Nov 19th, 2007 / Written by David Isserman
One of the very best strategies that you can use to build awareness for your charity is to launch an annual award. With very little expense, you can recognize the excellent work of several key people in your non-profit sector, while at the same time gain additional media exposure for your organization.
Everybody loves being recognized. (If you need reassurance of this, just look at the number of blog awards in existence!) The same is true for professionals and volunteers in the nonprofit community. These folks love being recognized and the local media loves covering this type of recognition.
When creating an award, make sure its purpose fits with your non-profit’s mission and goals. For example, if you run an environmental organization, create a “conservation” award. If you run an arts organization, develop an “artist of the year” or “rising artist” award.
Just a word of caution when creating an award…be sincere. Potential recipients and the media can see through fake awards. Don’t let this happen to you. Create a real award that you would be proud to present to a family member.
The most difficult part of launching an annual award is determining how you’re going to select its recipients. For the first several years, I would suggest that you leave that process to your board of directors. If you feel so inclined, create a separate, smaller, nominating committee. After several successful years, you may decide to launch a nomination process that enlists help from the community.
Here are some organizations that currently present annual awards:
- Conservation for the Oceans Foundation, Heroes of Conservation Award
- Explorers Club, The Finn Ronne Memorial Award
- Public Relations Society of America, Silver Anvil Award
10 Simple Steps to Launching Your Charity Award:
- Decide on the purpose of the award
- Choose a name for the award
- Design the award (choose whether it will be a plaque or trophy)
- Choose the initial recipient(s) (aim high when choosing recipients for the first few years)
- Contact the potential recipient(s) and let them know they have been selected
- Determine whether the recipient(s) will accept the award
- Send out a press release to the local media announcing the award and details about the recipient(s)
- Follow-up with the media to answer any questions about the award or its recipients
- Organize a cocktail reception for the award recipient(s) or if you would prefer, take the award recipient(s) to a congratulatory lunch (invite the media to attend as well)
- Post information about the award on your organization’s website with details about current and past recipients
Although this strategy works best for non-profit organizations, for-profit companies may find it useful as well, but much tougher to implement. Companies will need to decide what charitable cause they’d like to support (environment, community, arts, education, etc.) and choose the one that fits best with the type of company. For instance, if the company is a florist, create the “best community gardener” award. If the company is a clothing boutique, create a “most fashionable” award. When creating your award, keep in mind that the recipient will love receiving it, but it will be much tougher to gain media exposure as a for-profit company.
Feel free to contact me or post comments if you have questions or additional thoughts on this topic.
