Free enterprise has lifted billions of people worldwide out of poverty. Giving people the personal freedom to be entrepreneurial in all walks of life generates lasting social change that improves everyone’s quality of life. The Pathways Prize supports ideas and organizations that expand the power of free enterprise to bring about community progress and individual flourishing. 

Winners will be recognized in SPN communications and have the opportunity to present their work at various SPN meetings. Any applicant who offers a promising project may be connected to our nationwide Network to expand their work to communities across the country. 

The competition has two rounds: 

• First round: The short application soliciting basic information will close March 15, 2026. 

• Second round: Select applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed application. Invitations will be sent around March 31. Applicants who complete the second round will be notified of their status in May. 

State Policy Network invites community leaders, non-profits, state-based think tanks, and national organizations to identify the most promising approaches to the challenges our communities face. We work with our members to refine and improve these approaches, then to adapt and apply the best ideas. This advances our Network’s efforts to improve communities throughout the United States through better public policy.  

The purpose of the Pathways Prize is to identify, reward, and connect the most creative and promising entrepreneurs across the United States who are working to address poverty in their communities with market-based solutions. We will connect these entrepreneurs to one another, to opportunities, and to our Network. The Pathways Prize supports and accelerates entrepreneurs in their work, and learning about innovative market-based approaches to poverty across the country strengthens our Network and the communities where our members operate. 

Our vision is rooted in the following guiding principles: 

• Local Solutions from Local Leaders: We believe local problems are best solved by local leaders who know and understand the challenges their communities face. Poverty and its impact are best understood by those living in the communities that are affected. 

• Market-Based Solutions: We believe free enterprise is the most moral and proven system for giving as many people as possible opportunities to build businesses and livelihoods that serve their communities, create good jobs, and establish economic security for themselves and their families. Free enterprise has lifted billions of people worldwide out of poverty. Giving people the personal freedom to be entrepreneurial in all walks of life generates lasting social change that improves everyone’s quality of life. 

• Impact, Measurement and Evaluation: We believe that progress must be measurable, and we believe those working on the ground in local communities are best positioned to identify the relevant metrics to measure poverty, the causes of poverty, and the consequences of poverty.  Priority consideration is given to applications that show their thinking on the “how” of impact (clear outcome goals, clear step-change or strategies to achieve the intended impact, approach to experiments, evaluation, and learning, transparency about obstacles and risks, and thinking about ecosystems and partners.)

• The Role of Government: We affirm that government at all levels plays a role in addressing poverty and its effects, particularly through safety-net programs. Long-term and primary dependency on government assistance, however, obstructs the kind of individual and community flourishing that SPN envisions. The Pathways to Prosperity Prize rewards projects that reduce dependency and build and support individual and community empowerment.