Tips for creating a strong WIBF Awards nomination

Starting in 1998, WIBF’s Awards for Achievement were the first in the UK to focus on the achievements of women and on initiatives by financial and professional services firms to help ensure gender equity progresses. 

Today, they remain very prestigious and highly sought after, and have become a powerful way to shine the spotlight on individuals and organisations making a real change in our industry. 

This year, we’re allowing you to put yourselves forward for an award – for the first time – given there are often unsung heroes working for companies that don’t have a team that put forward award submissions.

You can still of course recognise a colleague and peer by nominating them. Irrespective of whether you’re nominating yourself or someone else, we have some tips to help make your submission stand out:

Start with a strategy

• Focus on quality over quantity. Submitting to every category often results in submissions —two or three thoughtfully curated entries can be far more powerful.
• Understand how the values of WIBF can underpin your own submission. Incorporate the principles of inclusion, sustainability and positive change in your professional sector.
• Gather together the statistics that confirm how impactful your drive or the company initiative has been. These can be set out as percentages.

Tell a compelling story

• Judges want to understand where someone started, what they’ve achieved and the real-world impact of their work.
• You don’t need your story to be perfect. Entries showing resilience, iteration, hurdles overcome and lessons learned are often the most compelling.
• Recognise that you can include confidential information. WIBF will not publish anything beyond that initial 200-word entry without your approval.

Bring it to life

• Use real examples, infographics, images and quotes to bring your submission to life. You can include PowerPoint slides and links to videos in your collated appendices.
• Testimonials and quotes, especially from colleagues, mentees, peers and beneficiaries, can make a huge difference.

Don’t forget the practicalities

• Make use of the preview questions and Word templates provided on the website.
• The nomination form doesn’t have a word count, but be clear and focused in your answers.
• Judges also look beyond the submission itself and consider social media presence, external engagement and visibility in the industry.

Still unsure? Nominate anyway

If you’re on the fence, submit. We know that there are plenty of stories that deserve to be heard.

The WIBF team encourages all nominations, whether they are big or small projects, and there are award categories for individuals at all stages of their careers.

Anyone who is a WIBF member (individual or through a corporate partnership) can submit a nomination about themselves of on behalf of someone else that you may also want to see acknowledged. Please note that there are some specific exceptions to this though for a small number of categories and please read the FAQ on the WIBF website to understand these.

Good Luck!