The top charity leaders on social media have been announced, with Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, stealing the top spot.

Winners were announced on Thursday 21 November at the Social CEO Awards in London, and were praised for using social to speak truth to power, champion their charities and demystify their work as CEOs.

Now in their 7th year, the awards were founded by digital experts Zoe Amar and Matt Collins.

Amongst the winners were Girish Manon of ActionAid UK, Tracey Bleakley of Hospice UK, Javed Khan of Barnardo’s and Mark Russell of The Children’s Society.

Shelter's Neate was announced the overall winner from the top CEOs.

Six individual awards were also made alongside the top CEOs, recognising excellence in social media and digital leadership.

The social media categories were won by Kristiana Wrixon of ACEVO (best senior leader), Dana Segal of Emergency Exit Arts, (best trustee) and Sarah Robertson of YouthLink Scotland (best rising star).

In the digital categories, Emily Casson of Cats Protection won best digital leader, while Helen O'Donnell of Children’s University won best digital CEO. Maddie Stark of SCVO won best digital champion.

All six of the individual awards were won by women, while 14 of the top 25 were also female. Nine of this year's top 25 were new entrants, down from 14 last year.

The nominees were judged by a panel of digital leaders chaired by Simon Blake, CEO of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England. The other judges were Kate Collins, CEO of Teenage Cancer Trust, Sarah Hughes, CEO of the Centre for Mental Health, Alison Lowe, CEO of Touchstone, Vicky Browning, CEO of ACEVO, Julie Dodd, director of transformation at Parkinson’s UK, and Yas Georgiou, head of digital engagement at GOSH.

Commenting, Zoe Amar said: “Our judges were impressed by how this year’s winners are using digital to grow their charity’s networks, discuss the great work their charities are doing and to talk about impact.

"All of our winners show how digital is an essential core skill for charity leaders, and vital to all aspects of their work. We hope that 2019’s winners will inspire their peers to be bold, creative and resilient in their online presences.”

Matt Collins added: “Huge congratulations to this year’s winners, some of whom have fought hard to maintain their place in the top 25. It’s also exciting to see new talent coming through, both in the top CEOs and also the individual awards.

"Our winners show how charities of all sizes, causes and budgets can champion excellence in digital. Leaders need to set the tone from the top by continuing to invest and grow their skills. This will help their teams and their charities go from strength to strength.”

A full list of the winners can be found here.

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