3.26.2008 - 10:05am ET

(CSRwire) WASHINGTON, March 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Case Foundation announced the Top 20 finalists for its Make It Your Own Awards(TM), an innovative grants program that calls on people to join together to create ideas and solutions for long-term social change in their communities. The Case Foundation invites everyone to come online and vote for the Final Four awardees. These four will each be provided a $25,000 grant to implement their project and realize their dreams.

The top 20 finalists have already received $10,000. Now, they can earn additional funding for their project through receiving the most votes from online voters. To vote for the Final Four, individuals can log onto www.casefoundation.org/vote and select four choices from the Top 20. Voting will be open until April 22, 2008. Additionally, the first ten voters who correctly cast their votes for all four of the Final Four grantees will get $2,500 for their favorite charity.

After receiving 4,641 applications from a diverse nationwide pool of engaged citizens, nearly 100 reviewers assisted the Foundation in selecting the Top 20 projects. These applications were evaluated not merely on their subject matter or the issues addressed, but on the strength of each idea as an example of citizen-centered change.

The Make it Your Own Awards program is an outgrowth of Citizens at the Center, a white paper by Dr. Cynthia Gibson released by the Case Foundation in late 2006. The paper suggests that if people are to get engaged and stay engaged in their communities, they must have more chances to connect, discuss and determine how they can work together for the common good.

"The Top 20 is a diverse group of real people, with fresh ideas for addressing challenging community issues using a citizen-centered approach," said Case Foundation Director of Social Investment Michael Smith. "The Make It Your Own Awards is all about people coming together to take responsibility for the challenges facing their communities -- something each of these finalists, in their own way and specific to the needs and styles of their community, have done. We're proud to lift up these stories and share them. Now it's up to the online community to choose who comes out on top."

The Top 20 Make It Your Own Awards finalists (in alphabetical order):

Jim Barrett, In Search of the Commons, Livingston, MT

Fiona Cheong, Re-imagining Our City, Pittsburgh, PA

David Criswell, Wilson for the Ages, Wilson, KS

Jessica Feierman, Juveniles 4 Justice (J4J), Philadelphia, PA

Nancy Gilder, Child/Youth Friendly City, Denver, CO

Janna Goodwin, Five Two Eight O, Denver, CO

Lisa Harper, Conversations for Change, New York, NY

Keith Herring, UNCommon Council, Syracuse, NY

Kate Irwin, Summit for Environmental Action, Sarasota, FL

Asad Jafri, Leaders of the New School, Chicago, IL

Nan Kari, Crossing Borders, St. Paul, MN

Imre Kepes, Community Vision Project, Pelham, MA

Dominick Maldonado, My School Is Your School, New Haven, CT

Kate McPherson, Community Conversations, Vancouver, WA

Bridget Murphy, DCCV, Menomonie, WI

Mark Shoul, Deliberative Democracy, Royalston, MA

Susan Sloan, Making Health Our Own, Bellingham, WA

Natalia Thompson, Madison SOS, Madison, WI

Keith Twitchell, Citizen Participation, New Orleans, LA

Michael Wood-Lewis, Front Porch Forum, Burlington, VT