Awards Q&A

The awards programme is a non-profit-making initiative recognising success and sharing the best practice and initiatives of projects across associations. This awards is supported by the most distinguished associations, societies and federations, and has the highest reputation for fair and good practice.

Participation in the Association Success Awards is open to international and European associations, where an international or European association must have at least 30% of its membership based outside any single country. Additionally, all nominated individuals must be current employees of the association or under a long-term service contract with the association.

The Association Success Awards is organised by the The Association of Association Executives, who has been recognising and sharing success since 2006. 

View all previous winners here.

The deadline to enter the awards is Thursday 17 April at 23:00hrs ITU.

Per nomination:

• Non-members: €120
• Members: €96
• Members with an additonal paid plan: First nomination €0, subsequent nominations €96
• Judges or colleagues of Judges: no fee

You can nominate a person (yourself, a colleague or a friend in another association), a project of your own or of a colleague's, and your own association or an association you are acquainted with. If you are a supplier to associations, you can nominate a client association or a client's project.

You can start your entry, view and start filling in your nomination, save your work and return to complete and submit the form anytime before the deadline. 

You can attached any supporting documents that are relevant to your submission, such as designs, marketing materials, graphs, Gantt charts, tables, research, etc. You can also include a number of links with each entry.

All judges agree to keep all the information provided in the nominations confidential and specifially not to allow anyone else from seeing it or obtaining it. If you are particularly concerned that someone from a competing association does not get access, email us to advise which association(s) and we will ensure any judge(s) from these organisations do not judge that category you entered.

Absolutely! There is no limit on the number of entries you can submit. 

Each project can be submitted only once, in one category. If you are unsure which category to submit a project in, please contact the Awards Manager, at [email protected]. 

Check our Tips for entering the awards here.

The judges for the 2025 edition of the Association Success Awards are published at the website here.

Each entry is judged independently by at least three judges, who score the relevant sections of your nomination form. The scores are then compiled to determine the Finalist list and winner in each category. 

Yes. We allocate judges to specific categories, ensuring there is no conflict of interest, therefore judges have no access to categories where their own or a competing association has entered.

On Thursday 1 May, by email to all entrants, and at the AAE website and on AAE's social media channels and in its eNewsletter.

All finalists may attend the Awards Ceremony at no fee by attending the Associations World Congress to which they are provided one or more guest places.

Finalists of the project-based categories are required to create an Association Success Story of their project, which will be displayed for all delegates to view and request during the congress. 

Accommodation and travel is the responsibility of the finalists.

The Awards Ceremony takes place on the evening of 30 June 2025 in Hamburg (during the Associations World Congress).

All finalists will be issued with a code to book their no-fee place(s) to the Associations World Congress within which the Awards Ceremony takes place. The deadline to book on is Friday 2 May

If you entered a project-based category then you prepare an Association Success Story case study, that is then displayed during the congress for delegates to view, read and to have sent them.

 

You can contact the Awards Manager, Anca Urdea at [email protected] or message her here.

Yes, contact Sarah, our Account Manager, at [email protected] with enquiries about sponsoring the awards. 

Some of the associations with finalist and winning projects have published their initiatives as Association Success Stories (in-depth case studies). You can access these case studies via the AAE members portal. If you are not a member, join AAE here (membership is free).

Join AAE here (membership is free), to receive news about each awards edition plus other events and initiatives.