Association Grassroots Innovator

National Association of Realtors

In the association category, the Grassroots Innovation Award went to the National Association of Realtors for its Broker Grassroots Involvement Program, in which individual businesses and brokers were trained to recruit, educate, and activate a broad base of Realtor members and boost program performance.  In less than one year, program enrollment increased from 2 to 23 large brokerages, garnered nearly 100,000 participating realtors, and increased organization-wide participation rates to the highest level in program history. http://naractioncenter.com/.

Corporate Grassroots Innovator

The Cartoon Network

In the corporate category, The Cartoon Network, a Time Warner company devoted to children's entertainment and programming, was honored for "Rescuing Recess," a campaign designed to recognize recess and unstructured break time as important curricular components that foster student wellness and academic performance. http://www.rescuingrecess.com/.

In its inaugural year, "Rescuing Recess" encouraged more than 100,000 elementary and middle school students from across the country to deliver handwritten letters of support to state education policy makers.  The program also organized more than 10,000 schools in 4,600 cities to hold recess rallies to raise awareness of the issue.  Schools were provided recess kits and local parents and community leaders were invited to volunteer as recess monitors to see the program in action.

The Cartoon Network and its supporters, including the National PTA and the National Education Association, designed "Rescuing Recess" to increase grassroots awareness of children's health and obesity issues following a nearly 40 percent national decline in recess activity due to budget cuts and increased academic pressure. 

Innovative Use of Technology Grassroots Innovator

ClearWay Minnesota

In the technology category, ClearWay Minnesota received the Grassroots Innovation Award for its innovative use of technology in its "Fresh Air" campaign, a highly targeted grassroots program to engage hospitality workers in support of smoke-free policies in Minnesota.  ClearWay fostered this community of unlikely supporters by incorporating contemporary technology strategies such as You Tube, Facebook and MySpace to secure personal testimonals and share them with the public and appropriate public officials.  In its first year alone, the "Fresh Air" campaign garnered nearly double the anticipated number of supporters. http://www.freshairmn.org/.