Ontario Impact Rewards

Nomination Form

Nominees must have a clear connection to The Kidney Foundation of Canada – Ontario Branch, and the impact must have taken place within Ontario. Nominees can be volunteers, individuals, groups, healthcare professionals, employees, and organizations from across the province.

Nominations for the 2025 Impact Awards are now open.

You cannot nominate yourself, someone you are related to, or someone you are living with. The nominee's activities may include advocacy work but cannot have been partisan in nature.

Submit a nomination by completing the online form below:

Submit a nomination

You can also submit a PDF version of the nomination form.

Should you require assistance in compiling the information necessary to support the nomination, please contact the Ontario branch office.

Award Recipients

Download the list of Past Ontario Branch Volunteer Award Winners.

Criteria and Awards Process

The Kidney Foundation of Canada's Ontario Impact Awards formally celebrates individuals of all ages including volunteers, healthcare professionals, groups, organizations, and employees across the province who have made significant and unique contributions that make us a stronger, more vibrant, and effective organization.

Whether your nominee has made a big impact in a short period of time, has given back for over 20 years, or has overcome personal challenges, we want to hear their story!

Our recognition committee will be looking for nominees who meet the eligibility outlined below and whose contributions fall into the following five (5) criteria:

Criteria

Impact: Demonstrated commitment to eliminating the burden of kidney disease through patient programs, education, advocacy, public awareness, partnerships and/or fundraising. Their contributions displayed depth and significance that has made a lasting positive change in the kidney community.
Leadership: Exhibited the ability to motivate people and build consensus. Promoted teamwork, is a role model in their community or in their organization and have demonstrated persistence in the face of obstacles.
Innovation and Creativity: Delivered unique contributions that lead to improved programs, services, awareness, financial support, personal support, and/or impact for Foundation and the kidney community.
Inclusivity: Evidence of improving access or visibility of programs, services, events, and/or public education that responds to the diverse needs of patients and/or communities facing barriers.
Collaboration: Proof of a meaningful partnership with The Kidney Foundation of Canada, Ontario Branch, that has led to strengthened relationships with other individuals, volunteers, employees, public, private, and voluntary sector organizations, local communities and/or governments.

Eligibility

Nominees must have a clear connection to The Kidney Foundation of Canada – Ontario Branch. 
Your nominee must have contributed their efforts sometime between January and December 2025. This includes posthumous nominations.
Your nominee's work must have taken place within Ontario.
You cannot nominate yourself, someone you're related to, or someone you're living with. 
Nominees can be volunteers, individuals, groups, healthcare professionals and organizations and employees from across the province.
The nominee's activities may include lobbying or advocacy work, but cannot have been partisan in nature, such as volunteering for a mayoral candidate.

While long service is commendable, the Ontario Impact Awards are not dependent on duration of service but instead on the extent of the nominee's contributions to the kidney community. The Kidney Foundation of Canada, Ontario Branch, will award a maximum of twelve (12) Ontario Impact Awards; this includes a maximum of two (2) for Foundation employees. The Kidney Foundation will recognize the collective impact of all the nominees.

Evaluation

The Recognition Committee will give each nomination a score based on the submitted responses to the five (5) criteria. The maximum total score for any nomination is seventy-five (75) points. The committee can award up to fifteen (15) points for each criterion as outlined above: Impact, Leadership, Innovation and Creativity, Inclusivity, and Collaboration.

Recognition of Award Recipients

Recipients of Ontario Impact Awards will be formally recognized at a virtual ceremony during National Volunteer Week to highlight and celebrate their achievements. Recipients may also be asked to participate in the event and to share experiences and lessons learned from their work.

To promote their outstanding achievements, brief biographies, and photos of award recipients will be shared on Kidney Ontario social media channels, our website and with local media if applicable. Recipients may also be interviewed or photographed.

Tips for Writing an Impact Award Nomination

Explain the wider impact of your nominee’s contributions: You will be asked about the impact of the nominee’s contribution, so be sure to not only mention the immediate effects but also the wider impact. What were things like before the volunteer joined? How has your organization or the community improved since the nominee’s involvement? What positive things happened since your volunteer helped them? It is one thing to say that Ali’s role as a fantastic Peer Support Group Facilitator led to more people attending the group, but it is quite another to say that one of the attendees gained the confidence to talk to their family about living organ donation because of the information they received from Ali.
Be clear about what makes your nominee an exceptional leader: There are fewer awards than the number of people who deserve them and it is incredibly challenging for our judging panel to decide which nominees should receive an award. With so many giving people doing great things, you will need to be as clear and explicit as possible about what makes your nominee stand out from the crowd. Individuals can be chosen for all kinds of reasons—for the much-needed role they play in the kidney community, the commitment they have shown, their admirable leadership skills, their courage to overcome personal challenges, or any other reasons that will help them stand out to the panel. This is the time to express what makes your nominee exceptional and how they have gone above and beyond.
Present the numbers: When reading about what an individual has done and why they are so unique, often it’s helpful to have a statistic to help ground the story. For example, if you have a volunteer who has delivered gifts to dialysis patients for the past 15 years, you could mention approximately how many gifts they have delivered or how many hours they have volunteered over the years. Or if you have a youth volunteer who has raised money for their community involvement hours, you could mention how much time and funds they have contributed. These figures help to create a picture of the creative and innovative contributions the individual has had and how hard they have worked.
Tell a story: Providing detailed background on the nominee is a great way of helping the judging panel better understand the nominee and their contributions. For example, mentioning that Raul is a newcomer and has only been in Ontario for a year but has already increased the foundation’s visibility in his community, or that Margaret became involved in volunteering after connecting with a patient on the bus, or that Danielle works 50 hours a week as a nurse at a local hospital but still manages to find the time to be a Team Captain and spread awareness of the Kidney Walk. This story will help the panel paint a picture of the nominee in their mind to understand their story and connection to the foundation.
Consider nominating someone who has not been recognized before: With so many great individuals collaborating with The Kidney Foundation, if your nominee has won numerous awards for their work, it is likely they will already feel appreciated and have been publicly recognized for their contributions. We encourage you to look to possible nominees who have not had the experience of receiving an award for their efforts and who would truly appreciate being celebrated for the first time.