Membership

NAHRO Community Innovation Awards Program

The 2025 application period is now closed. The 2026 application period will open in January.


The NAHRO Community Innovation Awards Program (previously the NAHRO Award of Merit Program) gives national recognition to the achievement and innovation of NAHRO members; to provide additional opportunities to inform the public of best practices in housing and community development; and to create a resource bank of information on significant, innovative activities performed by housing and redevelopment agencies and community development departments.  Since 1989, NAHRO has honored more than 6,000 programs.

The Awards of Merit applications are reviewed, evaluated and winners selected by Regional Juries. The Awards of Excellence are awarded to the best entries in each category from among the Award of Merit winners. Here’s a quick overview of the 2025 Awards of Merit description, eligibility requirements, and deadlines. (PDF).

The Awards Application consists of two main parts:
A Program Summary — describes the program in 700 characters with spaces or less.
A Program Narrative — detailed overview addressing a set list of questions/topics in 15,000 characters with spaces or less. 

You may wish to prepare your draft application in Microsoft Word and then use that document to copy and paste into the online entry portal.  

Please review the Awards Application Process before proceeding to the application.

Awards Information

Click on the awards process guidelines below.

Award Categories

1. Resident and Client Services
Includes programs that enhance the lives of residents and clients:

  • Self-Sufficiency Programs—Including employment, job readiness, homeownership counseling, etc.
  • Youth Programs—Including education, summer programs, recreation, etc.
  • Elderly or Special Needs Housing—Social Services Programs—Including health, social programs, security issues, etc. for the elderly, homeless, mentally or physically disabled, etc.
  • Other—Those programs that cross categories above or are general services in support of all residents/clients.

2. Community Revitalization
Includes programs that have a positive economic impact on a neighborhood or city:

  • i.e. balanced growth
  • economic development
  • job creation
  • creative financing
  • public/private partnerships
  • mixed-use developments
  • neighborhood preservation.

3. Administrative Innovation
Includes programs that improve the efficiency or effectiveness of administrative operations or the general functioning of the agency:

  • i.e. management systems
  • maintenance
  • community relations
  • inter-agency cooperation
  • computer use
  • professional development
  • public relations

4. Affordable Housing
Includes programs that produce affordable housing in an innovative manner:

  • creative financing
  • public/private partnerships
  • mixed income developments
  • adaptive reuse
  • special needs housing

5. Project Design
Focuses primarily on the physical or landscape design of a building or project.  (If the most innovative elements involve program or financing rather than the design, enter the program in one of the other categories listed above.) There are four types of design:

  • New — For new buildings or developments.
  • Modernization/Rehabilitation — For the modernization, rehabilitation, preservation, or alternative use of existing buildings, developments or areas regardless of their original architectural intent. 
  • Landscape Design — Recognizes the use of landscape design to enhance the sense of community, increase security, provide recreational areas, advance environmental efficiency, or to augment natural landscapes.
  • Enduring Design — Recognizes projects completed over 10 years ago, which show continued excellence in design, original program, and in creative aspects of its statement by today’s standards.

Eligibility Requirements

All applications must comply with the following requirements to be considered for an award:

  • The program must have been implemented within the past two years. The only exception to this is for Enduring Design entries.
  • The program, either in whole or in substantial part, cannot be a past NAHRO Award of Merit recipient. Applicants must login to the NAHRO website and review the Best Practices Database to ensure this requirement is met.
  • A program may be entered in more than one category. A separate application must be submitted ensuring that the program meets the guidelines for that particular category, and a separate application fee remitted.
  • Only NAHRO housing and community development agency members may apply for an Award of Merit and be NAHRO members at the time of award presentation.

For more information on NAHRO membership, please visit: Membership information

Please carefully review the eligibility requirements and instructions prior to submitting your entry. Credit card payment is required at the time of submission. Entry fees are non-refundable.

Award Rubric

Please review the Rubric here.

Application Deadline and Fees

If you are working on an application and need to return to it, make sure to click “save for later” button. Do not click Checkout until you are ready to move to the shopping cart and pay. When ready, click yes to agree to terms/conditions, then proceed to checkout.

Judging

  • All entries are evaluated by a National NAHRO judging panel representing NAHRO’s eight regions.
  • Entries must score an average of 35 points from the jury members in order to win an Award of Merit.
  • Entries must score an average of 40 points from the jury members in order to be considered for an Award of Excellence.

Awards Application Process

Step 1: Login to the NAHRO website, then check the Best Practices Database for your entry to ensure your submission has not previously won an award, then make sure it adheres to the category and eligibility requirements.

Step 2: Select the appropriate category for your entry

Resident and Client Services
Community Revitalization
Administration Innovation
Affordable Housing
Project Design

Step 3: Provide a Program Summary and Narrative

Program Summary –In 700 characters or less, briefly describe the program including the problem, the innovative solution, and results. (The application only accepts 700 characters for the summary.  Every word, number, abbreviation, and space between words is counted. This summary will be used to describe the program in the NAHRO Awards Catalog and in the “Best Practices Database” on the NAHRO website.)

Program Narrative – In 15,000 characters or less (every character, number, abbreviation, and space between words is counted). Create an overview of the program that addresses the questions/topics listed in the category criteria.  Successful entries will carefully address as many award criteria as possible.

Step 4: When all mandatory fields have been entered on the first page, click Next at the bottom of page. If you need to return to the application, put placeholders in the mandatory fields then hit SAVE FOR LATER.

You may be taken back to the main Awards screen. If this happens, Click on Award of Merit Applications where you should see your application under “Continue where you left off“. Click on your application, then proceed to Step 5.

Step 5: Provide Images
All attachments must not exceed a total of 7MB. If your attachments exceed the limit, they will not be accepted.  PDF, JPG, PNG, Word, Excel formats are accepted.

NOTE: If you have left the website and wish to return to application, Click on Community Innovation Awards Program, APPLY TODAY. You should see your application under “Continue where you left off“. Click on your application, scroll down to view your application, make changes, and proceed to Step 6.

Step 6: Read the Terms and Conditions. If you are ready to proceed to checkout and remit payment, click YES. If you need to make changes, DO NOT CLICK YES and proceed to SAVE FOR LATER.

Step 7: Submit Application and Pay Online.

FAQs

Q: Can I pay by credit card online?
A: Yes, once you click Checkout, you will be taken to the shopping cart where you will pay by credit card and the application confirmation will arrive via email.

Check payments, bill me later, purchase orders, and ACH options are not available.

Q. Can I add multiple applications to one shopping cart?
A. No, you must remit payment on each application separately.

Q. Can I start an application and pay later?
A. Yes, you may SAVE FOR LATER and return to Checkout.

Q: What if I have technical difficulties, my application does not go through, or I have other questions? 
A:  Contact: meritawards@nahro.org

Q: Can I view the Award of Merit Catalog online?
A. Yes! The current catalog is available.

Q: How do I view the Best Practices Database?
A: Once you are logged in to the NAHRO website, Click here

Q: How will I know if my agency has won?
A: Winners will be notified within 2 months after application deadline and recognized at the National Conference.

Past Merit Award Winners:

For additional information, contact:

meritawards@nahro.org