The SPN Communications Excellence Awards recognize and encourage outstanding achievements in marketing, communications, and media across the state think tank Network. Winners will receive a grant to pursue future projects, as well as a trophy to honor their effort and results.
Grant prizes and trophies will be presented at a special reception at SPN Annual Meeting in Phoenix. SPN will highlight all nominees to share their success stories and best practices across the Network, including those not selected as finalists.
2024 Voting Information
Nomination Window: SPN Affiliates are invited to nominate their achievements in one or more categories during our nomination window. Nominations for the 2024 awards will open on Monday, June 3, and will close on Friday, June 21.
Award Categories
Bold Brand Boost Award
A powerful brand means your organization has a seat at the policy-making table. Citizens look to your organization for information and guidance on important policy issues. Lawmakers and media see you a trusted resource for quality research and information. This award recognizes the influence of a powerful brand boost.
Powerful Storytelling Award
Storytelling is the most fundamental element of communication. In marketing, storytelling can inform and persuade. An organization that tells powerful stories will boost its brand, spread the message of policy impact, and change public sentiment. This award recognizes the storytelling that truly impacted an organization’s brand image and policy impact.
Expanding Your Audience Award
No matter how just your cause, or how impeccable your research, none of what you say matters if it’s to an empty room. Only slightly more useful is talking to an echo chamber of the same audience again and again. After pouring through the nominations from our exceptional Network, it was clear a new category of award was needed for the folks who expanded the reach of their message to achieve new heights and build new coalitions. This award recognizes the organizations whose efforts led to expanded audiences and increased capacity and infrastructure for educating and mobilizing their states.
2023 Communications Excellence Award Recipients
Bold Brand Boost: Institute for Reforming Government (Wisconsin)
The Institute for Reforming Government (IRG) won the Bold Brand Boost Category for its new oversight project, the Center for Investigative Oversight (CIO).
Powerful Storytelling: Yankee Institute (Connecticut)
The Yankee Institute received the Powerful Storytelling Award for their credible and powerful reporting that highlighted the failures of Connecticut’s mental health system.
Expanding Your Audience: Opportunity Arkansas
Opportunity Arkansas won the Expanding Your Audience Award for their (non)Debatable Newsletter—an email that provides lawmakers with policy news, information, resources, and polling that will help Arkansas live up to its name as the land of opportunity.
2022 Award Recipients
Bold Brand Boost Award: Pacific Research Institute exposes the impact of failed California policies while advancing alternative solutions and increased choice for families
Powerful Storytelling Award: Goldwater Institute shares teacher’s plight with curriculum to advance academic transparency nationwide
Expanding Your Audience Award: Commonwealth Foundation brings new communities into the education choice movement
2021 Award Recipients
Bold Brand Boost Award: Center of the American Experiment Builds Their Brand Through “Think About It” Radio Campaign
Powerful Storytelling Award: How the Cardinal Institute Built Coalitions to Pass the Most Expansive School Choice Program in the Country
Expanding Your Audience Award: Commonwealth Foundation Reaches Across the Aisle to Curb Pennsylvania Governor’s Executive Overreach
2020 Award Recipients
Influential Marketing Campaign Award: Mackinac Center cartoon series calls out Michigan’s arbitrary lockdown rules
Driving the Media Narrative Award: Washington Policy Center exposes governor’s unscientific and misleading coronavirus dials
Bold Brand Boost Award: Commonwealth Foundation helps high school student become nationally recognized school choice advocate
Creative Shoestring Budget Award: Pelican Institute’s Faces of the Shutdown
Powerful Storytelling Award: Commonwealth Foundation fights homelessness during the coronavirus
Past Finalists
2022: Announcing the 2022 SPN Communications Excellence Awards Finalists?
2021: Announcing the 2021 SPN Communications Excellence Awards Finalists
2020: Announcing the 2020 SPN Communications Excellence Awards Finalists
Frequently Asked Questions
What projects are elligible for the 2023 Communications Excellence Awards?
Projects and initiatives that took place from June 2022 through June 2023 will be eligible for the 2023 Communications Excellence Awards.
Can I nominate my organization for more than one award?
Yes! You can nominate your organization for as many of the awards as you want.
Can I nominate my organization for the same award multiple times, for different projects?
Yes! As long as they’re distinguished as different projects in the nomination, you can nominate your organization for the same award as many times as you’d like.
Can I nominate non-state think tanks?
Nominees need to be state think tanks affiliated with SPN. But, projects that involved an affiliated state think tank and other organizations can also be considered for the awards.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email Meredith Turney.