Why your nominee should win

What information should I include to explain why I think they should win?

You need to explain to us why you have chosen to put them in a specific category. For example if you have chosen the ‘Bringing Communities Together’ category you need to explain how that person has brought communities together what this has meant for the community.  If you have chosen ‘Best new volunteer’ why are they the best new volunteer that you know; what have they done differently and how? 

Ensure you read all the category information  before you answer the question and please try to give specific examples based on the key criteria.

Tell us about you nominee’s skills and qualities. Please think about the award you have nominated the person for, think about the key skills and qualities that they have shown while volunteering. It may help to have a look at the list of the example skills and qualities below and think about which ones your nominee shows that sets them apart from other volunteers/support workers. (Please note this is just a guide you may think of others)

Skills and Qualities

Skills: These are the abilities and talents that make the volunteer/worker do what they do really well

Qualities:  the merits and characteristics of your nominee that stand out in their personality 

Dedicated: believing that something is very important and giving lots of time and energy to it

Supportive: someone who gives help and encouragement to help someone else succeed

Determined: wanting to do something very much and not being deterred by difficulties or challenges along the way 

Organised: someone who is able to plan things carefully, make sure other people know what they are doing and gets things done on time

Problem solver: someone who can think about things that are difficult and come up with ways of ending the difficulty or working round it to make something happen

Bring new ideas: someone who has a different way of looking at things and changes the way others look at things and/or the way things are done

Enthusiastic: someone who is keen to be involved in everything and always looks like they are enjoying taking part  

Team player: someone who is really good at working closely with other people to achieve things

Understanding: someone who is able to know how someone else is feeling or what their situation is, can help them with whatever they need and/or forgive them if they do something wrong

Good communicator: someone who is able to tell people about their ideas and emotions in a way that other people are clear about and understand 

Passionate: Having very strong feelings and/or emotions about something and wanting to raise awareness/bring about change/succeed in making something happen

Leader: a person who is in control of a group or a situation and steers people in the right direction so they can reach a goal

Role model: a person who is admired and whose behaviour other people want to copy

Caring: a person who shows consideration and compassion for others

 

 

Tell us about the impact that they have had and explain how it highlights why they should be chosen to win a vinspired National Award.

 You should think about the purpose of their volunteering and the positive effect it has had that made you think they deserved to be nominated for an award. Below we have provided a list of example impacts you may find it helpful to think about which ones might describe the outcome of your nominees volunteering.

Volunteering impacts of potential winners

Built positive relationships  

Got more young people involved in volunteering 

Raised funds so activities could continue

Successfully challenged stereotypes

Made a big difference in a short amount of time

Brought people from diverse backgrounds together

Improved and strengthened a community/ies

Had a new idea and made things change

Raised awareness of an important issue

Gave (regular) practical help and support to others

Achieved a goal through teamwork

Supported and empowered others to achieve a goal

Overcame barriers to achieve a goal

Brought specific skills/expertise that has benefited others

Try to give specific examples where possible. For example if you have chosen ‘enthusiastic’ for ‘best new volunteer’ you need give an example of the time when the new volunteer has been really enthusiastic about something. If you have stated their impact was to ‘Raised funds so activities could continue’, you need to give an example of how much money was raised, how it was done and give an outline of what activities are able to continue as a result.

Remember the more examples and the more detail you give the better chance the person you are nominating has of winning!