Advocacy Australia’s “PR For Good Team” Blitz The 50th National PR Industry Awards

By Julius Ewudo, Cyber Era NG ASEAN Region Representatives

Volunteer-run charity, Advocacy Australia, has taken home three Gold awards and one Silver from five nominations at the 50th Communication and Public Relations Australia’s 2026 National Golden Target Awards (GTA’s) — Winning more Golds than any other organisation, not-for-profit (NFP), government body or PR agency, Cyber Era NG learns.

We gather that the 2026 awards celebrated 50 years of Australia’s longest running and most prestigious awards for the communication and public relations industry, recognising the leading campaigns, practitioners, teams and organisations that set the benchmark for Australia’s communication profession.

Achieving an almost complete clean sweep in NFP award categories, Advocacy Australia led a highly competitive field to take three Gold and one Silver across campaign, professional, team and leadership honours.

• GOLD: NFP Campaign of the Year: Asbestos Awareness Month 2025, Advocacy Australia & Asbestos Education Committee

• GOLD: NFP Professional of the Year: Alice Collins, Advocacy Australia

• GOLD: NFP Team of the Year: The Collins Girls – Clare & Alice Collins, Advocacy Australia

• SILVER: Leader of the Year — NFP: Clare Collins, Advocacy Australia

• FINALIST: Small Budget Campaign: Asbestos Awareness Month 2025, Advocacy Australia

With three Gold awards, Advocacy Australia won more Gold than any other organisation, and with one Silver, the four awards placed it equal-highest for total awards (Gold, Silver, Bronze), alongside mega agencies, We Are Different and In The Media PR.

Among the organisations and agencies with five or more finalist nominations, Advocacy Australia achieved the highest award conversion rate at 80 per cent and converted 60 per cent of its nominations to Gold. For an entirely volunteer-run ACNC registered charity, having no government funding or corporate sponsorship, and operating without the equivalent budgets, resources or teams that communication agency giants, corporations, government bodies and major charities have at their disposal; Advocacy Australia continues to punch well above its weight among industry heavyweights.

Advocacy Australia’s co-founders, mother and daughter team Clare and Alice Collins (The Collins Girls), said the award results were still sinking in.

“Despite being finalists in five categories, we went into the 50th Golden Target Awards feeling incredibly fortunate just to be in the room and considered among the industry’s finest,” said Founder and Chair of Advocacy Australia Clare Collins.

“We genuinely didn’t expect to come home with four awards, let alone three Gold because the calibre of the competition was exceptionally high.”

Co-Founder and Secretary of Advocacy Australia Alice Collins said, “To have our unique team, professional work, NFP leadership, and our national Asbestos Awareness campaign recognised in four highly competitive fields makes our achievements in the 50th Anniversary incredibly special.

“These awards recognise the different aspects of what we do in practicing PR for good. But ultimately, they all come down to applying strategic, impactful communication that educates communities and delivers advocacy giving victims a voice, that together delivers meaningful change.”

The NFP Campaign Gold recognised the national work of Advocacy Australia and its Asbestos Education Committee for Asbestos Awareness Month 2025, which was delivered largely pro-bono on extremely limited funds and resources.

In 2025, Advocacy Australia’s Asbestos Awareness Month campaign continued its national leadership role in delivering life-saving awareness and education despite operating on a micro-budget. It generated 955 of 1,121 monitored asbestos education media clips nationally, representing an 85.2 per cent share of voice against heavily funded and well-resourced federal and state government campaigns to achieve an estimated media reach of over 11.4 million. More than 422,000 asbestos education videos were viewed and over 21,500 potentially lifesaving education resources were downloaded during the campaign period.

For Clare and Alice, they hope these awards will do more than recognise what they’ve already achieved.

“Everything we consistently deliver without government funding or corporate sponsorship, is driven by passion, skill and an enormous amount of determination by volunteers dedicated to saving and changing lives,” Clare said.

“We hope this recognition opens doors to essential funding and partnerships to help us continue to build on what we already achieve year-on-year — delivering asbestos education to save lives and giving a voice to victims of serious crimes who’ve been silenced by systems that have failed them.”

“If this is what we can achieve with limited funds, imagine what we could achieve if we had the resources to expand our work in preventing exposure to asbestos fibres that kills over 4,000 Australians annually (three times the national road toll), and advocating for equity and the rights of victims of heinous crimes,” she said.

Funding would enable us to reach more Australians with our life-saving asbestos education message and develop our victims’ advocacy programs through increased capacity to support the many victims and families seeking our help.

“We hope this recognition of Advocacy Australia’s commitment to our purpose will show potential partners what we’re already achieving and what could be possible with the right support behind us,” Clare said.

Advocacy Australia’s performance is particularly notable competing with some of the most heavily shortlisted mega agencies and organisations vying for recognition in 2026. Advocacy Australia, Ogilvy PR, Herd MSL and HAVAS Red each had five nominations; We Are Different and BBS Communications Group had six each; In The Media PR had seven, and Ogilvy PR and Ogilvy Health combined led the overall field with an impressive eight nominations.

For Advocacy Australia, the 2026 industry award results build on previous successes in Golden Target Awards, including in 2025 having won three-of-three award nominations for its Justice for Biddy campaign (Silver – NFP Campaign and Bronze – Public Affairs and Advocacy), while The Collins Girls received Bronze in the NFP Team of the Year category.

Twelve months later, The Collins Girls’ delivery of their award-winning work demonstrated consistency progressing from Bronze to Gold, and Advocacy Australia’s NFP Campaign result progressed from Silver to take Gold.

The 2026 win also takes Alice and Clare Collins’ vital work in asbestos awareness and education to nine industry awards since 2012, including seven Golden Target Awards and two international awards — An AMEC Communication Effectiveness Award and a Global Alliance World Public Relations Forum Communication Award for excellence.

The 2026 awards saw Alice Collins named 2026 Professional of the Year — NFP, while Clare Collins won Silver for Leader of the Year — NFP, behind SSI’s Dane Moores, who went on to receive the National Leader of the Year honour.

“For us, these awards are about much more than trophies. They recognise the important causes and communities we advocate for and most importantly, the people and families who trust us with their deeply painful stories,” Alice said.

“We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved for victims of serious crimes and for asbestos education thanks to the support of our Board, Victims of Crime Committee, Asbestos Awareness Ambassador — Cherie Barber, Asbestos Education Committee, our dedicated, award-winning volunteers and donors. We hope this recognition helps us find the financial support we so desperately need to enable us to do even more.”