Every year the Synergy Awards recognize individuals and organizations for their outstanding practices and contributions to making Metro New York's Association and Non-Profit community thrive.
All awards are open to both members and nonmembers except for the Distinguished Service Award, which is for Metro NYSAE members only. Self-nominations are encouraged. To be eligible, individuals and organizations must operate in the NY Metro Area. All available awards may not be recognized each year.
Synergy Awards
Lifetime Achievement
This award celebrates an individual who, during their lifetime, has made consistent and significant contributions to an organization, in their specific field or within their community.
Chief Executive of the Year
This award recognizes an executive who has contributed significantly to the advancement of the association management or not for profit professions as a key leader and has demonstrated outstanding achievement in advancing the mission of their organization.
Meetings Professional of the Year
This award is open to a meetings professional who plans offsite association or non-profit meetings, events, conferences or trade shows. To be eligible the person must have created an experience that challenged the status quo and effectively aligned it with the strategic goals of their organization. This individual is a visionary in the planning and meetings environment as they have had to combat the obstacles our post-pandemic world has provided, needing them to take their events to a whole new level and create compelling experiences to engage a community.
Distinguished Service Award - MEMBERS ONLY
This award recognizes outstanding committee service demonstrating team leadership either as a chair, vice chair, past chair, participant, or liaison as a contributing member of one or more committee that promotes the purposes of Metro NYSAE and benefits its members.
Rising Stars
This award recognizes individuals who have seven years or less of professional experience and have demonstrated the ability to develop relevant products, services, and resources that increase value and advance the mission of their organization.
DEI Champion
This award recognizes an individual or association who has demonstrated significant initiatives and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within their organization and/or their membership. The award covers excellence in all areas of diversity including age, disability, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, race, and religion. The commitment could include ongoing training programs, policies, employee access, or community projects.
Excellence in Educational Programming
This award recognizes an organization that has created a relevant educational program that contributed significantly to the development of its members’ profession or industry workforce. This organization has utilized a variety of methodologies to stay engaged with their community virtually and gathered the knowledge to connecting with a new audience through the virtual education and participation.
Excellence in MarCom
This award honors an organization for creativity and/or innovation in marketing and communications. The outstanding work can support any category of marcom, including print media, strategic communications, audio/video, podcast, webinars, or a marcom campaign (related to the campaign, three or more pieces with a common theme).
Excellence in Membership
This award honors an organization or individual that has demonstrated outstanding achievement in membership growth, retention, and engagement. The association/individual will have successfully implemented innovative strategies that not only attracted new members but also delivered exceptional value that keeps members deeply connected to the organization. Excellence will be evident through strong performance in key metrics, including OKRs, and through a clear, sustained commitment to meeting and exceeding the evolving needs of their community. This new award celebrates organizations/individuals that set the standard for member-centric excellence in the association and nonprofit sector.
Association Partner of the Year
The Association Partner of the Year award recognizes an organization that provides services or products that have significantly improved, promoted, and benefited the association/not-for-profit community.