Submit Your Entry and Share Your Story
National and local charities, large and small, are encouraged to share their stories with the Charity Governance Awards; entry is FREE and applications are easy to submit online.
The deadline for submission has been extended to 12 February 2025 (noon).
The shortlist will be announced in April 2025, and selected charities will be invited to a complimentary and exclusive awards ceremony in June 2025, where the winners are announced. The winner of each category will receive a £6,000 unrestricted grant as a prize. Runners-up will receive cash prizes as well (£1,500 each), and each shortlisted charity will be offered a paid one-year membership to the Association of Chairs for its chair or vice chair as well as a complimentary place on a Cause4 Trustee Leadership Programme for a new or inexperienced trustee.
Before beginning your entry, please download and read our Entry Guidance document to help you decide which category to enter, and to plan your application. We also recommend reviewing our ‘Advice and Resources‘ page, where you can find specific tips from our professional judges on what they are looking for when reviewing entries.
General Criteria for Entry
Charities must:
- be registered in the UK by the Charity Commission (or the equivalent in each devolved nation)
- have been established before 31 December 2021
- enter no more than two categories*
- only submit one entry per category (you may not have entries submitted by multiple stakeholders in the same category).
Entries must:
- cover activities undertaken in the last five years (2019-2024)
- focus on the work of the main board, not sub-committees
- be submitted by a trustee, employee or volunteer of the charity
- be signed off by the charity’s CEO or chair of the board
Deadline: 12 February 2025
*Note to previous award winners: Previous award winners are welcome to enter the awards again, but cannot re-enter the same category before a year has passed (ie, if you won the ‘People in Governance’ category in 2024, you may not submit an entry to the ‘People in Governance’ category this year, but you may submit an entry to a different category for the 2025 awards).
Entry Guidance Document
Please download and read our Entry Guidance document before you begin your online application.
The document details all the criteria and information you will need to complete your entry. It also lists all the questions asked for each award category; these will appear again as part of the online entry process.
It is recommended that you create and save your answers elsewhere before inputting them into the online entry form. This will allow you to retain a copy of your entry, as you will not be able to download one during the submission process. However, you will be able to return to your entry to edit it as many times as you like before the deadline (even if you have already ‘submitted’).