All-in-One Awards Management Software to Grow Your Program

OpenWater’s awards management software streamlines and simplifies your entire awards program, from application and review to communication and tracking. Give members of your association or university community the recognition they deserve with less administrative hassle.

Trusted by Industry Leaders

ASAE logo.
Decanter logo The American Institute of Architects logo. St. Louis University logo. American Gastroenterological Association logo. American Society of Interior Designers logo. American Speech-Language Hearing Association logo. The University of Texas at Austin logo.

Key Awards Management Software Features

Grow your organization’s awards program with less stress! Trusted by hundreds of associations and universities, OpenWater’s awards software makes life easier for awards program administrators across the board.

 


Awards Website Builder

Create a website that wows applicants and shows off your award’s prestige right in OpenWater—no coding required!

An example website for the INC. Best Workplaces award created with OpenWater’s awards management software.

Form Creation

Use our drag-and-drop form builder to collect all necessary application information for every award you offer, accept attached files of any size, and set conditional logic.

The backend of the form builder tool in OpenWater’s awards management software.

Efficient Multi-Round Review

Allow reviewers to see and score all of their assigned award submissions and nominations as soon as they log in.

An example of a review form in OpenWater’s awards management software.

Online Gallery

Showcase your organization’s award winners by creating a gallery for your website that automatically updates with each new win.

An example gallery of award winners made by the Maryland Chapter of the American Institute of Architects using OpenWater’s awards management software.

Reporting & Analytics

Make smarter, data-driven decisions about the future of your awards program with built-in analytics and custom reporting tools.

The reporting features of OpenWater’s awards management software.

Email Wizard

Keep your community in the loop about new awards, submission and nomination instructions, application deadlines, decisions, and more with a user-friendly email builder.

The Email Wizard tool in OpenWater’s awards management software.

Integrations Hub

Integrate OpenWater with popular databases and management systems like iMIS, Salesforce, and Higher Logic to ensure seamless information transfer.

The configuration process for integrating OpenWater’s awards management software with a CRM.

The OpenWater Awards Management Difference

Traditional Awards Management

OpenWater Awards Software

OpenWater Awards Software

Need for Multiple Systems

Most online awards management solutions begin and end with entry collection. Then, you have to handle review, logistics, and tracking via email or spreadsheets.

Unified, Robust Platform

With OpenWater, your organization can handle all awards management tasks—whether completed by entrants, nominators, judges, chairs, or administrators—in one fully integrated solution.

Disconnected Look & Feel

Many awards solutions take applicants to a seemingly unconnected site to complete their submissions or nominations. This switch confuses users and often increases application form abandonment rates.

Consistent Branding

The OpenWater team will create a branded upload portal that matches your organization’s existing website and visual identity. Users will know they’re in a place they can trust and be more likely to submit their awards applications.

Too Many Moving Parts

Without real-time reporting and analytics, it’s almost impossible to effectively address applicants’ or reviewers’ needs. And, if you aren’t well-informed, you can’t make the best possible decisions to improve your awards program.

Easily Accessible Information

OpenWater’s advanced analytics capabilities eliminate confusion and simplify communication. You can automatically send reminders to applicants and reviewers, and it’s easy to tell the status of any action item.

OpenWater Awards Software

Unified, Robust Platform

With OpenWater, your organization can handle all awards management tasks—whether completed by entrants, nominators, judges, chairs, or administrators—in one fully integrated solution, saving you time, money, and stress.

Consistent Branding

The OpenWater team will create a custom-branded upload portal that matches your organization’s existing website and visual identity. This way, users will know they’re in a place they can trust and be more likely to submit their awards applications.

Easily Accessible Information

OpenWater’s advanced analytics capabilities eliminate confusion and simplify internal and external communication. You can automatically send reminders to applicants and reviewers, and it’s easy to tell the status of any action item.

What Our Awards Management Software Customers Say

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Based on stellar reviews on

Photo of Reggie Henry from ASAE.

We use OpenWater not only for our awards programs, but also for grants, fellowships
and generally anything that requires an application or judging process. All of this in one central system that integrates nicely with our association management system.

Reggie Henry, Chief Information & Engagement Officer, ASAE

Photo of Jill Straniero from ASHA.

ASHA uses the OpenWater platform for awards programs, grant and scholarship
applications, mentoring enrollment, course registration, volunteer applications and leadership programs. The
flexibility of the OpenWater platform functionality is crucial to efficiently and successfully manage these
various types of programs, each with unique requirements.

Jill Straniero, Digital Product Manager, American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA)

Photo of Linda Deleay from IET

The Awards and Prizes team at the Institution of Engineering and Technology
operates several awards, prizes and scholarship schemes, all with different entry and reporting requirements.
The flexibility and functionality of the platform has led to many improvements and efficiencies in how IET
awards are run. The support from the OpenWater team has been excellent.

Linda Deleay, Awards & Prizes Manager, The Institution of Engineering and Technology

Photo of Laura Beth Hooper from Direct Women.

Applications are very intuitive and easy to build, even with layers of complexity
and if/then processes, and judging options are very customizable, reporting options are extensive and
detailed. I did not have any experience building an application and do not come from a technical background,
but I was able to build our application without issues due to the ease of using the program and the prompt and
helpful assistance of customer support.

Laura Beth Hooper, Operations and Development Specialist, DirectWomen

Frequently Asked Questions About Our Awards Management Software

Awards management encompasses all activities associated with recognizing association members or university community members (students, alumni, faculty, etc.) who go above and beyond with tangible honors. It covers everything from nominating or submitting materials to judging, communicating about, presenting, and tracking awards.

Awards management software describes the solutions associations, higher education institutions, and other similar organizations use to organize, review, and track awards. The best awards management solutions (like OpenWater!) provide streamlined submissions, a user-friendly reviewer portal, communication tools, integrations, and other powerful features to help organizations recognize members effectively and make their programs more efficient.

Based on feedback from clients who have used other systems, OpenWater particularly excels in its customer support (our team’s average response time is 10 minutes), breadth of integrations with popular CRM and AMS solutions, and adaptability to nuances in the workflows of various awards programs.

Our reporting engine makes it easy to slice and dice any type of data collected in the system. Export data as a PDF, Excel, CVS, Word, or JSON file with the click of a button. There is also a bulk download feature that you can use to compress all submissions for a particular award into a zipped folder that you can save to your desktop or share with your team.