Our 2026 Social Health Awards Survey Results

Every year, we host the Social Health Awards. We’ve been proudly honoring the Health Leaders who transform personal experience into collective empathy, understanding and real-world progress for a decade now. It’s one of the highlights of our year.

We recently sent an anonymous survey to those who entered and/or participated as a judge in the 2026 Social Health Awards. We wanted to get real, honest feedback about the process, from start to finish.

The feedback we received highlighted the unwavering dedication of the Health Leaders that we work with. And more importantly, it highlighted the significance of the Awards for our community members. Respondents shared with us how much dedicated time they took filling out their entry, and how an award for their advocacy work would mean so much to them.

The survey also revealed to us that there are clear opportunities to improve our communication, lower barriers to entry, and overhaul the transparency of the evaluation process.

In the interest of transparency, we’ll summarize the key findings of the survey below. Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete this survey, for their candidness and vulnerability.

Submission experience

While a majority of respondents found the submission platform straightforward, a portion faced major hurdles when completing their applications, like:

,li>The "spoonie" barrier: Multiple respondents noted that the application process was overly long, detailed, and taxing on their already limited physical and mental energy. We know that our Health Leaders live with chronic, terminal, and fluctuating illnesses, so we could make improvements to ease the process.
• Technical hurdles: Some key pain points included losing saved drafts, tricky multi-part questions, and repetitive manual entry year after year.
• Call for convenience: Submitters shared ideas for more helpful entry features. These included a way to auto-save progress and even save their entries from the previous year to be replicated and then edited/updated.

Communication feedback

Submitters shared with us that our communication after they hit “submit” was a point of friction across the board. They had critiques such as:

• Post-submission drop-off: Many participants reported feeling left in the dark after submitting. They shared that there was a lack of follow-up emails, post-announcement courtesy messages, or simple "thank you for applying" confirmations. It became clear in reviewing this feedback that we need to be more communicative through the process.
• Missing event details: Some folks shared with us that there should have been a more obvious place to register for the Social Health Awards Zoom. We’ll try to put that in more places next year.
• More frequent updates: Participants requested more frequent status update emails. They also wanted the events timeline shared across Instagram and Facebook, not just on our site.

Equity, diversity, and evaluation transparency

Some survey respondents shared that they had concerns about how entries are judged. They also shared that there were some concerns about who receives recognition each year and why.

• Followers vs. impact: Some respondents expressed frustration that the awards favor well-known Health Leaders with high follower counts over grassroots Health Leaders who may not be as well-known. For example, some of this advocacy may take place in private Facebook groups, or in local communities.
• Lack of feedback & diversity: Respondents cited feeling overlooked due to a lack of diversity among winners, repetitive accolades given to already established leaders, and no constructive feedback post-entry.
• Judging overhaul: Finalists and judges strongly advocated for clear scoring rubrics, sample scored entries, and actionable written feedback for every applicant.

Judging feedback & prize pack expectations

While current judges appreciated recent improvements to the evaluation portal, participation constraints remain, such as:

• Barriers to Judging: Time constraints, lack of compensation, and unclear guidelines, kept several participants from volunteering.
• Prize expectations: Some respondents who entered the Social Health Awards expressed a desire for higher cash prizes, official memberships to professional organizations of their own choosing, more speaking opportunities, and expanded social media spotlights for all finalists rather than just category winners.

Our plan

Each year at The Social Health Network, countless hours of work go into the Social Health Awards. Our team is deeply dedicated and truly believes in the power of online advocacy and social health. We want to make this program as equitable, valuable, and meaningful as we can. Not just because we care deeply about your feedback, but because we care deeply about the work that you do!

We have some ideas and will be working behind the scenes for the next few months to nail down some tangible, specific changes we can share.

In the meantime, there are a few immediate changes we can make are:

• More frequent social shares that highlight not only the winners, but the finalists, and other Health Leaders as well
• Expanded ways to spotlight winners and finalists, like more speaking engagements, videos, and writing opportunities on SocialHealthNetwork.com
• Incorporate more transparency around the judging process with both judges and health leaders
• Explore ways to share judging feedback with those who entered but didn’t win

Wrapping up

We’re committed to heeding your feedback, and making improvements and operational updates. We want the Social Health Awards to feel warm, welcoming, and inviting–not like a competition. Stay tuned, and thank you as always for being a part of our community.