Categories and Awards

Categories and awards are the heart of your program structure. The Categories page is where you define them, alongside the entry fee, pricing tiers, and discount codes. This page covers categories and awards. For fees and codes, see Entry fees.

Categories

A category is a bucket entries are submitted to. An entry picks one or more categories, and each category + entry pairing is judged, scored, and (if you charge) billed independently. Use categories to group entries by what they're being judged on:

• An industry awards program: "Best Innovation", "Leadership Excellence", "Community Impact"
• A "40 Under 40": one category for every honoree (or a single "40 Under 40 Honoree" category)
• A design competition: "Brand Identity", "Packaging", "Editorial Design"
• A creative awards program: "Best Campaign", "Best Use of Data", "Best Craft"

A program typically has 3 to 8 categories. More than that gets hard for judges to calibrate; fewer than 3 limits how you can recognize different kinds of work.

Entering more than one category

When a program has multiple categories, the submission form opens with a "What are you entering?" step where the entrant picks the categories their work should compete in. If you charge an entry fee, the running total updates as they select, so the cost of entering several categories is clear before checkout.

A single-category program skips this step entirely. From there, judging, advancement, and awards all treat the work as a separate contender in each category it entered. See per-category scoring.

Awards

An award is what you give out. Awards live inside a category (or as overall awards across the whole program). Award names are free-form, so you can label your placements however suits your program (Winner, Finalist, Runner-up, Honoree, Honorable Mention, anything you like).

For each award you can configure:

• Name: Free-form label shown publicly (Winner, Gold, Finalist, Honoree, anything)
• Prize: One optional free-form field describing what the recipient receives. Because it's free text, you can combine cash and recognition in one line: "Trophy + feature", "$1,000", or "$5,000 + gala invite". It's displayed on your public program page.
• Limit: How many recipients the award allows per category, toggled between 1 per category (a single Winner) and Unlimited (as many Finalists or Honorees as you name).

A category can have multiple awards (a Winner plus two Finalists, for example). Add as many as you need.

Award types

There are two award types in AwardKit:

• Category awards: Live inside a category. Only entries that picked that category are eligible. Most awards are this type.
• Overall awards: Live inside an overall category and apply across the whole program. Every entry is automatically eligible, with no extra fee. Use these for cross-program recognition like "Grand Prize" or "Program of the Year", or for sponsor-funded themes like "Best Use of AI" or "Best Sustainability Initiative" that should be open to any entry regardless of which category they picked.

How awards appear publicly

Your awards are listed on your public program page, grouped into the ones given in each category and the overall awards, with each award's prize shown beneath its name.

Prizes and Stripe Connect

The prize field is descriptive only. AwardKit displays it on your program page so entrants know what they could win, but you handle the payout to the winner directly.

This is different from entry fees, which use Stripe Connect to flow money from entrants to your organization. See Entry fees for the full guide.