Winning Innovations
After choosing a winning innovation according to its own guidelines, each League Board or Alliance college or district* submits its selection via the online application (see instructions below). One winning innovation will be accepted from each college/district.
Local Finalists
Districts or systems with multiple colleges or campuses are also encouraged to email information about college-based finalists for the district award to Kelly Dooling, subject line "IOY Award Finalists." Please include the associated campus, innovation title, innovation description, and names of team members (institutional employees only).
Click here to learn how winning innovations and local finalists are recognized by the League.
*A district may hold League membership for all the colleges in the district; the overall winner selected from among the district colleges is the Innovation of the Year winner and the remaining college winners are local finalists. Similarly, a college may hold League membership, which extends to all its campuses; the overall college winner is submitted to the League and the remaining campus winners are the local finalists.
Award Contact
The designated Innovation of the Year Awards contact is the only person from your institution who can access the awards portal to submit a winning innovation and associated recipients. If you are not that person, please send these instructions to him/her/them. To learn the name of your college’s Innovation of the Year Awards contact, or, if you are the awards contact and your institution has decided to designate someone else, email Kelly Dooling.
2025-2026 INNOVATION OF THE YEAR AWARDS
SUBMITTALS DUE BY APRIL 6, 2026
Step-by-Step Instructions for Online Submission of Winning Innovations
[Click here to download a print-friendly version of these instructions.]
Review all award information here (including subpages) prior to entering the submission portal.
1. Log in to your account at www.league.org. (If you do not know your username and/or password, click on “Forgot Password?” and enter your college email address to receive a password reset email. Please do not create another account; as an awards contact, you already have one.)
2. Once you are logged in, select “Innovation of the Year Awards Submission” in the “My Account” dropdown at the top, right of the page.
3. Click on “Submit New League Award.”
4. After carefully reading the information on the Instructions page, hit the “Next” button.
5. On the Details page, enter or select the following:
- Title (100-character limit, without spaces)
- Description (1,000-character limit, without spaces)
- Category
- Criteria**
- Recognition (300-character limit, without spaces)
**A response is required for “Other”; if this option is not applicable to your winning innovation, enter “n.a.” in the field to move forward.
6. On the Recipients page, click on the “Add New” button, then enter a recipient’s last name in the “Search for a Customer” field.
- If the recipient** has a League account, his/her/their name will appear. Select the recipient's name and hit “Save.” Recipients who do not have a League account will not appear on the list.
- If you are able to find every recipient's name and add it to the list, hit 'Next.’ If you did not find every recipient's name, complete the following steps prior to submitting:
- Download the League Awards Account Creation Spreadsheet.
- Fill out and check all required information only for those award recipients from your institution who do not yet have a League account; and
- Email the completed spreadsheet to Kelly Dooling with the subject line “IOY Awards Account Creation.” Once you receive notice that the new account(s) have been created, you may continue the submission process.
- To access your “In Process” submission and add recipients after communicating with Kelly:
- Repeat steps 1 and 2 above.
- On the landing page, click on “Details” to the right of your pending submittal. Do not start a new submittal.
- Select the Recipients page using the tabs on the left and add additional recipients (see step 6).
**Recipients must be employees of the submitting college.
7. Once all recipients are added to the list, confirm (a) all innovation information on the Details tab, and (b) that all recipients chosen by your institution appear on the Recipients tab. (This information will appear online, in the League Awards Program, and in other related publications as submitted.)
8. Hit the Submit tab in the left menu to complete the submission process.
9. Upon submission, you will receive a confirmation email. If you do not receive notification from the League, please follow up with Kelly Dooling to ensure that the submission was successful.
League Awards Program Ads
Participating colleges and systems are encouraged to submit an ad for inclusion in the League Awards program. The purpose of the ads is to highlight and congratulate Innovation of the Year and Excellence Award recipients from your college, and to bring attention to League Board and Alliance member institutions. Submissions may include photos of recipients and/or a special congratulatory message.
