Winning the FIRST Impact Award

What the Impact Award is

The FIRST Impact Award (formerly the Chairman's Award, renamed in 2023) is the most prestigious award in FRC. It honors the team that best represents a model for others to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It is not about the robot - it's about your impact on people and community. Any team in its second season or beyond is eligible. Winning the regional/district Impact Award typically advances a team to compete for it at the FIRST Championship, and Championship winners are inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame.

What you submit

The submission, entered through the FIRST Dashboard by a designated awards submitter or lead mentor, consists of:

• Executive summaries - short answers to specific questions about your activities (each limited to 500 characters, including the last one, a team-submitted question you'd like judge feedback on).
• An essay - the narrative of your team's impact (limited to 10,000 characters), using correct FIRST terminology (see the FIRST Impact Award Definitions, updated for 2026).
• An optional video link - teams may optionally submit a video; if the team wins, it is shown at the event.
• An optional FIRST Impact Award Documentation Form - not required, but it helps prove your claimed activities and shows you're using correct terminology (now provided in the submission rather than handed over at the interview).

How judging works (and where media wins it)

From the Rev. Jan 2026 judging guidelines:

• Judges interview teams and read essays, then compare impact fairly across team sizes and resources - it's "not apples and oranges," so a small team with deep local impact can beat a large one.
• They favor recent (within the past 2-3 years), sustainable, repeated outreach with measurable reach ("the total number of people engaged").
• Presentation matters: judges ask whether the presentation is "gracious and professional," whether it "enhances the data," is "consistent with statements made in the essay," and is "compelling." This is exactly where your branding, design, photography, and video pay off.
• After interviews, judges may use your Documentation Form to verify claims, then deliberate; teams that work with FIRST programs "rise to the top."

The feedback loop

Judges enter feedback for every interviewing team into the FIRST Impact Award Judge Portal, automatically shared with the team 48 hours after the event (each note is 500 characters or less, covering an area to improve, something that impressed the judges, and an answer to your team-submitted question). Use this feedback to refine your essay, summaries, and presentation for the next event - the 48-hour window exists specifically so you can improve.

How everything in this branch comes together

The Impact Award is the capstone of media, branding, and outreach:

• Outreach generates the real, sustainable, measurable impact judges look for.
• Photography and video prove it happened and make the story vivid.
• Branding and graphic design make your essay, slides, and video look credible and consistent.
• Your website and socials are evidence judges can verify and a record of year-over-year growth.

Start documenting on day one of the season, write the essay early, rehearse the interview, and iterate using judge feedback.