NOTE: the nomination deadline has been extended and now ends on Friday, September 5 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

The nomination period ends on Tuesday, Sep 2, 2025, 11:59 PM

The YAA Board of Governors Excellence Awards honor alumni organizations and group efforts for excellence in their events, programs, and best practices for Yale and on behalf of Yale and the Yale Alumni Association. These awards recognize groups such as (but not limited to) Yale College classes, interest groups, regional clubs, and Graduate and professional school associations; honor outstanding achievement in events such as Yale Day of Service; and complement awards for individual volunteers such as the Yale Medal and the YAA Leadership Awards.

To submit your nomination, please review the information below and follow the instructions.

Submission Deadline

The submission deadline is September 5, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Eligibility

Any alumni group may be nominated for any program, event, or effort that occurred during the 2024-2025 academic year (July 2024 – June 2025) and demonstrates excellence in one or more of the evaluation criteria. Nominations are no longer required to fit a specific category. No organization can win an award for the same effort, event, or program for a second year in a row. The award selection committee will consider multiple nominations from a single alumni organization or group but will consider only one nomination per event or effort.

Nomination Form Questions

The online nomination form will allow you to save a draft and come back to it if you choose to complete the application in steps, provided you do so before submitting your nomination form. 

You may prefer to prepare your answers in a separate document and then transfer them to the form online. The questions are listed below. Note that many responses have a word limit.

• Please provide a brief summary of the event, program or effort you are nominating, including a description of how the event demonstrated excellence, with regard to the stated judging criteria. Tip: format in the style of a social media post--concise, catchy, and highlights what is most important. (100 word limit)
• How did this program, event or effort support the mission of (a) your group or school, (b) the YAA and Yale? (200 word limit)
• Who was the target audience for this event, program, or effort, and how did you engage this audience with your event? Did your event involve multiple alumni groups or engage those who have not previously been engaged in YAA events? (200 word limit)
• Describe any aspects of this program, event, or effort that were particularly creative or innovative (200 word limit)
• Describe the implementation of this program or event—who was involved in ideation, planning, and execution of the event? What time was invested by the planners and how? How did the event leaders utilize staff resources or leverage volunteers? What funds were needed and how were they raised? (200 word limit)
• What was the impact of this program, event or effort and how did your alumni organization measure this? (200 word limit)
• Please submit at least one image that the YAA can use to promote your nomination digitally (social media, email, website). Up to three additional files of supplemental materials are optional.

Questions? 

• Visit the YAA Board of Governors Excellence Awards webpage.
• Email Heather Corbett, Senior Director, Yale College Classes (primary staff liaison for the Excellence Awards) or Elyssa Noce ’17 MSN (volunteer co-chair for the Excellence Awards).
• We use the program Submittable to collect and review nominations. For technical questions about Submittable, check out the Submitter Resource Center or contact Submittable Customer Support.

Ready to apply? Start by creating an account and completing the eligibility questions.