Makepeace Community CoCommunity Leader of the Year
The Community Leader of the Year Award celebrates a business owner who has built and leads a purpose-driven community, network or membership that creates meaningful connection and measurable impact. It recognises leaders who bring people together around a shared purpose and use their business, platform and leadership to create opportunities, strengthen connection and produce outcomes that extend beyond audience size or visibility.
Choose this category when: Your strongest story is the community, membership or network you have built and the outcomes created for the people within it.
Is this your category?
A quick read on the businesses this title is written for.
Owns and leads a business-based community, network or membership.
Demonstrates real engagement and measurable outcomes within that community.
Uses their leadership and influence to create connection, opportunity, collaboration or positive change.
What judges need to see.
The five areas your answers are assessed against.
Foundation
The purpose and foundation of the community and how clearly the entrant fits this Award.
Results
Measurable community results and evidence of what has changed for members or participants.
Decisions
The decisions, initiatives and execution that created those outcomes.
Leadership
Leadership in practice, including how the entrant creates opportunity, connection, belonging or growth for others.
Impact
Wider impact and credible future direction.
Evidence to start gathering
Your Evidence Pack exists to strengthen and verify what you have written in your application. It should not simply repeat the entry or function as a marketing brochure. For Community Leader of the Year, strong evidence may help judges understand who participates in the community, how participation has changed over time, what people gain from being part of it, what outcomes have been created and how the entrant knows those outcomes occurred. Follower numbers, impressions or reach may provide useful context, but they do not demonstrate community impact on their own.
Read the Evidence Pack guideMembership or participant growth with a clear timeframe and starting point.
Engagement, participation or retention data with appropriate context.
Surveys or feedback demonstrating measurable member outcomes.
Examples of members or participants achieving identifiable professional, commercial, social or personal outcomes.
Partnership or collaboration outcomes.
Program, event or initiative participation and results.
Testimonials that describe specific outcomes rather than general praise.
Before-and-after comparisons.
Entry details and eligibility
The format, the dates and the conditions that apply to this title.
The entrant must own and lead the business associated with the community, network or membership being entered.
The business must have been operating for a minimum of 12 months as at 5 October 2026.
The community must form a real part of the entrant's business model, platform or business activity.
The entrant must be able to demonstrate outcomes created through the community, not simply audience size or social media reach.
The entrant must meet all standard RAYE Awards eligibility requirements.
- Assessment period
- 2024–27.
- Minimum business age
- 12 months.
- Written responses
- 5.
- Evidence Pack
- 5 pages.
1 January 2024 to 28 February 2027
Minimum 12 months in business as at 4 October 2026
5 written responses, up to 400 words each.
One PDF, up to 5 pages and 10 MB.
Resources
Before you enter
Five short reads that answer almost everything. Each one opens the Entry Guide at the right place.
Evidence Pack guide
What counts as evidence, what does not, and how to lay the PDF out.
Full eligibility
The rules that apply to every title, including trading dates and locations.
How judging works
Who reads your entry, how it is scored and how finalists are chosen.
Build a strong entry
How to answer the five questions with specifics instead of adjectives.
Frequently asked questions
Costs, deadlines, multiple entries and everything else people ask first.
Category partner
Makepeace Community Co
Emma Makepeace, Founder · Sunshine Coast
Presenting Community Leader of the Year
Presenting partners do not score, select or influence entrants. Judging is run independently.
RAYE Awards 2027
Community Leader of the Year
Entries are written and submitted in the RAYE Awards portal, a separate system to RAYE Haus. Read the criteria, gather your evidence, then head across.