missed it or didn’t catch the entire Smart Bets Virtual Pitch Competition, you can catch up here: [link removed] ([link removed])
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