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The NOVA Board solicits nominations each year for awards and meets to decide on the merits of those nominated in order to award the most deserving recipients. The award nomination form can be found here.

Tadini Bacigalupi Program of Distinction Award
This award was established in honor of Tadini Bacigalupi who was one of the founding members of the NOVA Board. Mr. Bacigalupi was a lawyer in San Francisco who devoted much of his later life to promoting volunteer programs in criminal justice and helping to ensure the success of the National Organization for Victim Assistance. One of his last major efforts in NOVA was to establish this award before he died in 1981. Some of the criteria for receiving this award include: innovation in service, longevity of the program, quality of services, and use of volunteers. For the first 20 years that this award was established, the Board gave it to up to three programs each year. In 2001, the Board decided that one program a year might receive it to elevate the importance of each recipient.

Donald E. Santarelli Public Policy Award
The Donald E. Santarelli Award is given to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding public policy leadership that has a national impact. This award was named after Mr. Santarelli due to his extraordinary, pioneering leadership on behalf of victims and witnesses as Director of the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in 1974. He funded the original prosecutor-based victim witness programs in 1974, all of which are still in existence today and serve as mentors to the hundreds of programs that have followed over the last thirty years. The NOVA Board only elects to present one public policy award in any given year.

Edith Surgan Victim Activist Award
The Edith Surgan Award was established in 1984 to celebrate the life of Edith even while she was dying of cancer. Edith's daughter Helen was murdered in New York in 1976. Thereafter she moved to New Mexico where she became a tireless advocate for legislative change and the establishment of victim services. She became a national force for establishing victim compensation laws, the passage of bills of rights for victims and the implementation of such legislation. Her last major speech was by telephone from a nursing home bed to the 1983 National Judicial Conference on Victim Rights that resulted in landmark recommendations for the judiciary on responding to victim issues. This award is given to victims or survivors who demonstrate a life of commitment after their victimization to promote rights and services that help change the lives of victims. In one sense, this award is symbolic of NOVA's mission. No more than one activist award will be presented in any year. Most often this award is presented at the Victim Tribute at NOVA's annual National Conference.

Margery Fry Victim Service Practitioner Award
Margery Fry is a seminal figure in the international history of the victims' movement. She founded the shelter movement for battered women in the United Kingdom and then went on to be the inspiration for victim compensation in both the United Kingdom and New Zealand. In 1978, when NOVA sought to name an award after a person who could be considered a founder of direct victim services, Margery Fry immediately came to mind. Today, this award is one of the most highly prized in the United States. It is given to an individual who adheres to the highest standards in providing quality victim services on an everyday basis. Most of the time it has been awarded to a person who has been in the field for ten years or more and has contributed time and resources above and beyond what would be expected in a paid staff position or as a volunteer. Innovation in service is also a critical criterion when individuals are considered for the award. No more than one award will be presented in any year.

Morton Bard Allied Professional Award
Morton Bard was a psychologist who wrote the first book on responding to victims of crime in 1979, "The Crime Victims Handbook." He also wrote the first law enforcement training materials on domestic violence in 1972, and followed up over the years with volunteer work in training for victim service providers and law enforcement officers. He was known fondly among his friends as the "grey-beard" of victim services. He served on the NOVA Board of Directors for a number of years and always was there to help with new programs and new ideas. He was one of the first to suggest that NOVA have an "allied professional category" to recognize individuals whose primary profession was not in direct victim services but who often went outside their traditional professional arena to develop innovations that helped victims, or who provide extraordinary care for victims, or who became policy advocates on behalf of victims.. He said, "I know victim advocates are professionals, but what about the lawyers, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, law enforcement professionals, corrections officers, prosecutors, judges, and others?" Up to three awards may be made in this category in any year.

Stephen Schafer Research Award
Stephen Schafer was a preeminent researcher in the field of victimology in the 1960s and early 1970s. His book, The Victim and His Criminal, published in 1968, set the stage for further study of crime victimization in the United States. He was the organizer of the Second International Symposium on Victimology in 1976 and would have been its chair but for his sudden death days before the Symposium began. This award is presented to individuals who have made substantial contributions to a field of research that directly affects the understanding of victims or survivors of crises, their interactions with social institutions, or their place in the criminal or civil justice systems. Other kinds of research honored by the award are on trauma and its aftermath, appropriate interventions for victims or survivors, or the general development of the victims' movement throughout the world. The emphasis is on the value of the research to promoting quality victim services or to developing effective public policy. Only one award may be given in any year.

H. John Heinz III Federal Public Service Award
H. John Heinz III was a significant figure in the history of the victims' movement. As a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, he was the principle author of the Victim and Witness Protection Act of 1982, and helped to design the Victims of Crime Act in 1984. He also was a leading advocate on behalf of elderly crime victims. He served until his untimely death as a tireless promoter of NOVA and its ideals – and also accepted an appointed seat on the NOVA Board. The award is restricted to individuals serving in the federal government in recognition of the critical role that federal leadership has played in the development of the victims' movement. Criteria for selection include commitment to creating and sustaining public policy initiatives on behalf of victims; dedication to both sustaining and improving victim services through funding and training and technical assistance; development of innovations on behalf of victims; and the willingness to go above and beyond ordinary duties to promote these goals. The significance of this award is underscored by the fact that it has only been given four times in the last fourteen years.

John J.P. Dussich Founders Award
This award is one that can be given to a member of the Board of Directors or anyone else who has devoted extraordinary time, resources, or efforts to NOVA as an organization. NOVA is an organization that has always had a small staff and limited financial resources. Yet, NOVA's mission is very broad and, indeed, global. Throughout its history, its very existence has often been dependent upon remarkable individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to the organization and its purposes through significant financial contributions, personal resources, time, and energy – as Professor Dussich did as "first among equals" among NOVA's founders. The Founders Award honors such individuals and their efforts. Criteria for this award include length of time of service to the organization, level of involvement in organizational activities, and positive impact on the growth, development, and vision of the organization.

Marlene A. Young Leadership Award
The NOVA Board voted in 2002 to establish a new award to be given to an individual who has provided leadership either at the local, state or national leadership level to promote the provision of victim rights and services. They chose to name it after a woman who served on the founding Board, was its third President, and its Executive Director for 23 years.

Volunteer of the Year Award (Chosen by the Board of Directors)
Many of NOVA's activities are dependent on volunteers who are based in Washington, D.C. and its volunteers who serve across the nation. In years ending in even numbers, this award is given to one of NOVA's "national volunteers," and in odd-numbered years, to one of NOVA's "local volunteers." Volunteers are selected based on years of service, hours of service in any given year, as well as the ability of the volunteer to meet the standards of victim service professionals. Volunteers who have been selected in the past have made contributions in the fields of crisis response, work on NOVA's national hotline, conference coordination, office support and administration, and public policy.