Roosevelt Institute to Present 2025 Four Freedoms Awards in Celebration of Democracy and Human Dignity
New York, NY — The Roosevelt Institute is pleased to announce the 2025 Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Awards, to be held on Saturday, September 13, in New York City. Inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 address to Congress, in which he named the Four Freedoms as essential human rights—freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear—these awards recognize individuals and organizations who embody and advance these values.
At a time when the foundations of democracy and shared well-being are again under threat, this year’s laureates have demonstrated profound leadership and courage in the fight to secure justice, dignity, and opportunity for all.
2025 Four Freedoms Laureates:
- Freedom Medal: Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation
- Freedom of Speech and Expression: Teen Vogue
- Freedom of Worship: Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Senior Minister, Middle Collegiate Church
- Freedom from Want: World Central Kitchen
- Freedom from Fear: Center for Victims of Torture
“The work of this year’s honorees reflects the very vision we fight for every day: a democracy that centers equity, upholds rights, and uses public power to serve the common good,” said Elizabeth Wilkins, President and CEO of the Roosevelt Institute. “They are out in the world making change—delivering food, reporting on our democracy, and defending the vulnerable—and standing in the breach of where government has failed people. They show us what could be.”
“The Four Freedoms are as urgent today—if not more so— as they were in my grandfather’s time,” said Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin and Eleanor’s granddaughter and board chair of the Roosevelt Institute. “These laureates remind us that we are not alone in the struggle for justice in the face of authoritarianism and war, and that courage, compassion, and creativity can chart a better future.”
The Four Freedoms Awards are presented in alternating years by the Roosevelt Institute in the United States and by the Roosevelt Stichting in the Netherlands, FDR’s ancestral home. Past recipients of the Four Freedoms Awards have included international luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama; organizers and visionaries like Ai-jen Poo, Deepak Bhargava, and Bishop William J. Barber II; and Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
For more information, visit: https://rooseveltinstitute.org/event/2025-four-freedoms-awards/