The Radi-Aid Awards

22nd December 2017

About the Awards

The Radi-Aid Awards – originally named The Radiator Awards – is an annual event created by the Norwegian Students’ and Academics’ International Assistance Fund (SAIH).

Emerging from their satirical campaign and music video ‘Radi-Aid: Africa for Norway’, since 2013 the awards have celebrated the best – and the worst – of development charity fundraising videos.

The aim is to change the way fundraising campaigns communicate, and to engage people in issues of poverty and development.

This year, for the first time, PhotoVoice worked in partnership with the Radi-Aid Awards to bring new photo categories and our CEO, Tom Elkins joined the impressive list of judges which included:

Rafia Zakaria – Author, attorney and human rights activist from Pakistan, currently residing in the US.

Edward Echwalu – Award-winning photo journalist based in Kampala, Uganda, with an extended reach across Africa.

Sean Jacobs – Founder and editor of Africa is a Country, a site of media criticism, analysis and news writing.

Leah Chung – A social designer who works at the intersection of design and public policy.

The Awards

The Rusty Radiator Award goes to the fundraising video with the worst use of stereotypes. This kind of portrayal is not only unfair to the persons portrayed in the campaign, but also hinders long-term development and the fight against poverty.

The awards can be seen below:

Below are the videos nominated for the Rusty Radiator Award. Interestingly, all of the videos nominated are British, with two featuring celebrities, Ed Sheeran and Tom Hardy.

The Golden Radiator Award – Video goes to the fundraising video which moves beyond depictions utilizing passive subjects, provides context, portrays people as active rather than passive, moves beyond stereotypes, describes tangible and achievable solutions to issues, and inspires rather than provokes guilt.

The videos nominated show us that fundraising material can be creative and informative.