Celebrating Freedom: Rising Tide Foundation at the Atlas Network Liberty Forum 2025
December 11, 2025
In November, the Freedom in Practice team from the Rising Tide Foundation travelled to New York City to join the global liberty movement at the Atlas Network’s Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner 2025. The event serves as a vital hub for exchanging ideas, where freedom champions from across the world gather to share strategies, celebrate resilience, and lay the groundwork for a freer future.
A standout moment for our team was the opportunity to bring our own community together. We hosted a dedicated reception for our partners, welcoming over 30 Rising Tide Foundation grantees. At the reception, our new partners introduced themselves, and the gathering created a space for these change-makers to connect, share insights, and strengthen the bonds of our global network.
The event was also a celebration of excellence and innovation among our partners. We were thrilled to witness Nataliya Melnyk, Executive Director of the Bendukidze Free Market Center (BFMC) and a former grantee, win the 2026 Smart Bets Pitch Competition. Her winning pitch focused on a scalable solution for Ukraine’s future: digitizing economic literacy curricula to meet the overwhelming demand from teachers and students in a nation rebuilding amidst conflict.
We also extend our congratulations to the Human Rights Foundation, a long-standing Rising Tide grantee, for being named a finalist for the prestigious Templeton Freedom Award. Their recognition as a runner-up highlights their relentless work in exposing tyranny and promoting individual rights worldwide.
The forum provided a platform for profound intellectual exchange, highlighted by a talk from our own Board Member, Elena Leontjeva. As co-founder and president of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute, Elena delivered a compelling presentation titled “Humanizing the gift of exchange.” Her insights reminded attendees that preserving liberty requires embracing the human reality of exchange rather than seeking to replace it with the impersonal mechanisms of the state.
From celebrating innovative educational tools in Ukraine to exploring the philosophical roots of the market, the Liberty Forum demonstrated the resilience and power of human agency. We are proud to stand with our partners in advancing these vital ideas.