Best in Civic Engagement in Social Media - Shorty Awards

11th Annual Shorty Awards Categories

See below for official categories. The early entry deadline is November 29th, 2018.

The Shorty Awards honor the talented agencies, brands, and industry leaders behind the best and most innovative work on social media channels, campaigns, websites and applications.

From the 1st Annual Shorty Social Good Awards Best in Civic Engagement

This award honors a program, project, or initiative that encourages the public to engage in any aspect of the political process.

Winner

Civic Engagement

ACT/ART: Criminal Justice Reform

Criminal justice reform is a cause firmly supported by The White House and a passion point for ACT/ART, a non-profit that provides a forum for artists and the public to engage creative expression that generates awareness, provokes dialogue and changes perceptions. Inspired by ACT/ART's commitment to the cause, The White House proposed a partners...

Finalists

Civic Engagement

Ad Council PSA Campaign: Job Training and Employment

The purpose of the campaign was to help Americans view donated items as more than just used objects, but as resources for change that can empower job seekers in their communities and give hope to those struggling to find employment. The campaign objectives included: 1) to increase goods donations to Goodwill, 2) to drive engagement with the Good...

Civic Engagement

For many, the right to vote and partake in government is seen as a human right. No matter where you come from, elections are held as some of the most pivotal and important moments for not only where you live but the decision can have international ramifications. Our goal with EIGHTEEN was to create a digital series that travels the world to expl...

Civic Engagement

George Takei founds "One Pulse for America"

A Crisis Demanding ActionResponding to the horrific mass shooting at an LGBTQ club on June 12, 2016, actor and activist George Takei founded One Pulse for America (OPFA), honoring the victims of this devastating ambush. OPFA is an action-oriented grassroots group dedicated to closing the "Passion Gap" with pro-gun activists. OPFA Facebook group ...

Civic Engagement

Special Olympics with Dustin Plunkett

Bank of America believes that when people with intellectual disabilities are given the chance, they can achieve more than others think possible. To prove it to an audience of millions, we worked with ESPN to give a former Special Olympics athlete the opportunity to sit at the anchor desk and be the first ever analyst with intellectual disabiliti...

Civic Engagement

The Future of Hate — Stop HB757

In February 2016, Georgia legislators passed HB 757, a bill that legalized discrimination against the LGBTQ community, and would forever damage the reputation and welcoming and tolerant environment the state of Georgia had established over the past four decades. Our objective was to encourage voters to speak up against this legislation, and tell...

Nominees

Civic Engagement

How do we make the daily toll of gun violence something Congress can't ignore?The media does a great job making everyone aware of mass shootings. But what about the 88 Americans killed by guns daily? How can we give the people who want to help during these mass shootings the chance to speak out after every shooting—days, weeks, and months later? We turned...

Civic Engagement

BuzzFeed Mental Health Week

We launched Mental Health Week at BuzzFeed because media can play a huge role — for good or for ill — in how people see themselves and understand their mental illnesses. We see it around the globe: a shift from seeing depression, anxiety, and other disorders as shameful personality flaws, and toward understanding them as the illnesses they are.This is a g...

Civic Engagement

FreeTrumpScore.com

Donald Trump's outrageous comments about Latinos, Muslims, and other Americans have received prime time coverage on cable news broadcasts and in traditional media outlets. Purpose wanted to develop a content-driven campaign to reach millennial audiences and create sticky content about Trump's beliefs that could easily be shared on social media platforms a...

Civic Engagement

Partners in Preservation: National Parks

Partners in Preservation, a ten-year-old community-based initiative created by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is dedicated to raising awareness of the preservation needs of historic places. Since its inception, Partners in Preservation has awarded $16 million in support of historic places across the U.S. This year, Part...

Civic Engagement

Play More B'More: Putting Kids First in Baltimore

The 2015 Baltimore unrest highlighted the need to address disparities in opportunities for young people – especially those in neighborhoods with the highest rates of disconnected youth. This group, 15- to 24-year-olds not working nor in school, did not have access to the people, organizations, or experiences that could help them build the knowledge, skill...

Civic Engagement

With smart commentary and concise facts, Politics 101 is the political science class you wish you'd taken.Politics 101 is an animated video series on the political system in the Untied States, with a focus on the 2016 Presidential Election. It covers a range of current political topics, including voter turnout, changing demographics, election trends, mone...

Civic Engagement

Redesigning Boston.gov: Making Government Human, Welcoming, and Useful

In August 2015, the City of Boston set out to reimagine the city's digital front door — Boston.gov — with the goal of building a government website that is beautiful, welcoming, and highly useful.It had been over a decade since the last redesign, so the website lacked many standard modern features (e.g. mobile responsiveness). Inspired by these shortcomin...

Civic Engagement

Take Down Gun Violence

On average, there are more than one mass shooting a day in the United States. With arguments raging on how to manage the epidemic of gun violence, something needed to be done to save lives now.

Civic Engagement

The Movement for Open Primaries

Open Primaries is a movement of diverse Americans who believe in a simple, yet radical idea: no American should be required to join a political party to exercise their right to vote.The mission of Open Primaries is to advocate for open and nonpartisan primary systems, counter efforts to impose closed primaries, educate voters, train and support spokespeop...

Civic Engagement

Turn Up To Vote with BuzzFeed + TurboVote

We launched Turn Up To Vote as an attempt to convince our audience that they should get involved in American civic life during this dismaying political season. By engaging millennials to sign up to vote and provide a tool that would raise awareness of political campaigns and developments in this election cycle, we wanted to fulfill our civil duty of makin...

Civic Engagement

Wear Orange Bilingual TV & Digital Campaign

To Raise Awareness about Gun Violence Prevention during National Gun Violence Awareness Day on June 2nd in our company and through our media networks to inform and empower our audience.Run the first large scale Spanish language TV + Digital campaign on Gun Violence Prevention* #WearOrange was a campaign that started in 2013 in Chicago, with the accidental...

Civic Engagement

Univision and Ready Set Rocket sought to create an informative, non-partisan, and issue-based election hub that empowers multicultural millennial voters to learn about the electoral process, and register to vote. With 27 million eligible Hispanic voters this election season, Univision recognized the need for a digital platform that mobilizes this populati...

About the Shorty Awards

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media.

Millions of people participate in The Shortys to recognize individuals and organizations producing great content on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitch, TikTok, and the rest of the social web.

The Early Entry Deadline is November 29, 2018