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What we seek to accomplish

1
Fund scientifically sound innovations that promote and measure character development, especially in low-resource settings
2
Encourage the uptake of character development innovations by supporting knowledge exchange and dissemination.
3
Build character development research and implementation capacity in diverse contexts.

About the Global Innovations for Character Development initiative

Templeton World Charity Foundation’s Global Innovations for Character Development seeks to establish character development as a lever for social change, increased prosperity, and overall human flourishing. It envisions a world in which character strengths are recognized for their critical role in improving the lives of individuals and communities.

With grant-funded projects around the globe, GICD is a first-of-its-kind initiative to promote character strengths worldwide. Character strengths are learned and learnable attributes, virtues, skills, habits, or capabilities that enable individuals to lead better lives. Examples include compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, honesty, humility, and kindness. Some Global Innovations for Character Development projects also seek to promote local character strengths, such as the East African concept Utu (shared humanity, humanness).


New Funding Opportunity: Request for Ideas in Character Development and Health. 

This funding opportunity is now closed. Shortlisted applicants will be notified directly.

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The Global Innovations for Character Development initiative expands the frontier of human development by supporting research on the contribution of character strengths to human flourishing.

Making an Impact

Stories from our grantees

Forgiveness can transform your life. Everett Worthington’s pioneering REACH method has helped thousands of people—including himself—reap the mental and physical benefits of forgiveness.

Learn more

Featured Projects

​Utu: Building Character with Innovative Edu-cartoons

Utu is the Swahili concept for humanity and moral goodness. An important component of East African philosophy, Utu asserts virtues like kindness...

PRIMED for Character Education in Colombian Schools: School Leadership Development

This project aims to make character education a fundamental part of education in Colombia by providing school leaders with an evidence-based, cost...

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Interested in learning more? We will send occasional updates about the GICD initiative.