Webbys Organizer IADAS Launches Inaugural Anthem Awards To Honor Leading Brands & Nonprofits’ Social Impact

Alexandra Del Rosario
·2 min read

The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the annual Webby Awards, will celebrate for and not-for-profit organizations’ social impact work with with the Anthem Awards.

Spanning various industries and social impact categories, Anthem Awards seeks to recognize businesses’ work in a number of causes including Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Sustainability, Climate & Environment; Human & Civil Rights; Humanitarian Action & Services; Health; Education, Art & Culture; and Responsible Technology.

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All forms of work, online and offline –such as grassroots organizing, fundraising, awareness campaigns and digital movements – are eligible for The Anthem Awards. A portion of program revenue from corporate entrants will fund a new grant program to support emerging individuals and organizations actively working to advance the causes that are being recognized in the inaugural Anthem Awards.

“The Webby Awards has a long history of using its platform to celebrate change makers with real impact, bringing global attention to their work and their cause,” said Claire Graves, President of The Webby Awards. “For the launch of Anthem, we thought it was critical to work with that community of organizations and companies as they are best positioned to know what real impact looks like. They are helping to guide everything from categories to criteria and many of their leaders will be jurors helping to select our first honorees.”

Jessica Lauretti will serve as Managing director of The Anthem Awards. Foundational partners include The Ad Council, GLAAD, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Fund, NRDC, Mozilla, World Wildlife Foundation, and XQ Institute.

The announcement comes less than a month after Pharell walked away with the inaugural Webby Anthem Award for his work in racial equity in education and entrepreneurship. The Anthem Awards only adds to IADAS’s history of honoring change makers who have used their platforms to inspire change. The Webbys has previously celebrated Dr. Fauci, Ava DuVernay and Greta Thunberg.

Call for submissions is now open with an early entry deadline of August 6th and November 5 cutoff for late entries. The inaugural Anthem Awards will land February.

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