The retail division at shoemaker Nike is offering a community-improvement grant program aimed at finding and rewarding school and neighborhood groups that use sports involvement to help young people.
The company ‘s 175 U.S. retail locations will take part in the program, with each awarding a $2,500 grant to an applying local organization or group. Factory stores in Portland OR, South Chicago, IL, and New Orleans will award multiple grants of $5,000 each. The company expects to award a total of $650,000 in grants.
Community and school groups that have met 501 (c) 3 requirements for non-profit status can apply for the grants at the program’s Web site through Aug. 24. Visitors to the site can view applicants sorted by location, popularity and most recent activity, as well as by sport and type of group, and can vote for their favorite entrants.
They can also share the site with friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg and Del.icio.us. Nike collaborated for the Web site with social marketing agency Mr. Youth, which also provided promotional video for the site, handled blog outreach to interested influencers, and detailed a 250-person ‘task force” from its RepNation.com advocacy team to spread word of mouth information about the grants.
Popular vote and support will serve as one criterion for the selection of grant award winners by a committee of judges chosen by Nike, to occur before Oct. 1. Winners will receive their grants in the form of Nike products, if the company makes what they require. If not, they’ll receive the cash to buy what they need elsewhere.
“This represents an excellent opportunity for us to be involved in local communities,” said Nike Retail community relations senior manager Kari Mitchell in a release. “We are excited to offer a program where anyone can nominate their favorite organization for a grant and vote o n the applicants they feel most passionate about.”
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