2012
Jeff Skoll
Skoll Foundation

2011
Bill Drayton
Ashoka

2010
General Colin and Alma Powell
America's Promise Alliance

2008
Robert Greenstein
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

2007
Susan V. Berresford
President, Ford Foundation

2006
Johnnetta B. Cole
President, Bennett College for Women

2005
Ronald Grzywinski
Chairman and CEO, Shorebank Corporation

2004
Raul Yzaguirre
President and CEO, National Council of La Raza

2003
Robert L. Payton
Center on Philanthropy, Indiana University

2002
Harris Wofford
Chair, America's Promise

2001
Rebecca L. Adamson
Founder and President, First Nations Development Institute

2000
Dorothy Stoneman
Founder and President, YouthBuild U.S.A.

1999
Lois Gibbs
Love Canal Activist and Founder, Center for Health, Environment and Justice

1998
Pablo Eisenberg
Former Executive Director, Center for Community Change

1997
Millard Fuller
Founder and President, Habitat for Humanity International

1996
Arthur Mitchell
Founder, Dance Theatre of Harlem

1995
Justin Dart, Jr.
A champion in the fight for civil rights for all people, with and without disabilities

1994
Sarah and James Brady
National organizers and advocates for handgun control

1994 Special Award
Brian O'Connell
Founding President and President Emeritus, Independent Sector

1993
Mathilde Krim, Ph.D.
Co-founder and Chair, American Foundation for AIDS Research

1992
Joy and Herbert Kaiser
Founders, Medical Education for South African Blacks (MESAB)

1991
Antonia Pantoja, Ph.D.
Founder, ASPIRA, National Puerto Rican Forum, Boricua College, Puerto Rican Research Center

David E. Rogers, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical School, Founding Chair, National AIDS Fund

1990
Edward P. Bullard, IV
Founder and President, TechnoServe, Inc.

1989
Andrew Heiskill
Former CEO, TIME Inc., and Founder, National Urban Coalition

1988
Wilma Mankiller
Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma

1987
James W. Rouse
Founding Chairman, Enterprise Foundation

Faye Wattleton
Former President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America

1986
Charles D. Bannerman
Former Director, Mississippi Action for Community Education

1985
Marian Wright Edelman
President, Children's Defense Fund

Father Theodore Martin Hesburgh
Former President, Notre Dame University

Mitchell Sviridoff
Former President, Local Initiatives Support Corporation