Bennett Award
The Bennett Award for Congregational Action on Human Justice and Social Action, instituted in 1999 by Dr. James R. Bennett to honor a Unitarian Universalist congregation that has done exemplary work in social justice, is accompanied by a $1,000 cash award.
The 2025 Bennett Award Winner
The 2025 Bennett Award has been given to First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee, WI.
The committee reviewed an exceptional field of finalists this year, each demonstrating deep partnership, congregational engagement, and faithful commitment to justice. In weighing the candidates, the committee gave particular consideration to this moment in our nation’s life: a time when authoritarianism is rising and immigrant communities are under direct attack.
Against that standard, First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee stood out. In just eighteen months, a newly formed ministry produced the most dramatic and concrete outcomes of any nominee, a detained neighbor released, city policy protections won, national media witness, while modeling an accompaniment approach rooted in solidarity rather than charity, in direct alignment with the denomination’s priorities on democracy and immigrant justice.
The Bennett Award honors congregations that show us what our faith looks like when it leaves the sanctuary and enters the streets, the courtrooms, and the lives of our neighbors. First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee has done exactly that: declaring through action that every person possesses inherent worth and dignity, that our freedoms are bound together, and that love, organized, trained, and courageous, can bring a neighbor home.
Read more about the work of First Unitarian Society of Milwaukee.
Submit a Nomination for the Bennett Award
Submit a Nomination for the 2026 Bennett Award (deadline is May 1, 2027). Submissions consist of a short description form, and if applicable, a testimonial from a partner organization or community group, and any relevant media about the congregation’s justice ministry, including news articles or photos.
Past Recipients of the Bennett Award
About Dr. James. R. Bennett
Dr. Bennett is professor emeritus of the University of Arkansas, the former director of the Gustavus Meyers Center of Human Rights in North America, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville, AR.