Awards season has arrived and so has a new awards program.

Social fundraising platform Tiltify launched the Creator Impact Honors, an annual awards program recognizing charitable work within the creator economy, in a statement released Sept. 9. The program will evaluate measurable impact for the causes creators support.

Creators already receive formal recognition in entertainment and media through awards, industry rankings and other honors. The new program adds charitable work to creator awards, introducing a formal way to evaluate the impact of creator-led philanthropy.

An independent jury of leaders from philanthropy, journalism and the creator economy will evaluate 2026 nominees for 20 honors in six impact categories. Tiltify will provide impact data to the jury but will not vote on the winners. Jury members include MatPat, Glenn Gamboa, Art Taylor, Tim Sarrantonio, Monica Khan, Matt Fitzgerald, Mary Kish and creators Shane and Hannah Burcaw.

Michael Wasserman , cofounder and CEO of Tiltify, said to me in an interview that the company began discussing an awards program around 2022. Since then, he said Tiltify has tracked creators’ fundraising through livestreams and short- and long-form content across communities of different sizes, activity he sees as significant to the future of philanthropy.

“I think the creator economy is going to become the most important thing to understand for the next 20 years of philanthropy,” Wasserman said.

Creator Matthew Patrick , known online as MatPat, said to me in an email that Wasserman and the Tiltify team invited him to join the jury. MatPat has participated in online charitable campaigns for the past decade, including multimillion-dollar fundraisers and independent creator efforts. His experience with campaigns of different sizes reflects the range of charitable work the jury will evaluate.

MatPat said creators can help audiences understand a cause, strengthen their personal investment and encourage sustained engagement after a fundraiser ends, factors he calls the “invisible part of the equation” that metrics such as followers, views and dollars raised may overlook.

“Impact can’t always be reduced to the biggest number on a spreadsheet,” MatPat said. “I think you have to look at what actually changed because the creator got involved.”

MatPat created and formerly hosted The Game Theorists , a YouTube series analyzing the science, stories and theories behind video games. The show grew into a network of channels with more than 40 million subscribers.

Wasserman said fundraising performance can vary based on where a creator’s audience primarily knows them. Tiltify sees higher engagement and giving among creators native to long-form video and livestreaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch, where audiences spend more time interacting with creators. Wasserman links those longer interactions to trust and community participation in fundraising.

MatPat echoed Wasserman’s emphasis on audience connection, describing credibility as central to how creators engage their communities around a cause. The American Giving Index found 70% of donors who contributed through a creator fundraiser supported a cause they had not previously engaged with, showing how an established creator-audience relationship can introduce donors to new causes.

Research forthcoming in the American Journal of Qualitative Research describes professionalization in the creator economy as an ongoing process, with formal recognition and standardized practices among the mechanisms that may contribute to greater legitimacy. Awards and other formal recognition systems can contribute to that process by establishing standards for work that has historically lacked consistent ways to evaluate it.

MatPat sees similar value in applying those structures to philanthropy. “Formal recognition of creator philanthropy says that this work deserves to be evaluated seriously,” he said.

Creator recognition has developed across awards and industry rankings. The Streamy Awards launched in 2009 to recognize online video and now includes categories such as Creator of the Year, Streamer of the Year and Creator for Social Good.

The Webby Awards introduced dedicated creator categories in 2025, recognizing work in content, business, community engagement, livestreaming and social impact. Forbes ’ 2026 Top Creators list offers another measure, ranking 50 creators based on estimated earnings, follower counts, engagement rates and entrepreneurial activity. This year’s creators collectively earned an estimated $1.02 billion, up 20% from the previous year.

Awards and rankings give creator work formal benchmarks in entertainment, business and social impact. The Creator Impact Honors gives creator philanthropy a dedicated place within the awards landscape.

The nomination period runs through Sept. 24 and covers campaigns conducted between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. Eligibility is not limited to campaigns hosted on Tiltify. Eighteen honors will be selected by the jury and two by public vote, with the first Creator Impact Class announced Oct. 27.