Case Foundation Names Top Citizens' Choice For the Make It Your Own Awards (TM)

More than 15,000 Americans voted online to select the Final Four $35,000 grantees

WASHINGTON, May 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Case Foundation announced today the Final Four grantees in its Make It Your Own Awards (TM), its new grants program created to bring people together to discuss what matters most to them, decide what kind of community they want, form solutions, and take action in their communities. Americans voted online (www.casefoundation.org) for their favorite ideas from a slate of 20 semifinalists. The Final Four will each receive a $25,000 grant to help realize their dreams. These four add those funds to the $10,000 awarded to all Top 20 semifinalists.

"The ideas and the finalists in Make It Your Own were chosen by citizens in communities across our nation, not in the boardroom and not by experts," says Jean Case, founder and CEO of the Case Foundation. "We learned a great deal from this program about how real people can leverage new technology to promote their ideas, how they can engage new supporters, and how we can be more effective by giving the public an active role in our work. The best part is that the Make It Your Own Awards put citizens at the center and surfaced great new innovations and talent. We're delighted by the results." The final four grantees are:

• Jessica Feierman, Philadelphia, Pa., Juveniles 4 Justice (J4J). The mission of J4J is to bring together youth who are returning to Philadelphia from juvenile justice placements to collaborate in creating a positive vision for their communities. (5580 votes)

• Asad Jafri, Chicago, Ill., Leaders of the New School. The goal of the program is to directly involve the youth of south side Chicago who suffer from poverty, gang activity and a lack of resources in urban arts projects. (5614 votes)

• Nancy "Nan" Kari, St. Paul, Minn., Crossing Borders. The program places intergenerational groups of Somalians, Mexicans, Peruvians, Hmongans, Koreans and Americans throughout Minnesota in a diverse setting, to discuss how to bring diversity into democratic practices. (4180 votes)

• Keith Twitchell, New Orleans, La. Citizen Participation. The goal of Citizen Participations is to create a mechanism that builds on the community spirit that was prevalent after Hurricane Katrina, enabling the citizens to make decisions at the neighborhood level about rebuilding communities. (5617 votes)

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

More than 45,000 people then visited the Make It Your Own Awards online ballot, which was presented in a rich-media "Flash" version and a text-oriented HTML version to accommodate voters using different levels of technology. Once visitors reached the ballot, they were asked to review the Top 20 ideas and vote for who they believed had the best ideas to connect with others, form solutions, and take action in their communities.

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 be given more opportunities to connect with others, discuss what matters most and determine how they can take action together for the common good.

"One of the major goals when we started this program was to lift-up new and fresh examples of citizen-centered approaches to civic engagement," Gibson said. "Another was to test a new democratic approach to philanthropy that walks the talk of citizen-centeredness. Watching both processes unfold and seeing the passion and purpose brought to them by real people from across the country has been deeply gratifying and inspiring. It will be exciting to learn from the Top 20, while carefully studying the process and how applicants from each stage in the program have progressed and used the tools and techniques introduced by the program. These lessons will be invaluable to the civic engagement field and to the idea of creating a more democratic approach to philanthropy."

The Make It Your Own Awards grant applications represented the stories of people nationwide working within their communities to create lasting civic spaces that lead to lasting solutions. Many ideas came from people 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 of applicants were aged 25 to 44; and 10 percent were 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 gathered 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, nearly 50 other organizations joined the Foundation by inviting their members and users to vote for the project they believed presented the strongest case for bringing people together to discuss what matters most to them, decide what kind of community they want, form solutions and take action in their communities.

To help prepare the Top 20 semifinalists for their online voting campaign, the Foundation provided each with a Make It Your Own Awards Outreach Ambassador. These volunteers were civic engagement champions with proven experience in mobilizing communities to action. They advised the semifinalists on communications and marketing strategies to help them 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 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 a customized online fundraising tool, commonly called a widget.

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

Finally, as a means of encouraging voters to read and research the Top 20 finalists, the first ten people who voted correctly for the four projects that the online voting community eventually selected as the Final Four, received a $2,500 Good Card. Good Cards, sponsored by the Case Foundation and administered through Network for Good (NetworkforGood.org), allow recipients to use the dollar amount on the card toward a donation to a U.S.-based charity of their choice. In total, 89 people correctly picked all four of the final grantees.

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.