16 towns. 5 rounds.
1 champion.

Compete

Anybody can for the Strongest Town Contest. If your town is accepted during the nomination review process, it will become an official contestant in the 2025 Contest.

Rally support and showcase your town’s strength, capitalizing on the benefits of amplifying your town’s story through Strong Towns.

Vote

At the beginning of each round of the Strongest Town Contest, we will open voting on strongesttown.com. It’s up to our readers to vote for their favorite contestants.

As a competing town, you can rally your neighbors to submit their votes and give your community a competitive edge!

Win

The winning town will be honored at the Strong Towns National Gathering, with two representatives flown in (room and board covered) and presented with their award, plus we’ll create a special film about your town.
Note: While the contest is open to anyone in the world, we can only cover flights to the Gathering from the continental United States due to the small budget of our organization. If a town outside the continental US wins, the scope and nature of the film may also be subject to negotiation.

Contest Timeline

Pre-Contest

Nominate Your Town

Nominations open from October 29, 2024 to February 23, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. CT

Format:

Nominate your town for the 2025 Strongest Town Contest. Past winners are ineligible to enter, but past contestants that did not win are welcome to enter the 2025 contest.

Application Review:

February 24–28

Round 1: March 3-6

Meet Your Contestants

Format:

16 towns are grouped into 4 segments of 4, with a theme for each group such as Striving for Safer Streets, Right-Sizing Parking Policy, etc. Everyone gets to vote for the best town in each segment, basing their votes on information from that town’s application.

Result:

One winner is crowned in each of the four categories. Then, all 16 towns continue to Round 2.

Round 2: March 10-13

Sweet Sixteen

Format:

Each town is matched against another town, bracket style, for 8 total match-ups. Everyone gets to vote on the strongest town in each match-up by reviewing the towns’ applications for the contest.

Result:

One town wins each match-up based on popular votes. Eight towns advance to Round 3.

Round 3: March 17-20

Elite Eight

Format:

Each town is matched against another town, bracket style, for 4 total match-ups. Everyone gets to vote on the strongest town in each match-up, basing their votes on a photo tour of each town.

Result:

One town wins each match-up based on popular votes. Four towns advance to Round 4.

Round 4: March 31-April 3

Final Four

Format:

The bracket continues with two match-ups. Everyone gets to vote on the strongest town in each match-up, basing their votes on an essay about the town by Strong Towns staff writers.

Result:

One town wins each match-up based on popular votes. Two towns advance to the Championship.

Round 5: April 8-14

Championship

Format:

The final two towns compete in a live championship webinar. Everyone gets to vote for the strongest town.

Result:

Two representatives from the winning town are flown to the 2025 Strong Towns National Gathering in Providence, Rhode Island (June 9-11) to be presented with their award certificate. Strong Towns’ video creator will also visit the winning town later in 2025 to make a documentary short film about the community.
Strongest Town Contest
Learn more about about how to make your town stronger at strongtowns.org
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