Pepsi’s Online Contest Joins Growing Number of Corporate Efforts

Voting opened on Monday in Pepsi’s Refresh Project, the latest effort by a company to let consumers have a say in how its philanthropic dollars should be spent.

Visitors to the project’s Web site can choose among more than 700 ideas submitted by individuals and charities. Top vote-getters as of Monday afternoon were a proposal by an elementary-school teacher’s assistant to form a club to promote self-esteem among girls, and camping trips for disadvantaged young people that are run by a charity connected with the University of Arizona.

Pepsi plans to give away $1.3-million each month, with grants ranging in size from $5,000 to $250,000.

In the last few years, more corporations have been experimenting with ways to give consumers a chance to help direct their charitable money. Last May, the retail-company Target started an online campaign to let voting by its Facebook fans determine how big a share of $3-million various nonprofit groups should receive.