Portland General Electric, the American Heart Association and the American Express Company are the winners of this year's "Grassroots Innovation Awards" -- a recognition the Public Affairs Council gives to corporations and associations that demonstrate inventive ways to involve employees, customers and others in public policy issues.

The winners - awarded at the National Grassroots Conference the Council hosted Jan. 25-28 in Key West, Fla. - used "increasingly sophisticated communication strategies to empower others to act on their behalf," said Rikki Amos, the Council's associate director of political involvement programs.

Portland General Electric won in the "corporate" category for "Operation Switch," which used traditional and social media to suggest to its customers simple conservation steps, or "missions," such as using compact fluorescent light bulbs, washing clothes in cold water or turning off a computer's screen saver. The project created a sense of community by encouraging customers to share their conservation steps by tweeting or posting a comment on the "Operation Switch" Web page.

"Our customers are committed to making energy efficiency part of their day-to-day lives," said Gail Baker, PGE's director of corporate communications. "Efforts like Operation Switch demonstrate how working together, we can truly make a difference."

The American Heart Association won in the "association" category for replacing its traditional annual advocacy report with one that uses video, photos and stories to show how grassroots advocates made a difference.

"Upon hearing ‘annual report,' who doesn't picture a stack of papers with heavy text, charts and graphs and an incredibly tedious read," said Amy Shope Manzi, the association's grassroots advocacy consultant. The new report "makes telling the story of what we do in grassroots and selling our value to the organization and to individuals an easier, pleasant job."

Finally, American Express won in the "social media" category for creating "Small Business Saturday," a national movement encouraging consumers to patronize local businesses during the biggest shopping weekend of the year. Using a dedicated Facebook page, the company gave statement credits to customers who shopped locally, free Facebook advertising to local merchants and a $1 donation for each "like" of the "Small Business Saturday" Facebook page. The donations - $1 million worth - went to Girls Inc., which encourages young women to be entrepreneurs.

"Small businesses are critical to the nation's overall economy," said Leslie Berland, vice president of online communications and social media. "A grassroots effort to build a movement would not have been possible without the use of social media."

Rikki Amos of the Public Affairs Council presented awards to this year's GIA winners: Ellie Shaw of American Express, Amy Shope Manzi of American Heart Association and Celena Carr of Portland General Electric.