The Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards.

In 1999 the award for Advancement of Free Software was presented at the Jacob Javits Center European Meeting (FOSDEM).

Since 2006, the awards have been presented at the FSF's annual members meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In announcing the award, the FSF explained that: This award is presented to the project or team responsible for applying free software, or the ideas of the free software movement, in a project that intentionally and significantly benefits society in other aspects of life.

[30]According to Richard Stallman, former President of FSF, the award was inspired by the Sahana project which was developed, and was used, for organising the transfer of aid to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.