Photo contests are a whole economy. Entry fees, sponsorships, print sales, and the endless supply of photographers looking for somewhere to submit. Magazines run them, camera brands run them, conservation groups run them, and thousands of local clubs run them.
This is the exact term on the .org, which is the extension that competition organisers already gravitate toward because it reads as legitimate rather than as a fee-harvesting operation. Trust is the whole issue in this category. Photographers are rightly suspicious of contests that quietly claim rights to their work, and an address that looks institutional helps enormously.
It suits an individual competition, a platform hosting many of them, a listings and deadlines site, or an association setting standards for fair contest terms. That last one doesn’t really exist yet and probably should.
Singular, exact, no hyphen, and it names something photographers search for constantly.
Enquiries welcome.