“I am beyond honored to accept Jeff Bezos’ inaugural Courage & Civility Award. I do so with a sense of gratitude, awe and wonder. In my 30 years as an activist and social entrepreneur, I have neither heard nor dreamed of a charitable prize of this magnitude,” Jones added to The Associated Press about the honor.
Jones also stated that he sees too much “talent and genius wasted” in prison and detention centers and that he’s seen too many promising changemakers fail because they could not simultaneously be expert fundraisers.
“I will use this prize to help reverse that sad irony, as best I can. Breakthroughs of all kinds are just waiting to be discovered — especially at the intersection of advanced technology and community wisdom. When leaders are willing to work together across lines of race and party, they can discover workable solutions to seemingly intractable problems. And when we help grassroots changemakers access (and unleash) the power of technology, finance and media – we can take those innovations powerfully to scale. I have seen that process work, using only modest resources. With major resources, the sky is the limit,” Jones further commented to The AP.
Check out the video below of Bezos bestowing Jones with his philanthropic gift.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSzmpfMNRFg[/embedyt]
