Stevie Awards Judging Terms & Conditions

Updated June 30, 2025

Judging Participation

1. Participation as a judge is entirely voluntary and should not be listed on resumes or social media as employment. You may list your judging participation under volunteering or interests.
2. The Stevie Awards has the right to verify the identity, employment, and affiliations of judging applicants.
3. Judges may not contact the nominees directly regarding your business or their entries.
          Judging is anonymous.  The Stevie Awards acknowledges judges for their participation on our website, but the Stevie Awards does not share with the nominees the names of the specific judges who evaluated their entries.  Judges should not breach this anonymity.
4. Once approved as a judge, Stevie Awards judges are expected to follow explicit scoring and commenting instructions as listed on the judging homepage when you login to your account and in additional materials and media as supplied.
5. Judges will recuse from reviewing any nominations that are a potential conflict of interest and will contact the Stevie Awards about any entries that they or their organizations have submitted to avoid any conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest include but are not limited to entries regarding the judge, the judge's Company/Organization, direct competitor, former employer, friend, and/or relative.
6. Judges are expected to keep the content of entries confidential.  Do not discuss or post about the entries you have reviewed. 
7. Judges will not download, copy, save, or share entries or the content of entries.
8. Judges may not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) or AI tools to evaluate entries on their behalf or to assist in evaluating entries.
9. Judges' comments may not be written by AI tools.

Judges may use a translation tool or a grammar and spell check tool to assist in drafting their comments.

Violation – even suspected violation – of these conditions will lead to the immediate suspension of judging privileges.

Judges Listed on Stevie Awards Websites

9.  Requirements for being listed on the judge’s section of the Stevie Awards website include, but are not limited to, evaluating a minimum number of entries in a competition, and following our instructions and guidelines regarding proper scoring and commenting.   

10.  We will provide exact deadlines for submitting judges’ information to be displayed on our  website (full name, job title, company, location, image, and biography) in the How to Begin Judging email that is sent out when we activate each judging account, which will also provide a link to the form on our website for Judges’ Information that you will need to complete in order to have your headshot and short bio posted on the Judging Committee web page.  Failure to provide your current and correct information by these deadlines may result in your information not being included on the Judging Committee web page, although your name, work title and company/organization will still be listed if you are an active judge.  

• We ask that a judges’ personal biography submitted to our form be 50 words or less.

 11.  Uploads of judges’ profiles to the Stevie Awards website will only be done at the scheduled times provided in the “How to Begin Judging” email and will only be of judges that are active at that time.  Once other judges have reviewed at least five entries, they should submit their biographies and headshots to the Judges Information form within the required timeframe to be posted on our site. 

Certificates of Appreciation

12.   Certificates of Appreciation will be offered upon the close of judging to judges who have evaluated a minimum number entries in a competition (you will be notified of this minimum nearer the beginning of judging), and who have followed our instructions and guidelines regarding scoring and commenting, and have not been disqualified.

VISA Endorsements

13.  The Stevie Awards does not write letters of endorsement for any purpose. Judges who wish to have documentation to support any applications, provide proof of judging to employers, or for other purposes may use their verifiable digital certificates of appreciation.

14.  Judges who earned a hard-copy certificate of appreciation prior to September 2024 may purchase a digital certificate at  https://stevieawards.myshopify.com/.

Prizes for Judging - Travel Stipend or Monetary Payment

15.  Discounted tickets to awards banquets for the competition they have judged will be awarded to judges who work for a Stevie Award-winning company/organization and will be limited to two tickets per judge.

16.  To be included in a random drawing for the Judges’ Lottery that the Stevie Awards offers, a judge must have evaluated more than the minimum number of entries required for that award program, and have followed our instructions and guidelines regarding scoring and comments, and be in good standing. 

• Some Lottery winners of the random draw will be provided two free tickets to the awards ceremony, and an option of payment towards travel expenses by check in US Dollars, through PayPal, or alternatively a free entry in the next awards program of their choosing.  Payment of amounts for travel expenses will be issued either at or just following the awards banquet.  Failure to attend the banquet will result in the forfeiture of the allotment for travel expenses.
   
• Judges and Chairs who are eligible for free tickets will pay to hold their seats at the awards banquet. The ticket fees will be reimbursed to eligible judges and Chairs following their attendance at the event. Failure to attend without prior cancellation will result in their forfeiture of the ticket fees. 

• Winners of the random draw must provide their instructions for mailing a check in US Dollars, PayPal information, or notify us of their preference for a free entry, within two weeks of notification of winner status, or they forfeit their prize.

Deactivation of Judging Accounts

17.  We reserve the right to deactivate and/or delete judging accounts. 

• Deactivation of judging accounts during a judging period may be caused by failure to follow instructions and guidelines for scoring and commenting.
   
• Reasons for deletion of judging accounts include continued refusal or inability to follow judging instructions and guidelines, negative press regarding a judge, unethical behavior, lack of response to invitations to judge, and/or lack of response to requests for edits, sharing of content of entries, or violations of these terms and conditions.  

18.  Following the close of judging, all judging accounts in an awards program will be deactivated until judging in that program resumes for the following year.