December 17, 2009 | Read Time: 1 minute
More than one million Facebook users voted in the first round of Chase Community Giving. The financial-services company has announced the 100 small and local charities that received the most votes and will continue on to the second round of the $5-million competition.
Each of 100 organizations will receive $25,000 and will have to submit a proposal describing how it would use the $1-million top prize. Five runners-up will receive $100,000 each. In addition, an advisory board assembled for the competition will allocate a total of $1-million to its picks from the nominated charities.
Among the organizations moving on to the second round: the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, in Harpers Ferry, W. Va.; the Center for the Pacific Asian Family, in Los Angeles; the International Society for Infectious Diseases, in Brookline, Mass.; Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, in New York; the Lexington Children’s Theatre, in Kentucky; and the St. Bernard Project, in Chalmette, La.
The competition was open to charities with operating budgets of $10-million or less that work in the areas of education, health care, housing, the environment, hunger, arts and culture, human services, and animal welfare.
The second round of voting will run January 15-22.
