Announcing the 2016 Digital Strategy & Impact Award Winners!
Every day, public sector organizations are taking creative and innovative steps to enhance the citizen experience. These are the organizations that bring digital communications tools to life, and are adapting to environments where budgets are tight and demands are increasing.
This year’s GovDelivery Digital Strategy & Impact Awards recognize excellence in creative use of digital tools, the ability to enhance public awareness and engagement, and dedication to transforming the citizen experience.
With a record-breaking number of nominations, it wasn’t easy to choose this year’s award winners among the amazing work being done across the country. After careful consideration, we are honored to recognize 14 organizations for excellence in use of digital communications.
Please join us in congratulating this year’s Digital Strategy & Impact Award Winners:
Capstone Award Winner:
The Internal Revenue Service oversees IRS.gov, one of the most visited government websites in the United States, with 1.8 billion page views annually. The agency aimed to transform its interface with taxpayers on the web. Focusing first on content, the IRS implemented the Content Upgrade Project (CUP) program by using specialized teams across the agency to enhance the online experience for individuals, small businesses, large corporations, nonprofit organizations and tax professionals. Results show an increase in traffic to the services promoted, improved customer satisfaction for specific sections, and a decline in visitors immediately abandoning these areas of IRS.gov. By leveraging its internal partnerships and the momentum created by the success of the CUP program, the agency has set out to drive the massive project of transforming IRS.gov.
Communicator of the Year Winner:
Since joining the City of Saint Paul’s Department of Public Works, Joe Ellickson has been working tirelessly to enhance the City’s internal and external communications. By leveraging mobile technology, in addition to innovative communications tactics like list segmentation, Joe helped the Saint Paul Public Works Department reach new audiences and better their citizen experience.
Creative Use of Digital Citizen Engagement Winners:
San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency: Recognized for creative use of text messaging to engage citizens in a local construction project overhauling a two-mile stretch of urban highway.
Indiana Bicentennial Commission: Recognized for transforming the online presence of the Commission by combining social media and e-newsletters
with timeliness and reach.
U.S. Food & Drug Administration: To celebrate FDA’s Year of Clinical Trial Diversity, the Office of Minority Health launched the #ClinicalTrialsChampion campaign in June 2016 to raise awareness about the need for diversity in clinical research.
Enhanced Public Awareness Winners:
City of Oakland Economic & Workforce Development Department: Recognized for enhancing digital communications, design, and doubling its audience that now receives important information on inclusive economic development, equity, arts and culture.
Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources: Starting with few subscribers to their communications, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources used strategic digital communications to reach an audience of over 400,000 citizens.
VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP): By using detailed analytics on its communications tactics, CHERP was able to grow their subscribers by nearly 4,000 percent. The new traffic brought more engagement to their work and greatly contributed to enhancing outcomes.
Improved Citizen Involvement Winners:
City of Sacramento Volunteer Program: Through the use of strategic digital communications, the program was able to increase volunteer hours by 29,420 hours with an estimated value of $693,135 in donated services.
Minnesota Department of Human Services Office of Inspector General: Created a new way to post important documents for citizens on programs it licenses, including licensing actions and maltreatment investigations that has increased citizen awareness and driven new traffic to the website.
U.S. Department of Agriculture: The USDA’s National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) advanced a citizen-centric culture with two new innovative and efficient IT solutions: an online portal for farmers, ranchers and private landowners and a service developed to validate identity for the new portal.
Promoted & Transformed Services Winners:
Oakland County, Michigan Government: Initiated a “Map of the Month” program that provides an
opportunity for Oakland County to engage the public in a unique way using the latest GIS technologies.
Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office: By implementing new automated systems, the agency immediately experienced a high volume of online filings and a decrease in paper filings. The Secretary of State’s website experienced more than 10 million hits in 2015, which represents a 348 percent increase in website hits since the agency started moving toward becoming paperless.
U.S. Census Bureau: The U.S. Census Bureau wanted to make its highly valuable data easier to use, so it rolled out the CitySDK, a software development kit. This initiative was in an effort to not only build a better product but also build a community to make data easier to use and improve the feedback loop between the public and the Census Bureau.