Category Description
This takes its inspiration from our Ukraine Crisis Champions award from 2023 but widens the scope to cover responses to any potential emerging large-scale humanitarian crisis such as war/conflict, natural disasters, extreme weather events.
This could include providing direct aid and material support to those affected; offering refuge; boosting the resilience of local communities; and enabling other actors to do so.
It does not extend to the provision of military or para-military assistance.
Above all, we are looking for stories which illustrate the best in humanity’s response to the crisis; ones which can inspire others and set an example of how people can come together in the face of adversity for basic human rights and the common good.
Depending on the scope and quality of the entries, judges may make two separate gold awards: one for organisations working within the humanitarian sector, as broadly defined; and one for organisations outside it – whether in business or the wider community.
We request a total word count of 1500 words +/-10% (excl. supporting docs). Any confidential data will be treated as such and only shared with the judging panel.
Criteria
Judges will be looking for evidence of the following points within the supplied application form and reserve the right to award multiple awards for different styles of initiative (weighting percentages in brackets):
- Scale of impact: how many people benefited (or can confidently be predicted to benefit) from the intervention (40%)
- Extent and term of impact: how significant and substantial was the support it enabled, and how long will it last (35%)
- Timeliness: how quickly was the initiative put in place once the scale of the crisis became clear (10%)
- Future potential beyond the immediate crisis: to what extent has this laid the ground for other potential humanitarian interventions (15%)
PLEASE NOTE: The criteria above are different to the questions in the application form. You will need to follow the application questions; cross-referencing these with the criteria to ensure you’ve captured them within your application. The criteria are followed by the judges in order to compare all entries in each category like-for-like, Please ensure you register / login to AwardStage (Opens 1st Feb), select the category and export a PDF copy of the questions. Some category application questions differ. The application questions will be available four weeks before entries open, so if you wish to get them ahead of time please email us.
Are we eligible to enter?
Our awards programme is open to all organisations of any kind… companies large and small, charities, not-for-profits, social enterprises, NGOs, membership and accreditation organisations and government departments including local and county councils. We are all about rewarding sustainability practice – in all its forms. So if your organisation is making a difference, directly or indirectly to people and planet, you’re eligible.
We don’t just recognise businesses that are operating responsibly, or supporting / partnering with worthwhile causes. We also actively encourage entries from organisations that have been specifically set up or adapted to offer a product or service that tackles a social or environmental problem.
Our category descriptions and criteria have been written to guide entrants on what content should be detailed in their entries. However, we do not expect square pegs to fit in round holes… Some of your business activities or dedicated programmes might not fit entirely with any one specific category. In these cases, the descriptions and criteria are open to an element of interpretation and rest assured that our judges will still take into account entries that are strongly aligned with the overall context of the category.
If you have any concerns about the suitability of your entry, or would like to discuss your activities in more detail, we are here to help. Give Karen a call on 07813 718541 or email us.