Education and Community Engagement Award

Education and Community Engagement Award

The Education and Community Engagement Award is given by Chorus America for outstanding programming in education and community engagement. 

Description

Criteria for the Education and Community Engagement Award vary from year to year in order to highlight specific aspects of this important field. The award honors in-depth and ongoing engagement programming that deeply affects communities.

Successful education and community engagement programs often demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Collaborations and ongoing partnerships with other ensembles, schools, and wide-ranging community organizations
• Organized efforts to engage with specific communities to understand  needs and involve new constituencies
• Clearly articulated goals, outcomes, and tools for evaluation
• An ongoing commitment to music education

For the 2025 Awards cycle, this award is open to emerging programs (no more than four years in operation).

The winner receives an engraved plaque and $2,500.

Eligibility

Applicants must be a chorus member of Chorus America.

For the 2025 Awards cycle, this award is open to emerging program no more than four years in operation.

Future categories include:

• 2026: Best collaborative program 
• 2027: Best program by a chorus with a budget under $200,000 
• 2028: Best emerging program no more than four years in operation 

Deadline and How to Apply

The 2025 application window for this award has now closed. 

A complete application consists of the following materials:

• Describe the following aspects of the nominated program. Be as specific as you can, including quantitative and qualitative data points and metrics as applicable: 
  • Description and Goals
  • Constituency served
  • Staff involvement
  • Partner organizations (if any)
  • Reflect on any modifications that have been made to the program since its launch, and include information on why changes were made and lessons learned.
  • Outline the criteria used to evaluate the program, and the evaluation process. Provide sample evaluation data from the most recently completed program. (For example, if you distributed a survey to participants, please provide the summary results from that survey.)
• Submit program budgets for the previous and current fiscal years. Provide the general operating revenue and expenses of the organization for the previous and current fiscal years. 
• Letter of recommendation from a program partner or participant

Please refer to the Education and Community Engagement Award rubric as an additional resource. 

Please note: While there are no word limits for responses to the narrative questions, we find that concise responses that address the prompt and award rubric criteria in 2-4 paragraphs tend to be most successful.

Recipients are selected by an award panel composed of experts in the award area from the Chorus America community, Chorus America board members, and/or past award recipients. This award is not required to be given annually and will be given at the discretion of the panel. 

Questions? Contact Vale Southard at 202.331.7577 x253 or [email protected]  

Past Awardees