Governor’s Community Achievement Awards

The 2024 Governor’s Community Achievement Awards will open on February 2, 2026.

The award application must be submitted online with all supplemental materials uploaded and application fees received by Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 5 p.m. CST. 

Late, faxed, or emailed entries will not be accepted.

GENERAL GUIDELINES

• For application questions, the reporting period is from January 1 – December 31, 2025.
• Your application must be submitted by 5 pm CST, Thursday, March 12, 2026, with all supporting documentation uploaded to be eligible.
• Population Categories: For 2026 GCAA applications, use the total community population for January 2023 from the Texas Demographic Center census data linked in the toolkit below.

ELIGIBILITY AND JUDGING:

• All Texas communities are eligible to apply, not just KTB affiliates. Cities, towns, counties, and unincorporated census designated places are all eligible. However, a community may not have more than one GCAA application. 
• Review the Application Tips to see what constitutes as a “community” and a “program”.
• If cities and counties apply as separate communities, shared program information may not be duplicated.
• First Place GCAA winners are not eligible to achieve first, second, and third place for 4 years.  For example, first-place GCAA winners in 2021 are able to achieve first, second, or third place beginning in 2026. See the chart below for reference.

While recent GCAA winners are not eligible to place, they are encouraged to apply in order to achieve the Award of Excellence (scoring 90 points or higher) and Sustained Excellence (receiving the Award of Excellence for 3 consecutive years.) The Award of Excellence is recognized with a certificate, and Sustained Excellence recipients receive a display award.