Jefferson Awards

Q. What are the Jefferson Awards?

The Jefferson Awards are a prestigious national recognition system honoring community and public service. The Jefferson Awards was founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, U.S. Senator Robert Taft, Jr. and Sam Beard to establish a "Nobel Prize" for public and community service. Today, their primary purpose is to serve as a "Call to Action for Volunteers" in local communities. Criteria for winning a Jefferson Award are focused on characteristics that define the volunteer and the benefit of the volunteer service to the community.

Jefferson Awards are presented on two levels: national and local. National recipients and selected local winners are recognized and celebrated at a gala event held every year in Washington, DC during the month of June. Previous National recipients are a "Who's Who" of American history makers, including Barbara Bush, Rosalynn Carter, Colin Powell, Peyton Manning, Oprah Winfrey, Lance Armstrong, Sandra Day O'Connor and Alan Greenspan.

At the local level, awards recipients are ordinary people who have done remarkable things in their community without any expectation of reward or recognition. Jefferson currently runs three local programs: Youth Service Initiative (inspiring student volunteerism), Grassroots Program (community driven volunteerism) and Corporate Champion Program (employee volunteerism).

More information on the Jefferson Awards can be found at www.jeffersonawards.org.

Q. What is Verizon's connection to the Jefferson Awards?

The Verizon Foundation has partnered with the Jefferson Awards to recognize outstanding examples of Verizon employees who are active in their communities and to encourage more volunteerism among the entire Verizon employee community.

As a Jefferson Award Company, Verizon will award 12 Jefferson Awards to employee Champions each year. From that pool of 12 Jefferson Awards Champions, the Jefferson Board of Selectors will choose one volunteer "Champion" from Verizon to attend the National Winners Gala held each June in Washington, DC.

Q. Who is eligible to be considered for the Jefferson Awards?

Active Verizon employees who volunteer at least 25 hours with eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations or NCES public schools (or international equivalents) are eligible to submit a Jefferson Award self-nomination form. US-based employees must first register their volunteer hours using the Verizon Foundation's online Volunteer Journal - www.verizonfoundation.org/volunteer/journal.

When an employee registers at least 25 volunteer hours in the current calendar year, across all the organizations they volunteer with, they will be able to access the self-nomination form where they will provide additional information about their volunteer activities, including their history of volunteering with their nonprofits in prior years. More information on the Verizon Foundation's online Volunteer Journal can be found at http://foundation.verizon.com/employee/vip-faqs.shtml.

Internationally-based Verizon employees can access the online form located at www.verizonfoundation.org/jeffersonawards/international to self-nominate for a Jefferson Awards once they have completed 25 volunteer hours in the current calendar year with nonprofit organizations that have the equivalent to 501(c)(3) status in the US, or with local public or private schools.

Q. How are Jefferson Award Champions selected?

The Verizon Foundation will review all 2010 Jefferson Award applications, and will forward a slate of the leading candidates to an internal panel of judges from each business group for review.

Each business group panel will select the Jefferson Awards Champions for their business group.

VZ Wireless:	4 Champions
VZ Telecom & Business:	4 Champions
VSO:	3 Champions
Corporate (including IT):	1 Champion

A combined panel of judges representing the Verizon Foundation and all the business groups will identify and send a shortlist of outstanding candidates from among these Champions to the Jefferson Board of Selectors. The Jefferson Board of Selectors will select the volunteer who will represent Verizon at the annual National Winners Gala held in June in Washington, DC.

Q. When will Jefferson Award Champions be notified?

The 12 Verizon Champions for 2010 will be notified and will receive their Jefferson Award during National Volunteer Week in April 2011. The Verizon Jefferson Award Champion selected to attend the National Gala in June will be notified shortly thereafter.