Each year, projects from across the country are honored for their contributions. Honorees are recognized in a special April 2012 issue coinciding with National Volunteer Week, led by Points of Light Institute. Award honorees will receive their awards that month at an event in Washington, D.C.

10 National Honorees receive a $10,000 charitable donation from Newman’s Own.

3 City Awards  recognize the volunteer efforts of three cities. $10,000 charitable donations are made in each city by Newman’s Own.

A $10,000 All-Star Award (formerly the Encore Award) funded by the Gannett Foundation and USA WEEKEND goes to a former National Honoree who shows continued excellence in volunteerism.

To be eligible for awards, projects must be registered in the DAYtaBANK prior to Make A Difference Day and then updated with details of the day by the deadline.

Tips for submitting photos and video:

1. You can really bring your event to life and show the results with photos and video, even if they’re just taken with your phone! You can see what other projects have submitted on our YouTube channel favorites list and in the photo gallery. Our Facebook page has lots of photos and video from projects, too!
2. Upload your video to YouTube. It’s simple and quick to set up an account and get your video on the web. Share your video with the Make A Difference Day channel on YouTube. We’ll favorite all of the video from this year’s events, so people will see them on our channel. You can also copy and paste the link to your video into your project update on the DAYtaBANK, so judges will see them, too.
3. Photos can be uploaded in our photo gallery or you can post them as an album on your own Facebook page and share them with Make A Difference Day. You can include a link to the gallery in your project update on the DAYtaBANK.