Anyone 18 years of age or older.

Sure!

1. To increase awareness of the kindness and compassion around us by capturing photos demonstrating these virtues
2. To educate and inspire the general public through wide sharing of the impactful content generated by the program
3. To engage photographers to be an integral part of this transformational program and both recognize and reward them for their efforts
4. To create more joy, harmony, connection, collaboration, gratitude, and compassion through these photos
5. We use the best of the images to share with others by displaying them in places of high stress. There is much science behind this.

Yes! The contest is completely free to enter.

The winners will be announced in February 2026.

The finalists will be announced in January 2026.

Finalist images will be selected by both the online community (public choice) and Envision Kindness staff. To be one of the top 10 finalists from public choice, you must have the most votes during the voting period.  The other finalists will be selected by Envision Kindness staff based on the quality of the photo, the message of the photo, and information included by the photographer explaining what is happening in the photo. The first prize and honorable mentions will be chosen from all of our finalists by our panel of distinguished judges. The Our World is Kind  judges will also select one special image from the finalists to be awarded the Nonprofit honoree prize,  and one of the ten AI finalists will be awarded the AI: Inner Visions prize.

Only one prize is awarded for any image.  If an image is selected for more than one prize, the prize with the greatest value will be awarded.

Kindness appears in many different forms. Our website also provides some ideas and we also encourage you to draw inspiration from last year’s finalists and winners. Some examples and ideas include:

1. People helping other people: volunteers for a good cause; helping someone by comforting them, offering them food or money, helping the elderly, young or disabled; leaving a note for someone, etc.
2. Kindness in Nature: People helping animals. Animals helping people. Animals helping each other.  Taking care of the environment; planting a tree.
3. Community: We really want to see photos from organizations that do good and kind work. Like donating blood, building homes or schools; taking care of the poor, sick, or disabled; taking care of veterans; advocating for peace, love, kindness, and compassion.

Our aim is to share images of kindness with as many people as possible to inspire more kindness. We also know that these images make people feel good. We include public voting as part of the contest so that you can inspire your own family, friends, and network with your good work.  The ten images that receive the most public votes will be included as finalists. And for photos that are terrific but don’t receive a high number of public votes, we will also select a larger group of additional finalist images that were not included in the top vote recipients. So there is more than one way to be selected as a finalist! 

To be one of our finalists by public voting, your image must be one of the ten images with the most votes. We will send out an email when we are opening the public voting period, and you can direct your supporters to visit our site and vote at that time. You can do this by sharing the link to your image with your network of family, friends, or colleagues and encouraging them to vote. 

Yes! If you were not a top vote-getter, you still may have a chance. Envision Kindness will choose a group of photos (not in the top 10 public vote recipients) as additional finalists to move on to the judging round.

Chosen from among the group of finalist photos, the Nonprofit Honoree Prize will be awarded to the photo that most powerfully tells the story of a registered nonprofit (charity) organization making a positive impact in their community. If an image is selected for more than one prize, the prize with the greatest value will be awarded. 50% of the prize will go to the photographer, and 50% will go to the featured nonprofit. Do you know a nonprofit doing amazing work in your community? This category could be for you!

No. Due to the large number of submissions, only photos eligible for prizes will be notified of their status after the judging period ends. This includes the finalists (10 selected through voting and a larger group selected by Envision Kindness). 

Each photo must be a separate submission. You are allowed up to five submissions.

Yes, but photographs must be uploaded by the deadline listed in Eastern Time.  We follow US law in awarding all prizes–unfortunately, according to US law, photographers from some countries including Iran, Russia, and Belarus may not be eligible to receive the prize money. In that case, we will donate the prize money to an international charity in the photographer’s name.

Yes.

Yes.

In order to be displayed in our online gallery without being stretched or distorted, photographs must be submitted in .jpeg, .jpg or .gif format, edited for the web, at least 3,000 pixels wide, 300 dpi, Adobe RGB, and no larger than 10 MB in JPG or TIFF. Mobile photographs must be submitted at their highest resolution.

Yes. Please check that your photo is a high-resolution image. Most smartphones are able to take high-resolution images.

Yes, but we also encourage you to submit new photographs that you have not submitted to this contest before!

Please email further questions or comments to [email protected].

This prize will be awarded to an AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated image that illustrates your inner vision of what kindness can look like. This could look like a conceptual image, or a specific scene illustrating the way you imagine kindness in the world.

We encourage creativity! Whether it is kindness to others, to ourselves, to animals, to the planet, or to society, there are so many ways to visualize what kindness could look like. What is your inner vision?

Important: AI-generated images will be judged separately and will ONLY be accepted in this category of the contest. They will not be considered for the 1st place, honorable mention, or non-profit prizes. Please ensure that your AI-generated image submissions do not include recognizable/known figures such as politicians or celebrities. Please also ensure that you enter your AI images into this specific category and not to the general contest.