What You Need to Know About the 2025 Awards of Excellence Program

April 11, 2025

We are working on the finishing touches of our new awards entry portal and will open it in the next couple of weeks. Below are details on the updated award categories and entry period so you can get to work on gathering your submissions.

What can you enter? Work produced by counties and state county associations within the last year (January 1, 2024 – December 31, 2024).

Updated Categories to Better Reflect Your Amazing Work!

As stated, we have updated the award categories to better reflect the work of modern county communicators and PIOs. This year’s categories include:

Printed Publications

• Short one-page/tri-fold
• Multi Page education booklet
• Annual report
• Newsletter
  

Electronic Communications

•  Website
• Email newsletter

Writing

• Short article (less than 250 words)
• Featured article/editorial (500-700 words)
  

Social Media

• Social media campaign (use of multiple social media platforms)
  

Graphic Design

• Logo
• Special Graphics (t-shirts, posters, banners, ads)
• Banners/buttons
  

Audiovisual

• Short video (under 60 sec)
• Medium-length video (1-5 min)
•  Long video (more than 5 min)
• Video series
• Podcast series
• Podcast episode
• Photo /photo series
  

Campaigns (All-encompassing using multiple communication tools such as social media, print, electronic, graphics, websites, etc.)

• Public Safety
• Utilities
• PR Campaigns
• Community engagement
• Crisis (Response)
• Quality of Life (e.g., parks, libraries, environment, etc.)
• Budget 

When will the winners be recognized?
Winners will be recognized at the annual NACIO meeting in conjunction with the NACo conference in July in Philadelphia. Further information is forthcoming.