State Farm offers grants to communities

VW independent/submitted information

Neighbors across the country, and here in Van Wert County, will soon have an exciting opportunity to help change their communities for the better through State Farm Insurance Company’s Neighborhood Assist® program, according to local agent Tisha Fast.

As a company, State Farm® continues the effort through Neighborhood of Good® to inspire and empower people to turn caring into doing. As part of this platform, State Farm Neighborhood Assist is back for its seventh year in 2018.

“State Farm was founded on being that good neighbor, so giving back is in their nature,” Fast noted. “The State Farm motto is ‘Here to help life go right’; in this case, they say ‘here to help communities go right’.”

State Farm invites people to submit a community causeabout which they’re passionate and to rally behind that causefor a chance to win a $25,000 grant through State Farm Neighborhood Assist, Fast noted. Anyone 18 years of age and older in the U.S. can participate.

Here’s what people need to know:

• The cause submission phase is open from June 6-June 15 or when 2,000 submissions are reached, whichever comes first.
• Area residents can submit one cause in one of the three categories of safety,communitydevelopment,or education.
• All people have to do is submit the cause; they don’t have to “run the program.”

State Farm Neighborhood Assist, a crowd-sourced philanthropic initiative, lets communities determine where grant funding is awarded. The application is short and simple, and I encourage you to learn more by visiting www.neighborhoodassist.com.

Applications will be judged based on answers to the following three questions:

• How much does the “cause” focus on an unmet need in a community?
• Why does an applicant feel the $25,000 would address the unmet need?
• How much of a lasting impact on the community would the proposal have?

After the submission phase ends, the State Farm Review Committeewill read and narrow down all the submissions to the top 200 finalists.

Once the top 200 causes are identified, they will appear on www.neigborhoodassist.comto be voted on by community members. The voting phase will last from August 15-August 24and each person gets up to 10 votes per day, every day during those 10 days.

The top 40causes with the most votes will each receive a $25,000grant from State Farm!

Winners will be announced on September 25 at www.neighborhoodassist.com.

“We have a lot of people that have great ideas to support our community, so I am hopeful that we can earn a $25,000 grant for this community,” Fast said.

Key Dates for 2017 State Farm Neighborhood Assist:

Submission phase: June 6-June 15 or when 2,000 submissions are reached, whichever comes first

• Voting phase: August 15-Aug.24
• Winners announced: September 25