Deadline: April 21, 2023

Nonprofit Communications Awards

To advocate, build awareness or raise funds for important nonprofit causes, initiatives or organizations, communicators must deliver creative, engaging and compelling campaigns, projects and partnerships.

PR Daily’s Nonprofit Communications Awards will honor the communications efforts that told powerful stories, engaged and informed stakeholders, helped reach new audiences and led to success for nonprofit organizations, initiatives, causes or clients.

We accept submissions from academic institutions, charitable organizations, government agencies, hospitals and medical organizations, philanthropic foundations, professional associations, and the agencies that represent them.

Finalists will be recognized at an awards luncheon in September in New York City. Winners will be announced at this special industry event.

Enter PR Daily’s Nonprofit Communications Awards by the April 21 entry deadline to earn recognition for your influential nonprofit communications efforts.

CATEGORIES

GRAND PRIZE

 Nonprofit Communications Campaign of the Year

A limited budget, lack of awareness and a small staff don’t get in the way of achieving your goals. Those challenges are simply motivation to create innovative new campaigns to promote your cause and organization. We want to see comprehensive PR campaigns that drove traffic to your website, inspired people to engage with you on social media, drove major fundraising initiatives or turned your supporters into your biggest advocates.

 Nonprofit Communications Professional of the Year

Your passion and dedication to communicating on behalf of an organization that you felt strongly about was unmatched. We want to hear how you were instrumental in building awareness for your cause and organization. What challenges did you face? How did you overcome them? What were the results? Share all the details that make you the best nonprofit communications professional around.

 Nonprofit Communications Team of the Year

Small but mighty is no cliché when it comes to your team. You hustle hard, overcome obstacles and champion your cause with unrelenting determination. This is your time to get recognized for the incredible work you do and the lives you’ve changed. Share an overview of your major challenges and even bigger wins over the past year.

 Corporate/Nonprofit Partnership of the Year

Your partnership was the best of the best. How did you combine forces with your for-profit partner? We’re especially interested in seeing how both organizations benefitted from the partnership. Tell us about your partnership and how you worked together to achieve amazing results.

CAMPAIGNS AND COMMUNICATION

 Advocacy or Awareness Campaign

How did you raise awareness for your organization’s or client’s cause, or a cause your organization or client advocates for? Share the channels that led to success. Tell us about the obstacles, goals, strategy and results of your campaign.

 Branding or Rebranding Campaign

Did your brand need an update? Did you modernize your creative assets, redefine your organization’s mission or build a new brand from the ground up? Share how your branding campaign elevated your public profile and captured attention from your audience. Tell us about the changes that defined your rebranding effort.

 Community-Nonprofit Partnership

Whether your nonprofit works to solve problems locally or abroad, your community can be a driving force for positive change. How did you collaborate with your community to champion an important cause or initiative? Did you host a 5K, a charity ball or a golf outing to inspire a mass audience to give back to your organization and community? We want to hear the inside story of how you partnered with a local government, civic group or school this past year. What was the goal? How did you achieve it?

 Corporate-Nonprofit Partnership

Corporate resources, especially volunteer manpower, are just what a nonprofit needs to achieve regional or national prominence. How did you combine forces with your for-profit partner? We’re especially interested in seeing how both organizations benefitted from the partnership. Tell us about your partnership and how you worked together to achieve amazing results.

 Crisis Communications

How did you communicate the work of your nonprofit during a crisis this past year (that wasn’t COVID-19)? What was the crisis, and how did you address this and help overcome it? We want to hear it all.

 CSR/ESG Initiatives

We want to hear about the work that is making the world a healthier and more sustainable place. Tell us about your CSR or ESG initiatives and programs.

 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Communications

Your nonprofit or client promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. What was the communications plan for delivering upon this commitment? What were the goals? How did you use your communications platform to combat discrimination against the marginalized group(s) you were supporting?

 Email Marketing Campaign

Share the email strategy that resulted in great success for your organization. Why was email the right strategy for sharing news, promoting events, seeking donations or finding volunteers? Did you segment audiences based on their past donations or event attendance? What messaging did you employ to meet your goal? Share powerfully crafted subject lines, open rates and other metrics for success.

 Employee Communications

Tell us about your internal comms campaigns and initiatives at your nonprofit that engage your workforce, promote collaboration and innovation, foster an amazing work culture and more.

 Event PR and Marketing

Your event—live or virtual—was created to raise awareness about a cause, raise funds, honor those affected by an issue or recognize your donor base. How did you drum up excitement about this event? Tell us what PR and marketing tactics you used to encourage RSVPs and make invitations a hot commodity. What was the attendance, fundraising or engagement goal for your event? How did you measure its success?

 Executive Visibility Campaign

Your executives are the chief champions of your organization’s mission. Tell us about the PR campaigns you developed to share the story of their connection to your nonprofit and goals for the future. We want to see the media relations efforts, speaking engagements, partnerships and other executive visibility efforts that were a success for your organization this year. How did this affect organizational goals like securing donations, building brand awareness or recruiting volunteers?

 Fundraising Campaign

Your nonprofit depends on funds to make a difference. How did you find creative solutions to your lack of funding? How did you appeal to the generosity of your audience? Tell us about your fundraising campaign and its goals. We want to see how you met or exceeded your objectives.

 Global Communications Campaign

You took your nonprofit comms to a global scale. How did you tell compelling stories that would engage audiences from around the world? What was the goal—and how did you achieve success?

 Influencer and Donor Relations Strategy

Did working with influencers have a positive effect on your organization’s goals? How did you partner with someone who was passionate about your mission to get the word out? Tell us about sponsored posts, social media takeovers, volunteer initiatives or events that heavily featured influencers. Why did you team up with them and how did it help?

 Innovation in Nonprofit Communications

Creativity is key to successful campaigns and initiatives. We’re looking for comms work that pushed the envelope and challenged the status quo.

 Marketing Campaign

You took advantage of a variety of marketing tools to promote your nonprofit. Did you use print, digital, broadcast or outdoor advertising campaigns, email promotions, online and social media marketing or other tactics? Tell us about your marketing campaign’s success.

 Media Relations Campaign

You harnessed the power of the media to share information about your cause or nonprofit. Did you think locally and work with reporters in your area to gain local newspaper and television coverage? Did your story make national news? Did you put together a press event or gain social coverage from local influencers? Tell us how you created a shareable brand story. Don’t forget to include links to or PDFs of the media coverage.

 Member Communications

Tell us about your communications efforts that excelled in engaging and informing your membership.

 Pandemic/Endemic Communications

The work of nonprofit organizations has been crucial during the pandemic. We want to hear how you told your powerful stories or delivered essential information. Share all the details.

 PR Campaign

 PR or Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

A little budget went a long way for your PR or marketing efforts on behalf of your nonprofit. Tell us how your single campaign or ongoing PR or marketing efforts were successful when funds were limited.

 Public Affairs Campaign

 Social Media Campaign

Social media is a great way to get in touch with your audience. What was the goal of your campaign? Which platforms were most successful for you? Did you take a multichannel approach? Share the social content you created and the metrics that prove its success.

 Visual Storytelling

Did you upgrade your visual communications efforts? Share how video, original photography or updated design played into your overall marketing strategy. How did you use these creative assets to tell a story across multiple platforms, and what was the impact on your audience? Show us the creative work that was produced, and be sure to include results and responses.

 Volunteer Communications

COMMUNICATIONS ASSETS

 Annual Report

Annual reports are useful tools for nonprofits. We want to see how you collected data and stories to share the success of your organization over the past year. How did you design your report to create an easy yet captivating reading experience? What insights did you think would be most valuable to your audience? Print and digital versions are equally welcome.

 Article

Your articles aren’t only great storytelling pieces, they’re an essential marketing tool. Tell us about the feature you published about your organization’s founder or the interview series you created about people whose lives were changed by your nonprofit’s work. How did your article showcase your organization’s strengths and mission? We want to see stories written for your publication, along with op-ed pieces, online articles and other examples of great storytelling. We’d love to see the comments you got from readers as well.

 Blog

Keeping your blog content up to date is a huge undertaking. How have you created a steady stream of content that’s original, informative and entertaining for your audience? We want to see blogs that give an inside look at the day-to-day operations of your nonprofit, share the stories of people you serve or provide insights into the problems you’d love to abolish. Please include a link to the blog and a minimum of three posts. As always, include measurable results of its success.

 CSR or ESG Report

 Digital Publication

Do your e-newsletter subject lines put The Skimm to shame? Did you create on online magazine to share information with internal or external audiences? Tell us how the design and content of your publication inspires readers to share it. We want to see lively writing that provides practical benefits to readers. Tell us all about your print, electronic, weekly, monthly or quarterly publication. Show us what makes it a hit. Share your reader feedback with us.

 Email Newsletter(s)

 Podcast

Your podcast was a unique and effective way to communicate with your audience or stakeholders. Tell us what made it successful.

 Print Publication

What materials do you publish that inform your members, stakeholders, community members or the broader public? Tell us about your magazine, pamphlet, mailer or other creative asset. Share your publication with us, along with the feedback you received, and tell us what made it successful.

 Video

Mastering the skill of creating powerful videos can generate significant results for your organization. We want to see how you used this popular communication medium to reach your audience. Was your video an emotional TV advertisement, a sharable clip for YouTube, a prepared media reel or a testimonial? Did you go viral? Send us your video. Tell us all about it and how it succeeded.

 Website

Your website isn’t just a hub for information and donations, it’s a beautifully designed digital experience for all who visit. We’re seeking industry leaders whose impressively designed, navigable and functional websites tell the story of their mission clearly and creatively. The content and organization of your sites are important as well. We want to see it all. Microsites, custom and mobile websites are also eligible.

HOW TO ENTER

On the online entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. Tell us in 350-900 words why your work is deserving of recognition. When applicable, include the following sub-headings:

  • Goals
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Execution
  • Evaluation: success, results or ROI

You will be able to upload additional documents to your submission and/or anything else you feel will give the judges a better sense of your work. Proprietary or internal information can also be attached and will not be shared with the public.

ENTER

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

These awards are open to in-house, agency and independent communication practitioners in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. We accept submissions from academic institutions, charitable organizations, government agencies, hospitals and medical organizations, philanthropic foundations, professional associations, and the agencies that represent them. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your client.

Agencies and organizations from around the world are welcome to enter as long as the entry is submitted in English.

Contact Brendan Gannon to find the perfect category for your campaign or project. You can call 312-960-4407 or email brendang@ragan.com.

This year’s program is open to any work executed between April 1, 2022, and April 21, 2023, inclusive.

ENTRY FEES

The fee for this program is $425 per entry.

A late fee of $199 per entry will be added to all entries after 11:59 p.m. Central time, April 21, 2023.

Do you have a campaign, initiative or project you'd like to enter into multiple categories? Pay the original entry fee, and then only $199 for each additional category!

All entries are non-returnable and non-refundable.

W-9 Form / Tax ID Number Request

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you apply?
This awards program allows you to prove the value or your contributions to your nonprofit or clients. Winners will earn publicity across our websites and social media audiences, a custom write-up about their work and a trophy. We will also recognize winners at a live event in September in New York City.
Who can enter?
Global organizations are welcomed—this awards program recognizes organizations and teams, worldwide, as long as the entry is submitted in English. These awards are open to in-house, agency and independent communication practitioners in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. We accept submissions from academic institutions, charitable organizations, government agencies, philanthropic foundations, professional associations, and the agencies that represent them. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your client.
What does it take to be a winner?
We are looking for top-quality campaigns, content and projects that show clear, bold and creative ideas that benefit their nonprofit or client. Please provide metrics and results that back up your claims, and share creative collateral such as photos, videos, URLs, documents or testimonials of your work. Please look at our past award winners to see what gets recognized and rewarded. We encourage you to submit the same campaign to multiple categories, if you feel they are relevant. Doing so increases your chances of winning.
Why are some deadlines extended?
We extend deadlines based on applicant needs and upcoming promotional opportunities.
When will I find out results?
Winners will be announced at a live event in September in New York City.

Additional Questions

If you have any questions about the program or problems submitting your entry, please call Brendan Gannon at 312-960-4407 or email brendang@ragan.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring one of Ragan Communications’ award programs, please contact Hannah Lavelle at 312-960-4628 or email hannahl@ragan.com.