
Membership Awards
STANDING OVATION AWARD
This award is for individual contributors to the overall growth of NAACP Membership and awardee(s) must be submitted by the leadership of the Unit to Membership Services. A winner from each Region will be chosen. In the case of multiple entries, National Staff will choose a winner based on the following criteria:
- A positive attitude about the NAACP and has submitted their request to tell their "I AM A NAACP Member" Story.
- Is prepared, organized, and works within timelines as demonstrated as leading a Membership Drive in the last year.
- Has succeeded in selling NAACP memberships.
- Has a high-level teamwork, integrity and honesty.
2025 Recipients:
- Region I: Nedra Denise Cooper, Las Vegas Branch
- Region II: Myles Hollingsworth, New York Youth State Conference
- Region III: Kellye Denise Cunningham, Kentucky State Conference
- Region IV: Steven E. Ricard, Kansas City-Missouri Branch
- Region V: Brenda Murphy, South Carolina State Conference
- Region VI: Joseph Cotton Sr., New Mexico State Conference
- Region VII: Karen Jones, Montgomery/Rayford Floyd County
NAACP CLUB 100
This award is open to all Units, for the Membership Chair and team who signed up at least 100 new members between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024. Members must be reported in the Membership Portal on or before June 17, 2024. Awards will be available for pick up immediately following the National Membership Luncheon on Monday, July 15, 2024.
PRESIDENT'S CIRCLE
This award is open to all Units and for the Membership Chair and team who sold at least $5000.00 in memberships between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024. Awards will be available for pick up immediately following the National Membership Luncheon Monday, July 15, 2024.
Benjamin L. Hooks Keeper of the Flame Award
The NAACP Benjamin L. Hooks "Keeper of the Flame" Award was established in 1992 in honor of the late Benjamin Lawson Hooks, the fifth Executive Director of the NAACP (1977-1992). This award recognizes individuals who demonstrate exceptional service in advancing the objectives of the NAACP, the labor movement, and the NAACP Labor Committee.
The award is presented to individuals who:
- Distinguish themselves by significantly contributing to racial equality and fairness in the workplace and society.
- Enthusiastically support civil rights, worker rights, and justice for all people.
- Foster and encourage positive outcomes in civic engagement and the political process, locally and/or nationally.
- Display outstanding leadership qualities.
- Uphold and practice the tenets of a democratic society, including the belief that all people are created equal and that freedom is a God-given right that must be vigilantly protected at all times and at all levels of government.
2025 Recipients:
- Rev. Corine Mack
- Sandra Lee Williams
- Kim Smith
- Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
- Jimmie Garland
ELLA JO BAKER AWARD
Ella Baker began her involvement with the NAACP in 1940. She worked as a field secretary and then served as director of branches from 1943 until 1946. Inspired by the historic bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, Baker co-founded the organization In Friendship to raise money to fight against Jim Crow Laws in the deep South. In 1957, Baker moved to Atlanta to help organize Martin Luther King's new organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). She also ran a voter registration campaign called the Crusade for Citizenship.
The Ella Jo Baker Award will be awarded to the top three Units in each category with the highest membership percent increase between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024. Five awards will be presented during the National Membership Luncheon Monday, July 15, 2024:
- Units that started with 100 or less.
- Units that started with 101-250 members.
- Units that started with 251-500 or more.
- Units that started with 501 or more.
2025 recipients:
100 Members or Less:
- Athens Branch
- Coweta County Youth Council
- Washington Parish Youth Council
- Texas State University
- Central Delaware Youth Council
101-250 Members:
- Greater Bridgeport Branch
- West Palm Beach Branch
- Bergen County
- Orange County Branch
- Alabama State University
251-500 Members:
- Miami-Dade Branch
- Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Branch
- Howard University
- Sacramento Branch
- Morris County Branch
500 or More Members:
- Greater Indianapolis Branch
- New York Branch
- Southside Chicago Branch
- Toledo Branch
- Mid-Manhattan Branch
LUCILLE BLACK AWARDS
Lucille Black retired as national membership secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Miss Black joined the association in 1927 and became membership secretary in 1945. Her duties expanded to include planning, coordinating and supervising membership drives, acknowledging and recording memberships and attending branch meetings throughout the country.
For the Membership Chair and Unit with the highest total of new memberships added between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024. Two separate awards for Adult and Youth and College will be presented during the National Membership Luncheon on Monday, July 15, 2024.
2025 recipients:
- Hillsborough Branch
- Howard University NAACP
THE CHAIRMAN'S IMPACT AWARD
This award is given to the top Unit and team that has earned or qualified for all the awards and received the highest in each category.
To qualify, your Unit must have:
- 100 or more active members between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024.
- Raised $5000 or more in membership revenues (includes corporate) between May 1, 2023, and June 17, 2024.
- Increased membership by at least 25%. The winners will have increased membership by the highest percentage growth in the past year.
2025 recipient:
- Sacramento Branch
CENTENNIAL UNIT AWARDS
This award is recognition of those Units that celebrated 100 years as a chartered Unit in the current year. For this year, we will recognize units that have reached this centennial milestone within the last five years.