A panel of experienced government finance professionals and GFOA staff will review all applications. Panel members are selected based on their expertise on a broad range of topics related to government finance.

Applications will be reviewed using standard evaluation criteria including:

• local significance/value
• originality
• implementation
• overall contribution to the government finance profession.

Awards for Excellence winners showcase work that goes above and beyond in terms of overcoming challenges, implementing best practices, and developing innovative solutions to improve the state of public financial management. Additionally, they clearly document all the benefits the submission provides to the organization, its financial management outcomes, and overall long term-fiscal sustainability.

Winners may be asked to participate in a case study about their project/program, provide documents and examples for sharing with other GFOA members, speak at one of GFOA’s conference sessions or write an article for GFOA’s member magazine, Government Finance Review.