CASE announced its 2021 Circle of Excellence Awards winners on June 9.
These peer-selected and adjudicated awards honor institutions worldwide whose talented staff have advanced their organizations through their resourcefulness and ingenuity.
Winners are selected based on several factors, including overall quality, innovation, use of resources, and the impact on the institution or its external and internal communities, such as alumni, parents, students, and faculty and staff.
This year also introduced newly created “pivot categories” which invited institutions to showcase how they successfully made the pivot to address the challenges and opportunities related to the pandemic.
In 2021, CASE received almost 3,000 entries from 27 countries. Those entries came from 530 institutions for consideration across 100 categories.
CASE is especially thankful for the 360 volunteers who selected more than 500 award-winning entries.
SF State Magazine Wins Sibley Magazine of the Year Award
SF State Magazine, from San Francisco State University, is the winner of CASE’s 2021 Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year Award, which recognizes the best educational advancement magazine.
Magazines eligible for the award have been published at least twice a year and have received a gold or Grand Gold award in Circle of Excellence categories including Alumni/General Interest Magazines, Independent School Magazines, Magazines on a Shoestring, or Special Constituency Magazines.
Though reporting in person, on location, and capturing people and places through photography were all but impossible this year, editors, writers, and advancement staffs at magazines across the country rose to the challenge.
SF State Magazine's Spring/Summer 2020 and Fall/Winter 2020 issues in particular “did well to find good and often ambitious stories to tell," according to judges.
In a time where students, staff, and faculty were not on campus, SF Magazine was able to use its photo and illustration choices to create a sense of authenticity and connection to place.
“We have such a sense of who San Francisco State is in these pages, and that’s a rare achievement,” the judges said.
The other five finalists for the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year are:
- Andover magazine, Phillips Academy and Abbot Academy
- Rice Magazine, Rice University
- Sidwell Friends Magazine, Sidwell Friends School
- University of Richmond Magazine, University of Richmond, and
- Imagine: University Libraries at Virginia Tech Magazine, Virginia Tech