Award Details
Winner Selection
Each year through the Resilience Awards competition a collection of the most resilient businesses in Virginia will be selected as finalists.* From this pool of finalists, five winners will be selected to represent resilience in the categories of:
- Agriculture
- Manufacturing/Wholesale
- Retail
- Service
- Chairman's Award
Award Benefits
Not only do the Awards provide a source of pride within the winning businesses and their respective communities, they provide businesses with the support and resources to sustainably grow even more successful through the following:
Publicity The Tayloe Murphy Center is committed to helping showcase finalists, winners and their respective communities through a wide array of customized and sustained media coverage. Specific support for all winners and some finalists will include drafting press releases, story pitching, scheduling interviews, events and inclusion in next year's Resilience Awards marketing materials. In addition, finalists and winners will receive dedicated space on this website, with winners also receiving extensive time in the spotlight.
See some of the media coverage on the 2010 and 2011 Resilience Awards and winners, as well as this year's competition by visiting the Resilience Awards Media page.
Networking Located within one of the premier business schools and universities in the nation, the Tayloe Murphy Center will actively work to continually connect finalists and winners with key leaders from both the private and public sectors. Previous winners and finalists have enjoyed a wide range of networking opportunities that have led to increased financing and partnerships, access to talented new employees, closer relations with local, state and national officials, as well as the more intangible benefits, such as credibility, name recognition and learning from others' experiences.
Darden Executive Education Program With a scholarship to attend one of these programs valued at $8,000-12,000, the Darden programs open to Award winners are taught by full-time Darden faculty members, and incorporate experiential learning—gaming, simulations, and physical activities, for example—in conjunction with relevant business case studies, the cornerstones of the Darden learning experience. Darden’s open-enrollment courses are consistently ranked as No. 1 by the Financial Times in its annual survey of executive programs, and are considered world-class in their excellence by many business leaders.
Qualification
The Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards competition highlights businesses that demonstrate sustained economic vitality in communities facing challenging economic conditions.
Businesses qualify if they
- Are located in a community facing pressing economic challenges (with high unemployment, high poverty and low self-employment);
- Have been in business for five years and can show growth;
- Have more than one employee; and
- Can demonstrate support for their community.
Are you in a qualifying area? View qualifying map below or find out if your zip code qualifies by visiting the online application.
.jpg "Map 2011")
2011 Resilience Award Judges
This year's judges include:
Chairman, The Honorable Tayloe Murphy Jr., Attorney, Warsaw, Virginia
Susian Brooks, Director, Darden Executive Education at the University of Virginia
Michael Gurau, President, CEI Community Ventures; Founder and President, Clear Innovation Partners
Jane Henderson, President and CEO, Virginia Community Capital
Mark Kilduff, Economic Development Consultant, New Kent County, Virginia
Rebecca R. Rubin, President, Marstel-Day, 2010 Tayloe Murphy Resilience Award Winner
2012 Resilience Awards Ceremony
We will highlight the work of all of our finalists and winners at the awards ceremony on September 5, 2012.
If you are a member of the press and interested in the ceremony, please contact us via e-mail.
Still have some questions about the awards? Read some of our Frequently Asked Questions, or contact us at +1-434-982-4527, or via e-mail.
Applications for the 2012 competition will be accepted from April 2nd to July 1st.
Download 2011 Application
* If you are selected as a finalist:
Finalists will be asked to submit relevant tax forms dating back to 2007 and any professional audits. Audits are required when a businesses pursues financing, and we hope that our finalists and award winners will be able to pursue lending opportunities to continue building their business. If you don't have audits but still meet the other requirements, we still want to see you in the applicant pool.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are qualifying areas determined?
Qualifying areas are determined based on three measures: poverty, unemployment and self-employment. These three metrics — high poverty, high unemployment and low entrepreneurial activity — are key indicators of the degree of economic challenges facing any community. To determine eligibility, we first looked at these three indicators for all localities in the Commonwealth. Any city or county that was below the average in two of the three categories qualified.
Recognizing that there are challenging contexts within otherwise more prosperous communities, we next screened all zip codes in the Commonwealth. Using data from the U.S. Census, any zip code that was below the average in two of the three categories qualified.
If a community does not qualify, it is because it is doing better than average based on these measures.
Where do the data for determining who qualifies come from?
To screen by locality, we used the U.S. Census Bureau's 2005-2009 American Community Survey estimates. To screen zip codes, we used the 2000 Census.
What benefits will finalists and award winners receive?
Winners will receive a full scholarship to attend a Darden Executive Education program to help grow and advance their businesses. Winners and finalists also benefit from the marketing opportunities and attention that will be generated by the awards. We will highlight the work of all of our finalists and winners at the awards ceremony and in media outlets following the event. The center will be promoting the finalists and winners around the state as examples of successful and innovative firms, and our expectation is that this attention will lead to new opportunities.
My business has grown over the past five years but with some periods of decline. Am I still eligible?
Yes. Although the Resilience Awards seeks to highlight businesses that have been growing and employing people, we are aware that there may be dips in that growth path. Your ability to be innovative in growing your business in the face of economic challenges will be a major criterion in award selection.
Do nonprofits qualify?
Although we know that many nonprofit organization are engaged in meaningful work to promote economic growth in their communities, the Resilience Awards are intended to highlight the entrepreneurial work of for-profit businesses operating in challenging economic conditions; as a result, nonprofits do not qualify.
Who will see my application materials?
All information submitted in Tayloe Murphy Resilience Awards applications is confidential. Only the judging panel and staff will have access to your information, and all those with access to application data through the Resilience Awards process have signed a non-disclosure agreement. We will not release your information to any third parties or those not involved in the Resilience Awards program.