Nominations

Nominations for MWOTY 2025 are now open!

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Nominations close on Friday 4th April 2025. Please ensure that the person you are nominating is aware you are making this nomination and ask them for more details if necessary. The more details we have the better chance there will be that the nominee is successfully chosen as a Finalist. The nominee, if selected, must be available to attend the VIP Finalists Reception, on Monday 23rd June 2025 at 6.00pm – 8.00pm at Fazenda, Exchange Flags, Liverpool and the Awards Luncheon on Friday 27th June 2025 at 12.00pm at the Crowne Plaza, Waterfront, Liverpool. Nominations are open to anyone who identifies as a woman or non-binary. You can start your nomination below. For a full guide to our judging criteria, all the questions and guidance for nomination, download our MWOTY Nominations Guide and watch our webinar on writing a brilliant entry!

Step 1 of 2 - Nomination Criteria

Writing A Successful MWOTY Nomination

“We want a big pair of knickers, not a thong” - MWOTY Founding Director, Ellen Kerr

If you’ve decided to nominate someone for the Merseyside Women of the Year awards, we are guessing that it is someone special, doing something incredible who never seeks the limelight.

We also reckon you’ll want to give them a good shot at being named a finalist.

Every year we receive more and more entries, making the shortlisting process incredibly tough and emotional for our judges. In our early days, we were able to dig around for more information when an interesting but light-on-details nomination was submitted (a ‘thong’ as Ellie would call it) but as we’ve grown that’s become impossible and we now judge all entries solely on the nomination form submitted.

But don’t worry, submitting a great entry isn’t hard or scary; just look at the below criteria and make sure that you provide a response that answers the questions in each section.

If you have any questions about making a nomination for the MWOTY awards, you can email us here:
Judging Criteria

When we are deciding on our finalists, we use the following criteria and points are allocated as indicated. Not all questions listed below will be relevant to your nominee - for example financial growth and jobs created will be more relevant to nominees running businesses, not those running awareness campaigns.

Use the questions below as prompts for your nomination form and when you’re done, ask yourself one very important question - is this submission a thong or a big pair of knickers?

When deciding on the overall Merseyside Woman of the Year, the public vote constitutes 50% of the overall decision, with the remaining 50% coming from the Judging Panel and Nomination Form combined.

Below are the criteria that the nomination will be judged by so if you can safely say it’s a big pair of Bridget Jone’s briefs that will cover all eventualities, it’s time to hit send. Good luck 😊

Quality of Submission (10 points) Have you explained who the nominee is and their background? Have you explained what they do? Have you summarised why they deserve to win an award? Does the statement to describe the nominee for event publication clearly summarise the who, what and why above?

Innovation/Creativity (20 points) What is different about what the individual/organisation is doing? Are they filling a gap in a market or using resource, technology or something else in a new or creative way? How are they innovating?

Achievements, Performance and Difference Made (25 points) Have you explained how the nominee has made a difference in their field or achieved something notable? Have you included figures, examples or statistics, or testimonials and case studies from beneficiaries that demonstrate their achievements and impact? Have you told us about any growth (business, monetary, staff, volunteers) achieved? Have you told us about any funding that has been awarded? Have you told us about any awards or accolades the nominee has won?

Community/Charitable Impact (25 points) Have you told us about how the nominee’s work has contributed to the community that it serves? Have you told us how it has done this? Have you told us about any charitable impact the nominee has had?

Vision/Sustainability (20 points) Have you told us about any change that the nominee’s idea/vision has influenced? Have you told us about how the nominee intends to sustain or scale their work? Have you told us about any jobs or business that the nominee has brought to the Liverpool City Region? Have you told us about any impact outside of the region (i.e. nationally or internationally)? Have you told us about the nominee’s future plans?

Your Information
Your Full Name*
Your Email*
Your Phone Number*
Relation to the nominated individual*
Nominee Information
Suggested Award Categories*
Choose the category for your nomination.
Nominee Name*
Nominee Address*
City*
Post Code*
Nominee Phone Number*
Nominee Email*
Social Media Profiles
X (Twitter)
Instagram
Facebook
LinkedIn
Please tell us who the nominee is, what they do and why you are nominating them.*
(Also include details of their long-term vision/aims)
How has the nominee made a difference in their field or achieved something notable?*
(Please include barriers overcome, figures/statistics or examples/testimonials that demonstrate this)
Please detail any personal achievements which should be considered*
How has the nominee’s work contributed to the community that it serves?*
(Tell us about the nominee’s impact on the people or places they work with/in)
Is the nominee taking a creative or innovative approach to what they do?*
(Are they filling a gap in a market or using resource, technology or something else in a new or creative way?)
Please provide a short biography of the nominee and their work, which will be used for publication.*
(Say who they are, what they do, who they are helping and why they should be recognised) (150 words max).

Please note - This is will be used on our website and in the Women of the Year event publication should they be a successful Finalists for the Awards. You may want to confer with the nominee to ensure that they are happy with the declaration, as unfortunately no changes or amends can be made once submitted.
Click here to explore our 2024 Alumni bios for inspiration
Nominee Photo*
Drop files here or

Accepted file types: jpg, png, doc, docx, pdf, Max. file size: 2 MB, Max. files: 5.
Please provide a high-quality photo of the nominee. Here you can also upload any additional supporting documents (in docx or pdf format).

See image guidance below:

· This should be a head and shoulders shot, with the nominee fully facing the camera
· The nominee should be the only person in the shot – we can’t publish images of people other than the nominee and we cannot crop people out of group images
· Resolution – 300dpi

If a suitable photo is not provided, your nomination may not be progressed. If you are having any problems with this, email us here:

You can provide up to 4 attachments containing supporting information. For example:

· Impact reports
· Testimonials/case studies
· Images of work in action
· Examples of outputs/results
· Videos

You cannot use supporting information attachments to provide extended responses to the nomination form questions. Responses to those questions must meet the allocated word count.
Name
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