Des Moines Family Favorite Awards: How Voting Works & How to Win

What the Des Moines Family Favorite Awards is and who runs it

The Des Moines Family Favorite Awards is a public-vote readership award run by Des Moines Parent, a publication aimed at families in the Des Moines, Iowa area. The organizer keeps the ballot on its own website at desmoinesparent.com/des-moines-family-favorite-awards/, rather than moving the vote to an outside contest platform. That matters for a nominating business because every piece of communication around the program, from the voting form to the winners roundup, carries the publisher's own name and domain.

The ballot's purpose is stated plainly by the organizer: it invites families to share their favorite places to shop, play, eat and find service providers in the Des Moines area. That wording signals the audience a nominee is competing for. These are readers of a local family publication, voting for businesses they have actually used with their children, which shapes what kind of outreach resonates.

The program sits in the readership awards vertical, alongside other local best-of ballots. Its confirmed editions cover 2025 and 2026, and the organizer's own announcement of the 2025 results points to the next vote happening in October 2026.

The dated record for this ballot, and what the organizer leaves unpublished

Two editions of the Des Moines Family Favorite Awards are confirmed, in 2025 and 2026. The 2025 cycle closed with a winners and runners-up roundup published under the Des Moines Parent name, and the announcement accompanying it told readers the next vote would happen in October 2026. That single sentence is the publisher's own dated statement about the coming cycle, and it is the most specific timing fact attached to the program.

The first and last days of the October 2026 window are not printed ahead of the round. The same applies to any per-person voting limit, eligibility wording or nomination-round dates. A business planning an October push therefore needs to build its calendar around the month rather than a specific date, and check the ballot page as October gets close.

The category picture is similar. The 2025 results coverage printed winners and runners-up in fields such as best park, best splash pad, best outdoor aquatics facility, best apple orchard, best pumpkin patch, best trampoline park, best nature center, best museum for families and a family-friendly movie theater. Those phrases come from the publisher's own results post, so they show the flavor of the ballot, but the organizer has not published the full roster for the coming round. A business should not assume it appears in a given field until the live form for 2026 says so.

How a supporter votes on the Des Moines Family Favorite Awards ballot

The literal mechanic is simple. A supporter opens the awards page on desmoinesparent.com, finds the live voting form, and picks favorites in the fields the form presents. Because Des Moines Parent runs the form on its own domain, there is no third-party contest account involved. Whatever the form asks for in a given cycle, such as a name or email check, is visible on the form itself when the October 2026 window opens.

The organizer's framing of the vote is worth quoting to your audience, because it does the persuading for you. Des Moines Parent describes the ballot as a chance to share a family's favorite places to shop, play, eat and find service providers in the Des Moines area. A supporter who sees the ask in those terms understands that a vote is a recommendation of a real experience, not an abstract contest entry.

Since no per-person rule has been printed, nobody planning repeat voting for a single business has anything published to rely on. The safe reading is that each vote should represent a genuine household or person, and that repeat behavior should follow whatever the live form permits or blocks in the moment. If the form accepts an entry, it accepted it; if it blocks a repeat, that block is the rule for that cycle. No announcement from the organizer contradicts that reading, and none adds to it.

How this ballot sits beside its Iowa neighbours

Des Moines readers have more than a single best-of ballot to choose from, and a business deciding where to invest outreach should know the map. Within Des Moines itself, Best of Des Moines (CITYVIEW) and Best of Des Moines (Business Record) both run general readership competitions under their own publishers. The Des Moines Family Favorite Awards differs from those two by aiming squarely at families, which means its voters arrive with children's activities, dining and services on their minds.

Across the rest of Iowa, the same page family includes Cedar Rapids CommunityVotes, Best of Cedar Rapids (The Gazette), Best of the Corridor and the AHBA Parade of Homes in Ames. Each of those belongs to its own separate publisher and audience, so a win in the family favorites ballot adds nothing toward any of them and vice versa.

What makes the Des Moines Family Favorite Awards different is the fit between the ballot and the voter. A general business best-of asks a reader to think broadly about the city; this one asks a parent which splash pad saved a summer afternoon or which orchard is worth the drive. For a family-facing business, that specificity is the reason this ballot earns attention despite being hosted on a smaller publication than the citywide dailies.

Strengthening support before the October 2026 window

Because the vote lands in October 2026 and Des Moines Parent has printed no rule on how often a person may vote, the practical play for a nominating business is preparation rather than volume. Start by confirming your own listing details and the fields you expect to compete in once the live form appears. Then brief the people who already know you: a short message to your customer list, a post on your social channels and a line at the counter or checkout that points families to the Des Moines Parent ballot page directly.

Ground the ask in the ballot's own language. Supporters respond when the request matches the publisher's framing, so ask families to name you as the place they shop, play, eat or use for services in the Des Moines area. Timing matters too: a reminder near the end of the window catches the supporters who meant to vote and forgot.

Outreach ideas that suit local readership ballots like this are set out in our guide to getting more votes online. And if you are weighing outside support, read the legality page first, since the organizer has published no rule either permitting or addressing it.