2026 Superstars in Business Application

2026 Superstars in Business Application

Important information before you begin...
Please read thoroughly before submitting your application.

ELIGIBILITY:
• In business for at least three continuous years.
• 150 employees or fewer.
• Previous Award of Excellence recipients and applicants that were not selected for an award may resubmit their same application up to three years back.
• Previous Superstars in Business winners may re-apply after five years.

Please answer all questions. Incomplete or blank questions will be marked against the applicant. Each question has a 450-word count limit. Applications should be a team effort and always reviewed by the organization’s Owner/CEO or Director.

DEADLINE TO APPLY:

Thursday, July 9, 2026, at 11:59 pm. No late entries will be accepted.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING YOUR APPLICATION:

When are you finished:
Simply click "Submit." You will be notified in early September whether or not your organization was selected as a Superstar winner.

If you would like the ability to edit your application until the July 9 final deadline:
You will have the ability to edit your application up until the process is closed on July 9 at 11:59 pm.

How to edit your application:

Click "Save" and enter the email address where you would like the URL link sent. You can reopen the application when you're ready to enter more responses.

Once submitted, a confirmation page will appear with a link to edit the submission if desired.
Please select an application:*

Business ApplicationNonprofit Application

2026 Superstars in Business Application - Business Organization
1. Contact Information
Business Name*
Business Address:

Street Address

Street Address Line 2

CityState / Province

Postal / Zip CodeCountry
Business Phone Number
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
Primary Contact Information
Name*

First NameLast Name
Title
Email*
example@example.com
Phone Number*
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
CEO Contact Information
Name

First NameLast Name
Phone Number
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
Email
example@example.com

2. Background Information
Please describe your business. (Superstar suggestion: Assume the reader has no understanding of your industry.)

0/450
List the number of years in business and briefly explain how your business was started.
Number of full-time employees (including subcontractors and 1099's) and average tenure.
(Full-time employees are classified as working 30 or more hours per week or 1,560 hours per year.)
Number of part-time employees (including subcontractors and 1099's) and average hours worked per week.
(Part-time employees are classified as working less than 30 hours per week or less than 1,559 hours per year.)

3. Please provide your business mission statement and/or business philosophy including core competencies and strengths. How do you align your day-to-day operations to this statement / philosophy?
Superstar suggestion: Provide your mission statement, vision statement, guiding principles or strategies for success. How is your mission statement communicated to your clients, employees, investors and/or the general public (i.e., word of mouth, through marketing materials, etc.)? Also, explain how they were developed – were they customer or leadership driven, and how do you ensure they are understood by your entire company? Tell us here if you have team building meetings, strategy sessions and/or safety meetings that may include a regular discussion on these important guiding statements.

0/450

4. What are your key metrics and tools and how are you measuring your results? How do you use these to proactively measure your performance and guarantee future success?
Superstar suggestion: Here is the place to highlight any strategies and measures taken that resulted in savings, stability or growth. You should be monitoring outcomes that are a consequence of its operational performance and then serve as predictors of future performance. How do your results measure up to other companies in your industry? Be specific and tell us about innovative tools you use to market or boost sales, which in turn produced a good ROI. Customer loyalty, years of experience, low associate turnover and industry awards are all competitive weapons. We want to know that your business is sustainable and will be around in the years to come. Actual financial metrics (i.e., revenue growth percentage, profit margin, days cash on hand, debt ratio, etc.) could separate your application from the competition. *Remain assured that all information is kept confidential.

0/450

5. When thinking about your customers, what makes your business stand apart from your peers and/or similar businesses?
Superstar suggestion: Please use this question to outline how you identify customer needs and priorities. Tell us if you are measuring customer satisfaction or if you have moved to customer loyalty or customer advocacy. How do you engage your customers? Share with us how you brand your company and how you maintain it (i.e., social media, online networking, marketing campaigns, etc.). Tell us if you have a customer database or process to retain information about customers to use in the future. If you have a formal process for tracking and resolving complaints, please highlight your program here and brag about your results. What makes your business a Superstar?

6. A qualified workforce is a main concern for all businesses. How do you recruit and retain your associates?
Superstar suggestion: What are your key workforce practices and how are they directed towards creating and maintaining a high-performance work environment? How do you determine and meet the needs of your employees? If associate training or education reimbursement programs are a big part of your employee retention program or your quality/safety programs, please tell us about that too. Specific examples are appreciated.

0/450

7. What recent or current significant challenges other than Covid-19 have you had to overcome to continue to be a successful business? Identify and describe the steps you took.
Superstar suggestion: How were the challenges identified, and did you anticipate them coming? If they couldn’t be predicted, what did you learn for the next time to make the company stronger? For these opportunities, financial or otherwise, how did the leaders of the organization rally and engage associates to adapt to change and meet the challenge? Please list challenges within the past two years.

0/450

8. Discuss the nature and involvement of your community service efforts from leadership to employees.
Superstar suggestion: We want to know what organizations your company chooses to align with and why. How in-depth is your involvement? How does your owner/leadership’s commitment and involvement influence the corporate culture as it relates to community service efforts? Describe investments of time, as well as causes supported financially. Highlight efforts regarding care for our environment, care for underserved communities and/or social equality. Do you have a formal program that includes fundraising or service hours donated? Are the commitments or passions you have for certain causes conveyed in your marketing, company brand and culture?

0/450

2026 Superstars in Business Application - Nonprofit Organization
1. Contact Information
Nonprofit Organization Name*
Business Address:

Street Address

Street Address Line 2

CityState / Province

Postal / Zip Code
Business Phone Number
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
Primary Contact Information
Name

First NameLast Name
Title
Phone Number
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
Email
example@example.com
Executive Director (or equivalent title) Contact Information
Name

First NameLast Name
Phone Number
Please enter a valid phone number.Format: (000) 000-0000.
Email
example@example.com

2. Background Information
Please describe the work of your nonprofit. (Superstar suggestion: Assume the reader has no understanding of your industry.)

0/450
List the number of years serving the community.
Number of paid staff and average tenure (Please distinguish between full-time and part-time.)
Number of volunteers and their average tenure.

3. Please provide your organization’s mission statement and/or philosophy, including core competencies and strengths. How do you align your day-to-day operations to this statement / philosophy? Also please provide the number of people or groups that benefit from your organization (Please provide results for each of the last three years).
Superstar suggestion: Provide your mission statement, vision statement, guiding principles or strategies for success. How is your mission statement communicated to your beneficiaries, staff, board, contributors and/or the general public (i.e., word of mouth, through marketing materials, etc.)? Also, explain how they were developed – were they constituent or leadership driven, and how do you ensure they are understood by your entire organization? Tell us here if you have team building meetings, strategy sessions and/or safety meetings that may include a regular discussion on these important guiding statements.

0/450

4. When thinking about your key constituents (i.e., recipients of service, board members, donors and / or customers), what makes your organization stand apart from your peers and / or similar nonprofits?
Superstar suggestion: Please use this question to outline how you identify constituent needs and priorities. Are you measuring their satisfaction? How do you engage your constituents? Share with us how you brand your organization and how you maintain it (i.e., social media, online networking, marketing campaigns, etc.) Tell us if you have a database or process to retain information about your constituents to use in the future. If you have a formal process for tracking and resolving complaints, please highlight your program here and brag about your results.

5. A qualified workforce and board of directors are main concerns for all nonprofits. How do you recruit and retain your staff, board members, and volunteers?
Superstar suggestion: What are your key workforce practices, and how are they directed toward creating and maintaining a high-performance work environment? How do you determine and meet the needs of your staff, board and volunteers? How often does your board meet, and are there term limits? What is the percentage of board members who make financial contributions to your organization? If associate training or education reimbursement programs are a big part of your employee retention program or your quality/safety programs, please tell us about that too. Specific examples are appreciated.

0/450

6. What recent or current significant challenges other than Covid-19 have you had to overcome to continue to be a successful nonprofit? Identify and describe the steps you took.
Superstar suggestion: How were the challenges identified, and did you anticipate them coming? If they couldn’t be predicted, what did you learn for the next time to make the company stronger? For these opportunities, financial or otherwise, how did the leaders of the organization rally and engage associates to adapt to change and meet the challenge? Please list challenges within the past two years.

0/450

7. List your organization’s functional expense allocation as a percentage of total expenses:
Program Services
Fundraising
Management & General

8. Additional Financial Information:

Note: For help with the calculations, please refer to your 990 or 990-EZ
What is the calculation of your unrestricted net assets to current operating expenses?
How many months of cash do you have on hand?

8. Please use the space below to provide a narrative that will help the selection committee understand the strength of your nonprofit’s financial position.
Superstar suggestion: A well-run nonprofit should meet standards where at least 65% of its total expenses are on program activities. Please explain if your organization’s ratio is below that. Also, a well-run nonprofit should avoid accumulating funds that could be used for current program activities. To meet this standard, the organization’s unrestricted net assets should be no more than 3x the size of the past year’s expenses or 3x the size of the current year’s budget, whichever is higher. Please explain any variance from this standard. Examples may be that your organization is planning on a large capital project, introducing a new program, or in the midst of a capital campaign, in which the organization is accumulating funds for that expense.

0/450

Attachments
You may attach up to 2 pages of supporting documents to your application. Attachments may be items such as one page of testimonials, graphs to support responses, a one-pager marketing piece, etc. (Files accepted: pdf, doc, docx, jpg, jpeg, png)

Attachments are highly recommended by the Selection Committee.
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When are you finished:
Simply click "Submit." You will be notified in early September whether or not your organization was selected as a Superstar winner.

If you would like the ability to edit your application until the July 9 final deadline:
You will have the ability to edit your application up until the process is closed on July 9 at 11:59 pm.

How to edit your application:

Click "Save" and enter the email address where you would like the URL link sent. You can reopen the application when you're ready to enter more responses.

Once submitted, a confirmation page will appear with a link to edit the submission if desired.
Should be Empty:

2026 Superstars in Business Application

2026 Superstars in Business Application - Business Organization

1. Contact Information

Primary Contact Information

CEO Contact Information

2. Background Information

3. Please provide your business mission statement and/or business philosophy including core competencies and strengths. How do you align your day-to-day operations to this statement / philosophy?

4. What are your key metrics and tools and how are you measuring your results? How do you use these to proactively measure your performance and guarantee future success?

5. When thinking about your customers, what makes your business stand apart from your peers and/or similar businesses?

6. A qualified workforce is a main concern for all businesses. How do you recruit and retain your associates?

7. What recent or current significant challenges other than Covid-19 have you had to overcome to continue to be a successful business? Identify and describe the steps you took.

8. Discuss the nature and involvement of your community service efforts from leadership to employees.

2026 Superstars in Business Application - Nonprofit Organization

1. Contact Information

Primary Contact Information

Executive Director (or equivalent title) Contact Information

2. Background Information

4. When thinking about your key constituents (i.e., recipients of service, board members, donors and / or customers), what makes your organization stand apart from your peers and / or similar nonprofits?

5. A qualified workforce and board of directors are main concerns for all nonprofits. How do you recruit and retain your staff, board members, and volunteers?

6. What recent or current significant challenges other than Covid-19 have you had to overcome to continue to be a successful nonprofit? Identify and describe the steps you took.

7. List your organization’s functional expense allocation as a percentage of total expenses:

8. Additional Financial Information:

8. Please use the space below to provide a narrative that will help the selection committee understand the strength of your nonprofit’s financial position.

Attachments