May 15, 2008 | Read Time: 2 minutes
More than 15,000 people voted in the final round of the Make It Your Own Awards to select the four winning charities, which received $35,000 each for projects designed to get Americans involved in civic causes.
The Case Foundation, in Washington, received 4,641 submissions, and more than 100 reviewers helped the foundation select the top 20 finalists, each of which received $10,000.
The four winners, whose projects will receive an additional $25,000, are:
- Jessica Feierman, of the Juvenile Law Center, in Philadelphia, for Juveniles 4 Justice, a program that brings together young people who have served time after committing a crime to create a positive vision for their neighborhoods.(Read related story)(
- Asad Jafri, of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network, for Leaders of the New School, a project to help young people in Chicago’s South Side use hip-hop music, dance, and the visual arts to create and inspire social change.
- Nancy Kari, a writer and activist in St. Paul, for Crossing Borders, a project to bring together intergenerational groups of people born in Cambodia, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Somalia, and the United States to discuss how to encourage greater diversity in public participation.
- Keith G.C. Twitchell, of the Committee for a Better New Orleans/Metropolitan Area Committee, for Citizen Participation, a project to build a formal system to give residents of New Orleans a voice in city-government policies and decisions.
Voters were asked to select four favorite projects. The Case Foundation gave each of the first 10 people who voted for all four eventual winners a $2,500 charitable gift card that they can use at Network for Good’s giving portal to make contributions to any nonprofit group they select. The foundation hoped the chance for a bonus would ensure that voters would think about which groups were viable and most deserved the money.
For more information: Go to http://www.casefoundation.org.
