This is what consistent, county-wide commitment to innovation looks like when it shows up in the data. 257 national awards in a single year. That number belongs to San Bernardino County, California, which led the nation’s more than 3,000 counties in NACo Achievement Awards for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, and broke its own record in the process.
A Record That Keeps Growing
San Bernardino County earned 257 Achievement Awards from the National Association of Counties in 2025, topping the record-setting 200 NACo awards it won in 2024. The county also earned a coveted Best in Category distinction as part of its 2025 haul.
To put this in context: NACo’s Achievement Awards program, which launched in 1970, recognizes outstanding county programs across 18 categories including children and youth, criminal justice, public safety, libraries, management, information technology, health, and civic engagement. Each nominated program is judged on its own merits — not against other applications. Earning 257 in a single year across numerous departments signals that innovation is operating county-wide, not just in one high-performing office. The 2025 result extended a streak that began in 2022 and set a new national benchmark for award volume.
The Programs Behind the Numbers
Three programs from San Bernardino County’s 2025 recognition stand out for what they demonstrate about replicable innovation in county government.
Recruitment Road Trip: Bringing Hiring to the Community
San Bernardino County’s Human Resources department earned multiple awards in 2025, including recognition for the Recruitment Road Trip program. The initiative brings HR services directly to communities across the county, including remote and underserved areas, connecting residents to job opportunities and application support in a mobile format. The program’s goal is straightforward: meet people where they are rather than expecting them to navigate a central hiring process. By reaching diverse populations across a geographically large county (San Bernardino is the largest county by area in the contiguous United States), HR staff can reduce barriers to public-sector employment and broaden the applicant pool for county positions. The same department also earned recognition for its Rapid Hire program, which compresses the county’s hiring process into a single-day event. The program fills critical roles faster while giving high-priority candidates a more efficient experience.
SBCSD Evacuation Suite: Real-Time Emergency Response
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department earned five NACo awards in 2025, including recognition for the SBCSD Evacuation Solution: a suite of mobile applications used to manage and monitor evacuation operations in real time. The system works like this: deputies in the field use a mobile app to document the status of evacuation efforts at specific locations. That data flows to an interactive dashboard visible to Sheriff Incident Command staff, giving leadership a live view of what’s happening across the evacuation zone as it unfolds. The Evacuation Solution was deployed during the 2024 Line and Bridge fires, providing all participating agencies with a real-time picture of the evacuation process. For counties in fire-prone or flood-prone regions, this type of tool represents the difference between coordinated response and reactive scrambling.
San Bernardino County Museum: 12 Awards Across 12 Programs
The San Bernardino County Museum earned 12 NACo Achievement Awards in 2025, doubling its total from the previous year. The museum’s recognized programs spanned its network of historic sites and institutions. One recognized initiative included a STEAM Lab for Kids program that integrated science, technology, engineering, arts, and math education into the museum experience. The museum’s 12-award performance illustrates something broader about San Bernardino County’s approach: every department, including cultural institutions that might not be seen as innovation leaders, participates in the awards process.
What Other Counties Can Learn From San Bernardino
The volume of San Bernardino County’s awards is notable, but the distribution across departments is what makes the streak instructive for other counties.
Document everything.
NACo’s achievement award program is non-competitive. Programs are judged individually. That means every well-run, outcomes-oriented program is a candidate, regardless of what other counties submit. Counties that systematically identify their strongest programs, document measurable outcomes, and submit applications consistently will accumulate awards over time.
Build a culture of documentation.
San Bernardino County’s results suggest an organizational culture where departments track what their programs accomplish. The Rapid Hire team can quantify time-to-fill improvements. The evacuation technology team can reference the specific fires where the system was deployed. The museum can count STEAM participants. Measurable outcomes make strong award applications.
Cross-department participation matters.
San Bernardino County’s awards came from nearly 20 departments in 2025. That breadth reflects a county-wide approach to the program, not a single department carrying the load. For county leaders wondering whether their programs would qualify for NACo recognition, San Bernardino County’s track record suggests the answer is probably yes, as long as the programs are documented, outcomes-focused, and submitted.
A note on 2025 county performance more broadly:
San Bernardino County’s 257 wasn’t the only impressive total in 2025. Maricopa County, Arizona earned 85 NACo Achievement Awards (the most in its history) with 13 departments, elected offices, and courts contributing to the total. Human Services led Maricopa’s haul with 23 awards, followed by Public Health with 22, spanning programs from workforce development to extreme heat response to water conservation. Howard County, Maryland earned 83 awards and took home a Best in Category distinction for its Emergency Call Center Training program. Together, these results illustrate that high award volume isn’t exclusive to the largest counties, rather it reflects a county-wide commitment to documenting outcomes and submitting programs consistently.
FAQ: NACo Achievement Awards
How does the NACo Achievement Awards program work?
Counties submit applications describing a specific program. Applications are reviewed individually so that programs don’t compete against each other. Each program that meets the criteria in one of 18 categories earns an award. Counties can submit as many programs as they choose.
What are the 18 award categories?
Categories include children and youth, civic engagement and public information, county administration and management, criminal justice and public safety, economic and community development, environmental protection, financial management, health, information technology, libraries, planning, risk and emergency management, transportation, and more.
Can small counties win NACo Achievement Awards?
Yes. The program is open to all counties regardless of size. The criteria are about program quality and outcomes, not county population or budget size.
When is the NACo Achievement Awards application window?
Applications typically open in early spring and close in late spring, with awards announced at the NACo Annual Conference in the summer. Check naco.org/page/achievement-awards for current application dates. San Bernardino County also publishes its full award history at main.sbcounty.gov/opportunity-2/naco-awards-2/, which is a useful reference for seeing how a high-volume applicant documents and presents its programs.