I love the way they put it on their award information site:

Good deeds do get rewarded! If you know someone who’s been toiling in the open source vineyards, developing software that’s helping nonprofits succeed, check out the Tides Foundation Pizzigati Prize, a $10,000 annual award for outstanding contributions to software in the public interest.

The competition, judged by a panel of national leaders in public interest computing, is now entering its third year. The application deadline for this year’s prize: March 2nd, 2009.

You can find out more and apply or nominate someone online here.

The award winner will be announced at April 28th at the 2009 NTC. (By the way, the early bird deadline for the conference is this Saturday!)

More background:

The distinguished judging panel for the prize is "looking for people whose software is helping nonprofits better serve their communities," notes Joseph Mouzon, a judge since the prize's inception in 2006. "Best of breed technology can often be cost-prohibitive for nonprofits, especially in today's economic climate," adds Mouzon, the executive director of nonprofit services at Network for Good. "The Pizzigati Prize aims to help inspire open source developers who want to make a difference in the world to create technology solutions tailored to the needs of nonprofits."

Tides Foundation has hosted the Pizzigati Prize selection process since the prize competition first began. Tides welcome applications from -- and nominations of -- individuals who have developed a software product that is open source, as defined by the Open Source Initiative, and easily and widely available. This software must have already demonstrated its value to at least one nonprofit and be of potential value to multiple nonprofit organizations.