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Defining your purpose is the first step in the awards planning process – everything else flows from this decision. Whether you’re launching your first awards programme or refining an existing one, getting clarity on your “why” will save countless hours and prevent costly mistakes down the line.
Start with why
Why are you running your programme? Are you trying to engage with your communities? Support artists? Capture data to make a case to your stakeholders?
Your purpose will act as your guiding star across your entire process and may allow you to increase the impact of your open call. For example, if engaging with local communities is critical to your success, you may focus solely on them applying. However, there may be other ways of meaningfully engaging with those communities (e.g. inviting respected members of that community to select winners).
Creating a short statement (an elevator pitch) to remind you and your stakeholders what you are trying to achieve will help you steer your course to achieving your goals. e.g. “An award celebrating emerging talent from across the creative industries in the UK.”
Purpose statements that work
Let’s look at real examples of strong purpose statements:
Too vague
“Supporting creativity across the UK”
Better
“An award celebrating emerging talent from across the creative industries in the UK”
Best
“Recognising UK-based designers under 30 who are challenging industry norms through sustainable practice”
Notice how each iteration adds specificity about who (designers under 30), where (UK-based), and what makes them special (challenging norms through sustainability).
Here are more examples across different sectors:
- Literature: “Amplifying unheard voices in British fiction by celebrating debut novels from writers from underrepresented backgrounds”
- Photography: “Showcasing documentary photographers capturing social change across Europe, with particular focus on climate and migration stories”
- Film: “Supporting emerging filmmakers from the North of England to develop their first feature-length project”
The pattern? Each statement answers: Who can apply? What work are you celebrating? Why does it matter?
Fostering diversity & inclusion
If your purpose is to support a specific community of which you are not a member, it’s worth sanity checking your statement with members of that community.
Who should submit?
Knowing who you are targeting will inform every facet of your planning – from the language you use to what you ask candidates to submit. It helps shape your imagery, process and more.
Ensuring you define your demographic before you start will give you a reference point for each decision you make. These are usually loosely defined on location, demographic, age, etc. You might also consider using segments defined by your stakeholders (e.g. Audience Agency spectrums) or depend on already defined ones that you use within your organisation.
Your purpose should shape every question you ask candidates. Generic application forms force square pegs into round holes. Modern submission platforms should let you customise every question based on your specific purpose – whether that’s asking for sustainability credentials, community impact statements, or portfolio work in specific formats. The more your application reflects your purpose, the easier it is for the right candidates to shine.
Fostering diversity & inclusion
Defining who you want to submit goes a long way to make you think about how inclusive you will be. But watch out, this can be a double-edged sword. For example, focusing on age may create discrimination when supporting emerging talent (they might start their creative career at 65 and be emerging).
Leading programmes build diversity metrics into their submission workflows from day one (retro-fitting is far harder). This means optional demographic questions, fee waiver processes that don’t stigmatise applicants, and the ability to track whether your outreach is actually reaching diverse communities. If your current process makes tracking diversity feel like extra work, that’s a sign your tools aren’t purpose-built for inclusive programmes.
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Show me the money
Love it or hate it, you need money to run your programme. But your primary purpose cannot be making money – candidates will read right through your motives and are unlikely to submit. They may even flag you as a scam to their network.
Define your purpose that serves those who are submitting to your programme first, then think about the money. If you think about the money first and then create a purpose around it, candidates will immediately see your motive is solely self-serving.
The same holds for those shy to ask for payment – money is necessary to grow your impact. Asking for a donation, as opposed to a fee, and allowing people to submit for free will allow you to make additional revenue and increase the positive impact you have on your community.
A thoughtful pricing strategy can generate revenue while maintaining accessibility – it’s not an either/or choice.
UK pricing context
To give you context: UK arts programmes typically charge between £5-50 per submission, with the median around £20. Competitions in commercial sectors (design, architecture) often charge much more (expect 3 figures). Student/emerging talent programmes usually sit at £10 or below – or offer fee waivers.
Fostering diversity & inclusion
Asking for mandatory payment will automatically discriminate against lower-income communities. Making your fee optional or giving some submissions for free can allow you to hold onto a revenue stream and allow for wider participation.
How will you measure your success?
Going on a journey without a clear destination will only lead you to get lost (and probably blaming your stakeholders when you arrive nowhere useful).
Having an understanding of what you want to achieve at this point will help define future decisions. Based on our experience, your goals are likely to be a mixture of the following:
- Awareness – exposure to your programme across all media, within your communities
- Audience growth – meaningful new contacts created (e.g. no. of submissions), and how many actively engage with you beyond the programme
- Financial – e.g. additional money you have made running the programme
- Social Impact – e.g. positive stories generated by winners of your programmes a year after it ran
- Diversify who you serve – e.g. diversity and inclusion metrics for candidates who submitted, audiences engaging with your exhibition, etc.
- Engaging with your audience – e.g. how many of your contacts have engaged with you based on your running your programme
Notice these metrics span different dimensions of success. You don’t need to track all of them. Choose the 3-5 that genuinely align with your purpose rather than tracking everything poorly.
These metrics should inform how you’ll actually select winners, ensuring your judging process aligns with your stated goals.
You shouldn’t need to wait until after your programme closes to know if you’re hitting your goals. Your tools should provide real-time dashboards showing submission quality, demographic breakdown, and drop-off points in your application process.
Once you’ve chosen your metrics, learn more about measuring what actually matters to track genuine impact over time.
Fostering diversity & inclusion
Including diversity metrics in your goals reminds you of the importance of diversity to the success of your programme.
The data behind purpose-driven programmes
Programmes with clearly defined purposes consistently outperform those without. Research on grant-making and awards programmes shows that organisations with articulated missions see significantly higher application quality and better completion rates.
Why? Because clear purpose acts as a filter. It attracts the right candidates while naturally deterring those who aren’t a good fit. This means you spend less time sifting through irrelevant submissions and more time evaluating genuinely relevant candidates.
The financial impact is significant too. Purpose-driven programmes report higher revenue per participant, whether through submission fees, donations, or sponsorship. Partners want to align with organisations that know exactly what they stand for.
Your purpose isn’t just feel-good mission statement territory – it’s a practical tool that improves every metric that matters.
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Why should candidates submit?
Time is the most precious thing we own. Even if submitting to your programme is free, you will be asking candidates to invest their time in applying.
You only have a few seconds to make a case for them to submit. Boiling down what’s in it for successful candidates (whether that’s prize money, exhibition opportunities, or industry recognition) should shape your entire pitch.
This concise statement should fit a tweet (280 characters) and still have room for a call to action and link. At this stage, making candidates curious is better than losing them to a paragraph of text.
Compare these two pitches
Version A: “The Annual Arts Award celebrates excellence across all creative disciplines. Open to all artists. Prizes available. Submit your best work by [date].”
Version B: “Be celebrated as the future of British design, get a chance to be seen by the UK’s most prominent creative institutions & win £1,000”
Version A is technically accurate but generic and lifeless. Version B is specific, benefit-focused, and creates urgency. Both are under 280 characters. One will get 10x more submissions.
This concise pitch becomes the foundation for marketing your programme effectively across all channels.
Fostering diversity & inclusion
Beware of systemic discrimination. If your pitch is a show in central London, some communities can’t afford to travel. The same can be said of having to invest too much time submitting to uncertain pursuits.
Common pitfalls when defining purpose
Even experienced programme managers make these mistakes when crafting their purpose:
Pitfall 1: Purpose by committee
Trying to satisfy every stakeholder often creates a muddled purpose that excites no one. Your finance director wants revenue, your artistic director wants cutting-edge work, your board wants community engagement. The result? A purpose statement like “supporting excellent diverse accessible innovative sustainable work.” That’s not a purpose, it’s just nice words strung together in a daisy chain.
Instead, prioritise. One goal can be primary while others support it.
Pitfall 2: Copying others
Just because a prestigious award focuses on mid-career artists doesn’t mean you should. Your organisation has unique strengths, relationships, and resources. Build your purpose around what you can genuinely deliver, not what sounds impressive.
Pitfall 3: Purpose drift
You start with “supporting emerging Scottish playwrights” but three years later you’re accepting applications from established international artists because “we need more submissions.” This destroys trust and confuses your audience about who you actually serve.
Pitfall 4: Setting and forgetting
Your purpose should evolve as your organisation grows, but it shouldn’t change every year. Review it annually, but only revise it when there’s a genuine strategic shift. Frequent changes signal indecision.
Pitfall 5: Ignoring the money
Pretending your programme isn’t partly about revenue (when it is) creates cynicism. Better to acknowledge it openly: “We charge a submission fee to fund our exhibition programme, while offering 20% of places fee-free to ensure accessibility.” Honesty builds trust.
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Pressure-test your purpose
Before you commit to your purpose and start building your programme, run it through these validation questions:
Six validation tests
- Specificity: Can someone hear your purpose and immediately know whether they should apply? If everyone thinks they qualify, it’s too broad.
- Stakeholder: Does it satisfy your primary stakeholders without becoming a Frankenstein’s monster of competing priorities? You can’t serve everyone equally.
- Authenticity: Does this align with what your organisation actually does well? Promising things you can’t deliver destroys trust faster than having no programme at all.
- Sustainability: Can you realistically deliver on this purpose with your current resources? Ambition is good; setting yourself up for burnout isn’t.
- Diversity: Who might this purpose unintentionally exclude? Have you built in mechanisms to prevent that?
- Evolution: Will this purpose still make sense in 2-3 years, or are you chasing a trend that’ll date quickly?
If your purpose passes all six tests, you’re ready to move forward with confidence.
How long should this take?
For most organisations, defining your purpose takes 2-4 hours of focused work, typically across two sessions:
Session 1 (90 minutes): Brainstorm with key stakeholders. Capture all the “whys” behind your programme. Don’t judge ideas yet! Just get everything on the table.
Session 2 (60-90 minutes): Refine and pressure-test. Strip away jargon, ensure specificity, and craft your elevator pitch. Test it with someone outside your organisation. If they can’t immediately grasp who should apply, keep refining.
This investment of 3-4 hours will save you dozens of hours in confused decision-making later.
Finally
With so much to think about, you might end up with analysis paralysis. At this point, don’t overthink it. These are the wide brush strokes and these can evolve as you shape your process.
Your purpose isn’t carved in stone. It’s a living thing that grows with your programme. Start with something clear enough to guide decisions, then refine it as you learn what actually works.
We can help!
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But we’re not alone in the space – here are 8 others you may wish to consider (even if we would prefer you choose us!).
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Guy Armitage is the founder of Zealous and author of “Everyone is Creative“. He is on a mission to amplify the world’s creative potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is defining purpose important for awards programmes?
A clear purpose acts as your guiding star throughout the entire programme lifecycle. It helps you make consistent decisions about eligibility, judging criteria, marketing messages, and success metrics. Without it, you risk mission drift and confusing potential candidates about whether they should apply. Your purpose also makes it easier to attract judges, sponsors, and partners who align with your goals.
What’s the difference between purpose and goals in awards management?
Your purpose is the overarching “why” behind your programme. The fundamental reason it exists. Your goals are the measurable outcomes you’ll track to determine success. For example, your purpose might be “supporting emerging UK designers,” while your goals could include “receive 200 submissions” or “increase diversity of applicants by 25%.” Purpose guides strategy; goals measure impact.
How do I know if my programme purpose is too broad or too narrow?
Test it with the elevator pitch exercise: if you can’t explain your purpose in under 280 characters, it’s likely too complex. If your purpose attracts everyone or no one in particular, it’s too broad. The sweet spot is specific enough to define clear eligibility without unnecessarily excluding people.
For instance, “celebrating creativity” is too broad, while “celebrating watercolour paintings by left-handed artists born in March” is too narrow. “Celebrating emerging watercolour artists across the UK” hits the right balance.
Should I charge a submission fee for my awards programme?
That depends on your purpose and audience. Fees can generate revenue to grow your impact, but mandatory fees automatically exclude lower-income communities. The best approach for inclusive programmes is offering optional donations or allowing some free submissions alongside paid ones. This maintains a revenue stream while widening participation. If your primary purpose is engagement rather than revenue, free submissions might serve you better.
What diversity and inclusion considerations should shape my purpose?
Start by examining who you’re trying to serve and whether you have lived experience in that community. If you’re supporting a community you’re not part of, validate your purpose with members of that community. Consider how factors like location, submission fees, time investment, and even your venue choice might create systemic barriers. Build inclusion into your purpose from day one rather than treating it as an afterthought.
How do I measure success for an awards programme?
Effective measurement combines quantitative and qualitative metrics aligned with your purpose. Common areas include awareness (media mentions, reach), audience growth (new contacts, engagement beyond the programme), financial impact (revenue generated), social impact (participant outcomes 6-12 months later), and diversity metrics (demographic data of applicants and audiences).
Choose 3-5 metrics that genuinely reflect whether you’re achieving your stated purpose rather than tracking everything.
