A call for nominations will be sent out through mailers, our partners, mentors and nominators. All awards applications may be through nominations by self, our members, partners & management, our nominators, citizens at large and past awardees. The selection shall be done through a detailed online process, as set in the process paper by MERCER. We shall send the nominations to our Selection Committee and have an online discussion to seek their independent approval and/or dissent, with clear rationale based on researched profiles and past work of all nominees, but certain award categories are exclusive of the nomination process and the management of iCONGO shall reserve the right to research, find and choose the awardees for these categories.

The call for nominations will be sent out by 15th June and all Nomination Forms, duly filled and signed, should reach us by 15th August
The entries will be pre-screened, validated and sent to Selection Committee by 2nd October
The awardees will be notified by 15th October

Eligibilitry for Nomination

Any caring and concerned citizen, who has gone beyond business as usual to be and lead the change with an “I CAN” attitude, by taking stands and speaking out against social wrongs is eligible to apply or be nominated. The person should have performed extraordinary and exemplary tasks to promote social justice through citizen action, by impacting lives directly or by being socially conscientious and using her/his status in a positive way to lend visibility to a cause/issue. The person should have the spirit to BE THE CHANGE and inspire others to follow.

The eligibility for the awards shall be based on the following considerations-

• How does the nominee’s action symbolize “Social Justice through Citizen Action”
• Background of issues addressed and need for action and intervention
• The social issue, cause or situation in the community, environment or society that was addressed by the nominee, to be the change and encourage social justice and citizen action.
• What was the nominee’s Objective? What were the Actions taken to achieve the Objective by the Nominee? What were the resources involved, duration, level of impact of the actions taken.
• What were the Outcomes/ Results? What kinds of benefits were gained? What were the advantages the community or targeted cause gained as a result of the efforts of the Nominee.
• What were the challenges overcome by the Nominee to focus upon this cause? What were the kind of constraints or problems that were faced by the nominee and how they were overcome?
• Sustainability and Scalability of the project
• Replicability of the model to address the same issue in other areas

Each award category, other than the Lifetime Achievement Award and Lifelong Fight for Social Justice through Citizen Action, will consider a time frame of the last 5 years for the initiative. Each criterion will be evaluated over a period of last 5 years for every nomination.

Procedure for Submission of Nominations

Nomination Form can be filled online or can be downloaded from our websites and sent by post (online preferred and more desired than snail mail, unless not possible due to lack of access to net by an awardee)

Any Form, received after the last day of Submission or with incomplete information, will not be considered for selection .To accept forms post submission day, in case of delay due to unforeseen circumstances, shall be at the discretion of the management.

Nominators for all awards include:

• Managing Committee
• Governing Council Members
• Mentors
• Past Awardees
• NGO Members
• Honorary Directors
• Citizen Volunteers
• Concerned Citizens at large

Procedure for Evaluation of Nominations

The selection process for determining the awardees will be a 4 stage process:

Stage 1: Prescreening of entries by iCONGO
Stage 2: Short listing of entries by an Expert Panel
Stage 3: Independent verification and validation of entries, based on Mercer Process Paper
Stage 4: Final selection of the awardees by the Selection Committee

Process paper