By Tony Connor, Marketing Operations Manager, Public Interest Registry
We hope you’ve heard the great news: Public Interest Registry has launched The .ORG Impact Awards –a new recognition program highlighting all the good things happening on the .ORG domain. The program provides opportunity for individuals and organizations to share their achievements through three different award categories: Individual Awards, Sector Awards, and Initiative Awards. Visit The .ORG Impact Awards website to learn more about the program, award subcategories, and how to participate before the nomination period closes on July 12.
If you or your organization haven’t participated in many awards or recognition programs, don’t fret. Pulling together a nomination can be quick and easy – if you are prepared and organized. The best tip for preparing a nomination is to recruit a team! Your team can help decide which category and subcategory (or multiple categories/subcategories) your organization is best suited for. As the saying goes, “many hands make for light work,” and divvying up the nomination requirements can make the task less time consuming. I recommend identifying a project leader to develop a plan for completing your entry and oversee the team pulling together needed elements. I also urge you to consider developing your nomination “offline” for easy review and editing, and then copy/paste it into the online entry form prior to submitting.
There are more details about our program nomination process in the official Entry Kit, which can be downloaded here. Each award category has slightly different nomination questions that need to be answered and supporting materials that should be submitted. To help guide the development of your nomination I’ve included some thought starters below.
We hope this information will help you and your team make “light work” of your .ORG Impact Award nomination – or nominations!
Four Steps to Consider When Developing Your .ORG Impact Award Nomination
1. Writing Your Entry
Your entry will win the award for you — don’t underestimate it. Make each response to each entry question succinct and engaging. Make sure your answers address the elements required under each category and sub-category.
Organize the entry responses as though you’re telling a story. This will help give the judges a complete picture of the situation or challenge you’re addressing, how you or your nominee developed a plan to approach the situation, and how success was measured.
When looking at initiatives specifically, it’s important to keep your entry straightforward and to the point. Give the judges an overview of your organization, issue and approach, but don’t get lost in the weeds – focus on the initiative.
The following questions are provided as thought starters to help you approach preparation of strong entry responses, but please remember to address the actual questions in the online form (also above) when submitting your entry.
Situation Analysis
- What was the plan in general terms? Was it in response to an existing problem, or does it examine a potential problem?
- Was research used to examine or define a situation— primary, secondary or both? Primary research involves original research, including focus groups, interviews and surveys. Secondary research involves searching existing resources for information.
Strategic Approach
- If conducted, how did the research shape the planning process?
- What were the specific goals of your plan? Were there measurable objectives of the plan?
- What was your budget? If there was low or no budget available, how did you overcome this challenge?
Programmatic Execution
- How did activities flow?
- What was your timeline?
- What were the key tactics or activities?
- Who were the target audiences?
- Were there any difficulties encountered? If so, how were they handled?
Results
- What happened? What were your results?
- How did you evaluate your results? What methods did you use?
- How did the results compare to the specific goals or measurable objectives outlined in your strategic approach?
- How well do the results reflect original strategy and planning?
2. Pulling Together Your Supporting Materials
It’s important to provide backup materials to the content you included in your summary. It will give the judges a chance to see your work and how that work was translated into action. If you talk about something in your summary, include the documentation for it. Consider “before” and “after” photos, if applicable, to document your progress, change and results. The judges are looking for evidence of your hard work, so be sure to show it off!
3. Review Your Entry
Now that you’ve put in all that work, don’t let it go to waste. Proof and reproof! Remember that judges are representing a variety of industries and sectors – remove any jargon and explain anything they may need to know about your organization or local community. Go through the award category descriptions again – are you meeting all the requirements? Let your entry sit for a day, then look at it again. Anything you can delete? Anything you missed?
4. Submitting Your Entry
It’s now time to submit through the online nomination platform.
Visit The .ORG Impact Awards website to access the nomination platform managed by Awards Force. You’ll need to create a profile with Awards Force and can use your profile to manage and submit as many nominations as you’d like. You can also access the Awards Force platform directly to begin your nomination.
Good Luck!