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Case Foundation Names Top 20 Projects For Make It Your Own Awards(TM)

Case Foundation Names Top 20 Projects For Make It Your Own Awards(TM)

Published 03-26-08

Submitted by Case Foundation

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

To help prepare the Top 20 finalists for their online voting campaign, the Foundation has provided each with a Make It Your Own Awards Outreach Ambassador. These volunteers are civic engagement champions with proven experience in mobilizing communities to action. They will advise the finalists on communications and marketing strategies that will help attract votes.

In addition to furthering the idea of citizen-centered engagement, the Case Foundation designed the Make It Your Own Awards to show people how online tools can help expand their networks and increase financial and volunteer support in their communities. All applicants have a Make It Your Own Awards Web page detailing their project and also have a customized online fundraising tool, commonly called a widget.

Widgets--which can be inserted in e-mails, social networking sites, blogs, and Web pages--calculate donations and number of donors in real time, while letting people donate online directly to causes. Moreover, the widget and Web page allow participants to promote their projects, fundraise in support of their effort, and recruit others who share their passion. During the voting period, the widget will be automatically modified to serve as a voting tool the Top 20 can use to solicit support virtually anywhere on the Internet.

The applications represent the stories of people nationwide who want to work with their communities to make positive change. Many ideas come from people who are new to the grant-seeking process; 56 percent of participants said this was their first online grant application. Applications came from all 50 states; nearly 40 percent were from minorities; 38 percent were from individuals aged 25 to 44; and 10 percent were from 14- to 24-year-olds. One-quarter of all applications came from people older than 55.

In order to promote and market the Top 20 ideas and attract voters, the Case Foundation has lined up a strong group of partners, each with the ability to introduce the Make It Your Own Awards and citizen centered engagement to a wide and active audience. In addition to partners like Bebo, MTV Think, Good Magazine, Ning and YouthNoise, the Foundation will be joined by nearly fifty other organizations who will invite their members and users to vote for the project they believe presents the strongest case for bringing people together to take responsibility for the challenges in, and address the needs of, their communities.

About the Case Foundation

The Case Foundation was created by Steve and Jean Case in 1997. The Foundation invests in individuals, nonprofits, and social enterprises aiming to connect people, increase giving, and catalyze civic action. For more information, visit www.casefoundation.org.

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Case Foundation

Case Foundation

Created in 1997 by Steve and Jean Case, the Case Foundation pursues sustainable solutions to complex social problems by investing in collaboration, leadership, and entrepreneurship. For more information, visit www.casefoundation.org.

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