2025 Massachusetts Awards Open for Nomination

*Please note that this is a working document, and awards may be added to this blog throughout the year as we discover them. You may also see awards listed here where the nomination deadlines have already passed — it’s an archive of all available awards to also refer to for future reference.

Every year, the excitement of seeing new possibilities to nominate yourself or an incredible colleague for various awards rolls around. Between the well-known “40 Under 40” awards to more specific awards for a profession or niche, there are many opportunities to make your expertise and achievements known.

This blog post shares several Massachusetts awards that are open for nomination, with everything from certain careers to targeted areas of the state and age. Scroll through and see which ones apply to you or someone you know.

Need help applying for these? Check out our marketing and communications experts for publicists who can support you.

Statewide Awards and Industry-Specific Awards

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Best Places to Work Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s Best Places to Work Awards honor the area’s leading employers. These companies have 20 or more full-time and part-time permanent employees in Massachusetts and go beyond the norm to foster an enjoyable and meaningful work environment for their employees.

The nomination deadline is Sunday, January 26, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Fast 50 Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s Fast 50 Awards feature the fastest-growing private companies in Massachusetts that recorded the highest revenue growth from 2021 through 2024. To be considered, companies need to have had a baseline of $1 million in revenue for 2024 and at least $500,000 in revenue for 2021.

The nomination deadline is Sunday, February 23, 2025. Nominate here.

Entrepreneur Of The Year® New England

The Entrepreneur Of The Year program, hosted by EY, has been celebrating the ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses for nearly four decades. The New England program includes Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The nomination deadline is Friday, March 7, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 LGBT Corporate Ally Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s LGBT Corporate Ally Awards recognize companies that have demonstrated commitment, innovation and/or developed best practices in an effort to promote greater awareness of and solidarity with the LGBT community.

If your company has an affinity group to support LGBT employees or sponsors local LGBT organizations or related initiatives, you might be a fit. The BBJ will assess nominations in the following areas:

• Mission
• Innovation
• Impact
• Sustainability

The nomination deadline is Sunday, March 9, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 LGBT Trailblazer Award

The Boston Business Journal will honor an LGBT businessperson of note as part of its annual Business of Pride event. The nomination process is open to LGBT-identified business owners as well as executives at local companies. Nominees should be based in Massachusetts and have an established track record of accomplishment in their respective field as well as active engagement in the community, particularly in regard to LGBT issues.

The nomination deadline is Sunday, March 2, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Corporate Citizenship Community Collaboration Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s Corporate Citizenship Community Collaboration Awards highlight companies that have demonstrated innovation and developed best practices in specific partnerships with nonprofits at any level of engagement, including volunteer work, cash donations, in-kind donations and board participation.

Nominations will be judged on four standards:

• Mission
• Innovation
• Impact
• Sustainability

The nomination deadline is Sunday, June 8, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 40 Under 40 Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Awards recognize 40 of Boston’s best and brightest young professionals who are the achievers, innovators, and leaders in their field. These awards reflect the mix of brains and passion that makes Boston a business powerhouse.

The nomination deadline is Sunday, July 6, 2025. Nominate here.

Keep Massachusetts Beautiful’s 2024 Massachusetts Clean Community Award

The Massachusetts Clean Community Awards, hosted by Keep Massachusetts Beautiful, recognize volunteers, nonprofit leaders, government leaders, businesses, and municipal partners for exceptional environmental protection and community cleanup efforts.

The nomination deadline is Tuesday, December 31, 2024. Nominate here.

Cape Cod and the Islands Awards

Cape Cod Life’s 2025 Best of Cape Cod & the Islands

2025 marks the 34th anniversary of Cape Cod Life’s Best of Cape Cod & the Islands Awards, making it the longest-running “Best of” contest in the region, with winners chosen by readers. The Best of awards have traditionally served as a way for Cape Cod Life to connect with thousands of locals and visitors alike, giving them the opportunity to share the people, places, and things they love best about the Cape and Islands.

The nomination deadline is Saturday, February 15, 2025. Nominate here.

Greater Boston Awards

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Corporate Diversity Index

The Boston Business Journal is planning to publish its first Corporate Diversity Index, which will highlight the companies with the greatest percentage of people of color among employees, senior-level executives, board of directors and share of ownership.

This exclusive data will provide businesses with research and information on the workforce demographics at local companies large and small, at public companies and private, and it will include breakdowns at the executive/senior level, at the board level, and across Massachusetts companies’ local and global workforce. Please note: Only Massachusetts-headquartered businesses will be considered for this list.

The state’s most diverse companies will be celebrated at an event scheduled for March.

The nomination deadline is Friday, January 17, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Inno Under 2025

Inno Under 25 is our annual list of rising innovators age 25 and under who are making big moves.

The nomination deadline is Saturday, April 26, 2025. Nominate here.

Boston Business Journal’s 2025 Power 50 Awards

The Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Awards focus on those in the Boston-area business community who demonstrate the most influence on making both their company and the region a better place for everyone in it.

The nomination deadline is Sunday, August 3, 2025. Nominate here.

Western Massachusetts Awards

BusinessWest’s 40 Under 40 Awards

40 Under Forty is a celebration of young business and civic leaders in Western Massachusetts. This is a nomination-driven process; the background material submitted on a given individual is the primary source of information to be weighed by the judges who will score the candidates.

BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty honor is driven by nomination information that’s as complete and thorough as possible so their judges can see the whole picture of the person being nominated.

The nomination deadline is Thursday, February 27, 2025. Nominate here.

BusinessWest’s 40 Under 40 Alumni Achievement Award

This award will be presented to a past BusinessWest 40 Under Forty honoree who, in the eyes of an independent panel of judges, has most impressively continued and built upon their track record of accomplishment.

The nomination deadline is Friday, May 9, 2025. Nominate here.

Applying for Massachusetts Awards

Need help applying for these awards? Check out our marketing and communications experts for publicists who can support you.

Does your organization or publication offer an award that you would like to include in this blog post? Fill out our contact form with more information.