The LGFA Taituarā Local Government Excellence Awards® are for programmes, projects, and approaches that demonstrate professional excellence in local government management. The awards are open to any council, or council-controlled organisation (CCO) in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Why enter?
- Celebrate the success of your people – showcase the projects, people and innovations you are proud of.
- Build capability – the Awards helps to share and identify best practise ideas and innovations to help local government stay on top of its game.
- Learn and grow – receive valuable feedback and see how your initiatives measure up across the motu.
Which category?
You can only enter your project into one Award category.
There are seven categories:
- The Datascape Award for Excellence in Digital Local Government
- The Eagle Technology Award for Excellence in Community Engagement
- The Morrison Low Advisory Award for Excellence in Collaborating for Results
- The Beca Award for Excellence in Placemaking
- Te Tohu Waka Hourua (the Double Canoe) – Buddle Findlay Award for Excellence in Māori – Council Partnerships
- The GHD Award for Excellence in Environmental Leadership
- The Co-Lab Award for Excellence in Cost Effectiveness
We reserve the right to move entries to different categories – if this happens we’ll contact you and ask for your agreement.
What can you enter?
It’s about the ideas behind the projects and the impact they have had, rather than the size of the project or budget. Past winners have come from councils of all sizes from Auckland to Waimakariri.
Winning projects have covered projects from playground redesigns to America’s Cup infrastructure.
Winning projects have covered projects from playground redesigns to America’s Cup infrastructure.
The most important part of these awards is about sharing of knowledge and lessons – your programme, project of approach needs to be capable of transfer to other local authorities.
What needs to go into your entry?
Your entry will comprise of:
- A written entry (total 2,400 word limit)
- Project summary (200 words)
- Strategic Context (400 words)
- Project Management (300 words)
- Relationship Management (300 words)
- Project Success (1,200 words)
- A 2-3 minute video which clearly communicates what your project has done.
- 16:9 and 1080 resolution
- Uploaded to Vimeo or You Tube
- Videos will be used at the awards ceremony and published on the Taituarā website
Note:
- if you exceed 2,500 words we may require edits, ignore excess content, or decline the entry
- entries must be standalone, judges will not open links or supporting documents
- a small number of relevant photos is okay
- you must have rights to use all content you include
- winners may be asked to present their projects (travel covered where applicable)
How to enter?
Each of the Excellence award categories use the same criteria and the same form. There is a separate form for the Emerging Leader and Overseas Exchange Awards so make sure to check you are completing the correct form.
Entries for 2026 are now closed – if you have any questions email awards@taituara.org.nz
What happens after you enter?
Winners of the Awards will be announced at our annual Awards event – The 2026 Awards will be on the evening of Thursday 18 June at Tākina in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.
It’s a condition of entry to the Awards that at least one a ticket is purchased to attend (to accept if they are successful!) but we’d certainly encourage councils to send more staff along and celebrate their hard work as a team.
What makes a winning entry?
The quality of your submission is important – particularly your written entry.
Your project could be brilliant but the judges need to be able to see that clearly in your entry.
Tips for putting together your entry:
Your project could be brilliant but the judges need to be able to see that clearly in your entry.
Tips for putting together your entry:
Treat your entry like a project
Preparing your entry is its own project – especially because you must submit both the written entry and the video together.
The deadline is a hard deadline.
Entries pulled together at the last minute are obvious to judges as they often miss key points. Start early. Check availability of the people who need to approve content, provide comms support, and help create the video.
The strongest entries are usually written by the people who actually delivered the work, because they can clearly explain what happened, why it mattered, and what others can learn from it.
Transferability
One of the core purposes of the awards is sector capability building. Make it explicit what other councils can take from your work:
- what approach could be applied or adapted elsewhere?
- what did you learn that could help another council deliver results faster / better?
The best entries also show how they have embedded learning into everyday practice.Demonstrate results
Your entry must show evidence of outcomes: cost savings, change in behaviour, better services, community feedback, environmental improvements etc.
Use concrete evidence, numbers, feedback, data, surveys, real measures.
Note: if the project is too new to have results yet, consider delaying your entry until you have something measurable to show.
Show the strategic context
The strongest entries clearly explain how the project links to the council’s strategic goals or challenges.
Judges want to see:
- evidence there was a defined need
- the project directly responds to that need
This is where the “big ideas” tend to shine — but small initiatives can score well if the strategic connection is clear.Show your project management
Good outcomes that happened by accident are good for the community but not so useful for sector learning.
Your entry should demonstrate:
- clear objectives
- structured delivery
- appropriate governance / oversight
- how success was measured
Prioritise your effort
Judges score the written entry first. If time is short, spend your energy making your written entry excellent.
A simple 2–3 minute video is enough. The video does not need high-end production. It needs to clearly communicate what was achieved.
Also note, not all criteria are weighted equally, if you are short on time concentrate your efforts on the areas that will be looked at more closely.
Keep it clear and succinct
Judges will read more than 50 entries.
Be as clear, succinct and direct as you can. Don’t make the judges work harder – use the criteria in the entry form as headings
Celebrate with us
Join us at the Excellence Awards 18 June in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington to celebrate local government excellence.
