The Jamaica Observer Business Leader Award project is being restructured this year to provide wider publicity and deeper news coverage of several institutions and individuals who are beneficiaries of the philanthropy of companies that have been nominated for the award, the managers of the annual programme have announced.

The keenly anticipated award presentation and banquet, which was scheduled to take place on February 28, has been pushed back to December. Under the theme ‘Business Leader: Corporate Philanthropy’ 10 of Jamaica’s most generous corporate contributors to good causes are being nominated.

In a letter to the heads of companies that have already been nominated, Moses Jackson, the programme founder and chairman of the Award Selection Committee, said that the new date would provide welcome breathing space for the Observer to bring to light many of the lives that have been transformed through charity, and numerous thriving projects that owe their existence to the nominees.

The new date, Jackson noted in his letter, would “enable more robust news coverage than was originally contemplated of the numerous charities, individuals, and institutions that the nominees support”.

He added: “Throughout 2016, the Jamaica Observer newspaper will publish short features on many of the individuals whose lives have been transformed by your generosity as well as several of the institutions and projects that owe their existence to the cash, labour and time you have committed to their cause.

“So, under the restructured programme, the first wave of publicity as our newspaper begins to promote the virtue, value and impact of corporate charity will be about the beneficiaries. This will be followed by our usual stories on the nominees that stand behind these beneficiaries, as we seek to make the case to the Jamaican public of your company as an exemplar of good corporate citizenship.”

Yesterday, Danville Walker, the managing director of the Jamaica Observer newspaper, echoed the rationale outlined by the committee chairman and thanked the sponsors and other stakeholders for their unwavering support for the programme.

“We deeply appreciate the fact that our sponsors share the premium that we place on entrepreneurism and business success, and have stood with our newspaper as we promote this value to our readers,” said Walker. “We hope that their stories and the stories of the beneficiaries will inspire those companies that are already giving to give more, and those sitting on the fence to join the commendable group of givers.”

The programme sponsors are Scotiabank Jamaica, Digicel Jamaica, The Yellow Pages, and J Wray & Nephew.

The change of date to December this year marks the second time that the award is being rescheduled – having been pushed back from early December last year to February this year – for fear that it would clash with and be overshadowed by the noise of general elections which many Jamaicans had anticipated would have been called in early December 2015. The elections did not materialise.

Jackson explained yesterday that the individuals and charities that would be featured in the Observer under the theme ‘Corporate Philanthropy: The Beneficiaries’ would not be restricted to those who had benefitted from the 10 companies that are being nominated for the award.

“We hope to begin rolling out these short feature stories by February and we will be meritocratic in our approach rather than restricting our selection to the beneficiaries of our 10 nominees,” he said. “I believe this would be an interesting way to prime the interest of readers in the bigger stories of corporate charity that will follow later in the year.”

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Business Leader Award programme and only the third time that institutions rather than individual entrepreneurs are being nominated for the award. The other two occasions were in 2012 when the focus was on corporations that had survived 50 years of Independence; and in 2013 when government agencies that aid private sector growth were considered. GraceKennedy and the Hendrickson family of businesses shared the award in 2012 – the first time in the history of the programme two entities shared the award – while HEART/NTA was named Business Leader in 2013.

In December 2014, the most recent time the programme was held, Stafford and Marilyn Burrowes, the principals of Dolphin Cove, emerged Business Leader from among the group of seven who were nominated for having taken their firms to the Junior Stock Exchange.

For the current programme, two of Jamaica’s prodigious contributors to good causes – GraceKennedy Ltd and Sandals Resorts have been excluded from consideration. In the case of Grace, that company has already won the award (in 2012) and is therefore prohibited from future consideration; and Sandals is owned by Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, who also owns the

Jamaica Observer newspaper.