After a temporary setback caused by the COVID-9 pandemic in 2020, Third Sector Awards is back this year to honour Australia’s finest not-for-profit organisations and social enterprises.

This year, Third Sector has 10 award categories, namely: CEO of the year, Emerging Leader of the year, Board director of the year, Volunteer of the year, Social entrepreneur of the year, Campaign/marketing executive of the year, Young leader of the year, Influencer of the Year – judge’s choice, Small Charity of the year, and Emerging NFP of the year.

All categories will be judged according to a set of values set by the Center for Social Impact, which Third Sector believes are central to creating social change. The said values include Social impact, Outcomes measurement, Social innovation, Collaboration, Leadership, and Systems Thinking.

The judges for the 2021 Third Sector Awards include Dr David Panter, (Chair, SACOSS), Jack Heath (CEO, Philanthropy Australia), and Katherine Raskob (CEO, Fundraising Institute of Australia). Also included in the list are Rodney Hyman AM (Deputy Chair, Disaster Relief Australia), Dr Ruth Knight (QUT AUstralian Centre for Philanthropy and NonProfit Studies), and David Fisher (CEO of Housing Plus).

Riley Saban, a young technology researcher thanked Third Sector after winning the 2019 Third Sector Young Leader award.

“Third sector awards is all about celebrating all of our community accomplishments such as,  to recognise innovation and outstanding achievement in communications and marketing, fundraising, finance, management, governance and working with other sectors. I am so thrilled to be part of this years event,” Saban said.

For her part, Lindsey Cane OAM, former CEO of Royal Far West abnd winner of the 2019 CEO of the year award, said the recognition would help them continue their services.

“Being acknowledged by one’s peers and colleagues is the ultimate honour – my sincere thanks to everyone who generously supported my nomination and thank you to my dedicated team and our clients for enabling me to make a difference. Recognition of this award is recognition for Royal Far West, and it will help us to continue to grow our services for kids in rural and remote communities,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cara Varian CEO of The Harding Miller Education Foundation said the award given by Third Sector and other award-giving organisations help increase their visibility to the community. As a result, this helps them establish more partnerships.

“Through recognitions not only from Third Sector but from within the education system, people are starting to notice what we are doing, and this helps us build more partnerships,” Varian said after receiving the 2019 Emerging NFP Organisation of the Year award for her organisation. She said she aims to grow from 600 to 1000 scholars in the next five years.

Anybody can nominate for the 10 award categories. Just select the desired category, read through the criteria for each category to ensure you meet the requirements, click on the NOMINATE button, and include <200 words for each, citing specific examples and including relevant links to support your applicant.

Nominations are open until 11:59PM, 2nd of July 2021.