Incentivizing innovation and supporting makers
At their core, hackathons are fun and friendly competitions that allow teams to compete for prizes, awards, and accolades. This guide dives into choices, and the awarding of your event’s prizes.
Choosing your Prizes #
When deciding what prizes to award the winners of your hackathon, it is worth bearing in mind your desired outcomes and hackathon goals. Prizes are a great incentivise for participants to build products and market events by attracting quality talent, and they can also align participant priorities and get them to build products that meet needs and desires.
However, bigger prizes don’t always equal more participants. You should always provide prizes that are appealing, but you should also reserve some capital for other perks and bonuses, such as free access to software, mentorship, and workshops.
When choosing your prizes, consider:
Budget #
How much financial rewards are you willing to give to your winners? Once you have set your budget, stick to it and decide which awards will get what allocation of the funds.
Goals & Direction #
What are the intended outcomes of your event? We recommend having a simple 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes, however it is worthwhile to include additional prizes that incentivise diversity (Best Student Project, Best Female-Led Project), great design (Best Design), or technology, geography, or ideology specific awards (Best product that integrates technology {X}, Best US Based Project, Best Privacy Project). Prizes that are highly focused can also be made into bounties rather than open awards.
Participation & Audience #
If you have (or expect) a large amount of participants, it’ll be a good idea to add extra prizes. This way hackers will not get discouraged by the size of the crowd and they will feel like they have a competitive edge when it comes to winning an award.
A quick warning ⚠️ #
Do not underestimate the marketing and operations cost of running a hackathon. While the size of prizes is a great way to market a tournament, it does not guarantee quality or quantity of projects. Attracting engaged makers, knowledge sharing, mentoring, and providing other resources in a fun environment can have far bigger, and long-term benefits for you. A noted problem in the wider tech industry with hackathons is that there are, in fact, professional teams that only care about building to fit your criteria to get win prizes.
Selecting a Prize Format #
Prizes can be awarded as:
Money (Fiat or Bitcoin) #
Simple cash prizes for winners, distributed via fiat or bitcoin payments. If you opt for this popular route, be clear about the format the prize will be distributed in, and whether there are any legal issues or requirements (e.g. KYC). Highlight these issues before the event begins. Also, consider providing proof of funds for added transparency.
Perks and Rewards #
These types of rewards are for smaller amounts, and include prizes such as merch (t-shirts, hoodies, etc), memberships (e.g. GitHub premium for your team for 1 YR), access to investor days, interviews, and more. Additionally, if you have a product that has paid features or subscriptions, this could be a nice perk to offer the winners of your event.
Kudos #
This award is as good as the name itself (i.e. not a financial reward, but something which allows the winners to get a bit of respect within the space).