Legacy of the Vogt Awards
“Once you know that there’s support out there in the community for you, it makes you feel stronger about taking the second step and the third and the fourth.”
2010 VOGT AWARD WINNER: LYNN COOPER | PRESIDENT & CEO | BFW INC.
Henry Vogt Heuser Sr. | Former President | Henry Vogt Machine Co.
Established by Henry Vogt Heuser, Sr., the Vogt Fund and Awards were created to strengthen Louisville’s economic health by supporting innovative businesses and inspiring entrepreneurship.
Mr. Heuser was a high-tech tinkerer, corporate leader, and philanthropist. Before his death in 1999, he made a $5 million endowed gift to create and perpetually finance The Vogt Invention and Innovation Fund. Its purpose is to memorialize the Vogt engineering tradition in the Louisville region by providing engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs with grants to fund product development and commercialization of ideas.
He named the award for his grandfather, Henry Vogt. His grandfather was a German immigrant, a 26 year old with a love of technology and an interest in making things and making a successful business of them. This is the essence of the Vogt Awards.
Tradition of Entrepreneurship
“If he (Henry Vogt Heuser Sr.) were with us today to see the history of the Vogt Invention and Innovation Awards, I don't think he could believe how massively it has affected so many people and in such positive ways to celebrate inventions and business creation.”
Henry Heuser Jr. | Founder & CEO | Unistar
Philanthropist
Support the Vogt Invention and Innovation Fund
As a community leader in philanthropy, the Community Foundation of Louisville brings together individual donors, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and civic partners to transform our community through charitable giving. Founded in 1984, the Community Foundation is one of the largest charitable foundations in Kentucky with nearly $800 million in assets and more than 2,200 charitable funds. Each fund has its own charitable purpose as defined by its donors. In 2022, distributions from these funds made over 12,000 grants totaling over $79 million, approximately 74% of which stayed in Kentucky and Southern Indiana to support area nonprofits.
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