State Farm offering $25,000 grants to help 40 neighborhood “causes”

Do you have an idea that would make your community a better place to live, and would $25,000 be a game-changer? State Farm is here with the assist.  From March 3 through March 23, people from the United States and Canada can submit a cause for a chance to win one of 40 $25,000 State Farm Neighborhood Assist® grants.

Now in its third year, Neighborhood Assist is a youth-led philanthropic program that empowers people to identify the issues they feel are the most important in their communities. 

The program then connects them with a local nonprofit that can help solve the problem and provides an opportunity to receive one of 40 $25,000 grants.

Here’s how it works.  Beginning on March 3rd, people are invited to submit causes via the free State Farm Neighborhood Assist Facebook app. 

When a maximum of 4,000 cause submissions are received (deadline of March 23), the State Farm Youth Advisory Board will review all submissions and identify the top 200 based on a scoring rubric. 

The top 200 causes will be announced on April 28 and anyone who has the free Facebook app can vote for his or her favorite causes with up to 10 votes per day until May 16. 

The top 40 vote-receiving causes will then each receive a $25,000 grant to help address the submitted cause.  The top 40 vote-receiving causes will be announced via the Facebook app on May 27.

In 2013, over 3.4 million votes were cast as part of the grant selection process, according to a State Farm news release.

Those winning grants reached 40 different communities in 27 different US states/Canadian provinces.  The 2013 causes were as diverse as developing workforce training and leadership opportunities for motivated, under-resourced teens to restoring a vacant theatre for use as a film and performing arts center.

Winning causes came from large and small communities with the top 5 vote receiving causes coming from cities with populations less than 275,000, the news release went on to say.

Here is what some of 2013’s grant recipients have to say about Neighborhood Assist:

For more information on State Farm Neighborhood Assist or to submit a cause, get the free Facebook app at http://www.statefarm.com/neighborhoodassist.

State Farm and its affiliates are the largest provider of car insurance in the U.S. and is a leading insurer in Canada.