Independent Award Ratings

Does it make
the grade?

AwardGrade rates business and professional award programs A-F on legitimacy: judging quality, cost transparency, and genuine selectivity.
Know before you enter.

Grades:
A
Highly legitimate
B
Legitimate
C
Mixed
D
Weak
F
Fails
F
Automatic
Auto-F
ID
Insufficient Disclosure

Grades measure integrity of process, not prestige.

A famous award can earn an F. An unknown one can earn an A.

The Methodology

What we grade

Five categories, 100 points total. Every criterion is public: no proprietary black box.

Judging qualitymax 8
Criteria & process publishedmax 6
Judges independent of the sales operationmax 6
Read the full methodology →

The Database

See all ›
Award
A
Data Journalism Awards (GIJN)
Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), operating the competition as the Sigma Awards · US
100/100 · Grade A
awardgrade.com
Award
C
Communication Arts Design Annual
Communication Arts (Coyne & Blanchard, Inc.) · US
78.4/100 · Grade C
awardgrade.com
Certification
A
NCI Cancer Center Designation (NCI-Designated / Comprehensive Cancer Center)
National Cancer Institute (NCI), Office of Cancer Centers, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services · US
100/100 · Grade A
awardgrade.com
Explore all 1100 graded awards →

The AG Transcript

Featured Story
No. 05
The field guide
5 checks before you pay to enter an award.
A 60-second gut check for the next “you’ve been selected” email.
→
Read the Transcript →

Unlock every score, criterion by criterion, with sourced evidence.

Full rubric scorecard + true total cost. Honor Roll members only.

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New grades, when we publish them

No pitch, no spam. Just the transcript and database updates.