Special Recognition for World Changing Ideas

The "Special Recognition for World Changing Ideas" award was started in 2019 to honor groundbreaking ideas and programs that are rooted in innovation, inclusion, and collaboration, and changing the world for the better. The business community is dedicated to solving the world's biggest problems and the recipients of this recognition are examples of this commitment.

BET

This year at the 2021 Corporate Citizenship Conference & Awards: Business Solves, we are proud to award BET for its "Content for Change" initiative. The initiative is part of the company's $25 million campaign created in June 2020, designed to support the creation, distribution, marketing and promotion of content that will help drive the critical changes needed to eliminate systemic racism and inequality in America. In partnership with corporate, civil rights, and social justice organizations, BET is leveraging its unique position and platforms to positively impact social justice outcomes for Black Americans, with a special focus on racial equity and mental health.

For decades, we’ve told stories that matter. But we’ve been operating on instinct rather than measuring impact,” said ViacomCBS president and CEO Bob Bakish. “We need a deeper, more quantifiable understanding of how to harness the power of storytelling to challenge stereotypes, shift perceptions and create meaningful change. This starts not just with who is represented but how they are represented. And it requires more than an earnest desire to do better; we must find concrete ways to hold ourselves accountable.

BET's chief social impact and communications officer Jeanine Liburd accepted the award on behalf of the company.

WarnerMedia

The complex issues confronting society today require innovative cross-sector solutions. Our 2019 Corporate Citizenship Conference: Solve Together explored how business, government, and civil society can join forces in the most effective way to create a greater impact through collaboration.

In 2019, the U.S. Chamber Foundation named WarnerMedia as the recipient of the “Special Recognition for World Changing Ideas” for Chasing the Cure, a groundbreaking initiative that uses a weekly 90-minute live television broadcast and a 24/7 digital platform to help people suffering from undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or uncured medical mysteries. The series links patients with medical experts and a community of medical detectives, who work together to help find answers. Veteran journalist Kim Bondy serves as showrunner and executive producer on this project from Lionsgate Television, production companies B-17 Entertainment and Motiv8 Media. Eric Ortner, Jennifer O’Connell and Bongo Pictures’ Michael Bloom also serve as executive producers.

Chasing the Cure’s anchor and executive producer Ann Curry, showrunner and executive producer Kim Bondy, and executive producer Eric Ortner, as well as Jenny Ramirez, vice president of unscripted programming, TBS, TNT and TruTV, accepted the award on behalf of WarnerMedia.

Learn more about the Citizens Awards here.