Alex Thomson: Bogus awards ceremonies are trying to make money out of charities, instead get your ego-boost from a reputable charity-backed programme
A company is currently targeting Scottish charities and their staff to entice them to a money making awards ceremony with no third sector input or credibility. My advice is to stay well clear.
If you receive an email from Creative Oceanic telling you you’ve been nominated for a Scottish Diversity Award, view it with caution. You could email them back to ask who has nominated you, but I’d be amazed if they’d tell you.
You may also be surprised to find yourself just one of thirty-odd categories with 10 nominations in each category. You’ll be surprised because there’s no website or list of nominations publicly available. And the judging panel? Who knows – that’s a mystery too.
It’s an ego boost to get an email telling you you’ve been nominated for an award, but it’s important to put your pride aside and consider it from all angles before jumping on the phone to spend charity money on purchasing tickets, travel and accommodation.
Reputable awards ceremonies, like the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations run Scottish Charity Awards, can make a big difference to your work. Winning or even being a finalist for an award can boost future funding applications. It can also give your supporters a boost, attending the ceremony is a great reward for the hard work of staff and board members, and promoting it on your website and social media can boost public confidence in your cause.
SCVO has been running the Scottish Charity Awards for 13 years and it is supported by our 2,000 members as well as the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, which helps us to ensure that all the charities nominated are above board.
Most of the award entries are self-nominated – if you think your project or staff member is worth of an award we encourage you to apply. Some of the individual awards are nominations, but we will always be completely open about who has nominated you – it’s usually your boss or a staff member who works closely with you.
Over the years, we have honed the judging of the Scottish Charity Awards to a fine art. The initial entries are shortlisted and verified by an internal team with years of knowledge and experience of the Scottish third sector – colleagues from TFN, SCVO’s policy team, employability team and information service are all involved. The finalists are judged by a panel of third sector experts, the majority of whom work for a third sector organisation.
All organisations who are shortlisted for a Scottish Charity Award get two free tickets to the awards ceremony plus the opportunity to have additional places at a subsidised rate and tables are sold at one rate for charities and another for private sector stakeholders. This is not a money making exercise for SCVO, our primary purpose is to recognise and reward some of the amazing work going on the sector every year. Doing so helps to boost the role of the whole sector in public life.
So if you get a flattering email from a company you’ve never heard of, please tread carefully. Bogus awards ceremonies won’t offer the credibility you seek and may even be viewed negatively by supporters. Fortunately, though, there’s a range of respectable awards programmes out there for Scottish charities, as well as the Scottish Charity Awards, I’d encourage you to apply to the Scottish Fundraising Awards run by the Institute of Fundraising, or the RSPB run Nature of Scotland Awards, for example. There’s plenty of opportunity to get that ego boost you deservedly seek!
Alex Thomson is SCVO’s event manager
Entries for the Scottish Charity Awards are now open – check out the 7 categories and find out how to enter at www.scvo.org.uk/awards
