Target, Walmart, Feeding America and Edelman were the winners of this year’s “Grassroots Innovation Awards” – a recognition the Public Affairs Council gives to corporations and associations that demonstrate inventive ways to involve employees, customers and others in public policy issues.

The winners – awarded at the National Grassroots Conference the Council hosted Jan. 20-23 in Orlando, Fla. – collectively demonstrated that grassroots activity is “not just … a solitary tool for handling one issue or campaign, but… a way to engage advocates for the long-haul,” said Rikki Amos, the Council’s associate director of political involvement programs.

The winners “show us that truly successful grassroots builds community and empowers others to take action,” Amos said. 

First presented in 2000, the awards recognize the nation's best grassroots programs and campaigns.

Target and Walmart were both winners in the “corporate” category.

Target won for creating tools and events to encourage community action at the local, state and federal levels. A “Citizens’ Forum” used a live Twitter feed and communication tools to help employees reach elected officials. “Target Twitizens” allowed workers to read about and comment on news and issues relevant to the company. A “National Civic Summit” assembled government and business leaders, civic groups and the public to explore new civic engagement ideas and included a Twitter feed that launched a national conversation about the issue.

“The coolest thing is that we were streaming this live on video, and the Twitter conversation started to pick up, and there were tweets coming from Brazil and Eastern Europe,” said Beth Cieslik, Target’s manager of civic affairs. “Our approach was, ‘we’re going to talk about the common good and what we have in common rather than our differences.’ ”

Walmart won for creating an Internet-based “Community Action Network” that educates customers and others about news, legislation and other developments that might affect the company, customers or their local stores. In one public place, the website offers information on political advocacy, corporate citizenship and communications.

“We wanted to tap into the loyalty that customers have for their (local) store,” said Aaron Bernstein, Walmart Stores’ senior manager for advocacy and outreach. “We needed to deliver clear and powerful voices from our customers. We wanted to provide them with a platform where they could go to learn about the issues, and then to take action.”

Feeding America won in the “association” category for a contest it created among its 205 food banks designed to get activists engaged during “Hunger Action Month.” The contest awarded the banks “minutes” for different activities, such as writing or phoning a member of Congress, posting information on “Hunger Action Month’ on their social media sites or getting commitments from others to get involved. The food bank with the most “minutes” won a truckload of food.

“It’s hard to find anyone in America who believes in hunger, but getting people to actually take action against hunger is a task,” said Maura Daly, Feeding America’s vice president for government relations and advocacy. “It was interesting to us how the notion of giving away a truckload of food took off like wildfire.”

Finally, Edelman won in the “social media” category – a new award the Council created this year -- for its “Social Capital Widget,” a sort of “one-stop-shopping” Internet tool that allows constituents to choose Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube or a congressional website to reach lawmakers outside official communication channels.

“We’re in an era of political exhibitionism, where people really want to show their friends that they’re taking action,” said Monte Lutz, Edelman’s senior vice president for digital public affairs. “People want to get involved if you make it easy.”