Social CEOsNominations open today for the 2018 Social CEOs awards. Find out what I’ve learned from previous winners in my piece for Civil Society, published this morning.

Who can enter?

This is the sixth year we’ve run the awards. During that time we’ve seen so many amazing winners, from Peter Wanless of NSPCC to Jane Ide of NAVCA and Kate Lee of CLIC Sargent. You’re eligible to be nominated if you’re a leader at a registered charity, of any cause or size, based anywhere in the world. We are very keen to see a diverse range of nominees.

What awards are on offer? 

We offer 4 awards to recognise individuals’ social media presences in the following  categories:

  • Top 30 CEOs on social media (from which the judges will also select an overall winner)
  • Best trustee
  • Best senior leader (director or equivalent i.e. head of)
  • Best rising star (senior manager/manager level)

In addition, we now have 4 awards in our digital category:

  • Digital CEO
  • Digital leader (trustee, director, or head of)
  • Digital trustee
  • Digital champion. This is open to anyone who works with a charity from volunteer level upwards.They must have championed digital both within their charity and across the sector they work in.

What are we looking for from the digital awards?

The 4 digital awards therefore have a wider focus than the others. To win in one of the social categories you need to be, obviously, really good on social media. But the awards have always been about leadership as much as channels. As previous winners have shown, social media is a real test of how you communicate as a leader, how you influence key stakeholders and how willing you are to put yourself on the line to fight for your charity’s cause.

In the digital categories we’re looking for excellence of wider digital leadership. We’d love to have nominations from charity leaders who are blazing a trail in any area of digital. For example: they could have led a digital transformation project, or helped their organisation increase its digital fundraising, or be a trustee who helped champion digital, getting the rest of their board and the charity to use it more effectively. They’ll have had a clear vision for how their charity could progress in digital and led the way to make it happen. We’d like you to provide some concise information on the nomination form to show how they have made a difference. As such, whilst it would be great if nominees in the 4 digital categories are great on social media as well, it’s not imperative in the way that it is for the social categories.

How do I make a nomination?

Nominations can be made here. It is free to enter. Please send us your nominations by midnight on Friday 28 September.

Who’s supporting this year’s awards?

The 2018 Social CEOs awards are in association with JustGiving, our lead sponsor.

Founded in 2001, JustGiving is the world’s most trusted online giving platform, with over 26,000 good causes raising more than £3.5 billion to date. Whether you’re looking for a simple way for people to donate and fundraise online or want to launch a crowdfunding campaign for an online appeal, we’re 100% committed to giving charities like yours more ways to raise more money, so you can change more lives. Discover how your charity can grow on JustGiving at www.justgiving.com/charities

We’re also delighted that Lightful are sponsoring our awards.

Lightful is a technology company for social good, born out of a determination to bring innovation to our sector, which we believe deserves it the most. Technology can help to build more meaningful, impactful and delightful relationships and we have designed a social media and campaign management platform specifically with and for beyond-profits https://www.lightful.com/

TPP Recruitment are also sponsoring the awards again.

TPP Recruitment is a specialist, highly respected and well-established UK-wide consultancy.

Our areas of expertise enable us to provide dedicated support to organisations across the following non-profit and public sector organisations:

Charitable | Educational | Health & Social Care | Professional Membership | Awarding Bodies | Cultural | Housing

Our 50+ strong team of dedicated consultants specialise in the following functional areas:

CEO & Trustee | Education & Training | Finance, IT & Facilities | Fundraising & Development | Health & Social Care | Human Resources | MarComms & Digital | Office & Specialist Support

We’re grateful to JustGiving, Lightful,  and TPP for their support.

Civil Society are our media partner for the awards.

Who’s on the judging panel

Once again Simon Blake, previously CEO of the NUS and soon to be CEO of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England, will be chairing our judging panel. He is joined by:

  • Matt Hodson, Executive Director at NAM (and last year’s overall Social CEOs winner)
  • Steve Ford, CEO of Parkinson’s UK and 2017 winner of the Best Digital CEO award
  • Kirsty Marrins- digital consultant and winner of last year’s Best Trustee on Social Media award
  • Lara Burns- CDO at Age UK and winner of the 2017 Best Digital Leader award
  • Saeed Atcha, CEO of Xplode Mag and a top 30 winner last year

What happens next?

This year’s awards will take place at JustGiving on the evening of Wednesday 7 November. But if you can’t make it, don’t worry. The results will be unveiled officially in the press the morning after.

We look forward to seeing who you think is brilliant on social media and digital. But remember: the deadline is midnight on Friday 28 September , so get nominating!