“At Stanley, our commitment to our communities goes back almost 175 years and has always been at the core of what we do,” says Jessica Bade, Stanley’s social media manager.
To stand behind that commitment, Stanley currently is sponsoring a “Build Your America 2016” contest, and the company needs your help to make the effort a success. Here’s the premise: Stanley wants its customers to nominate USA public charities or private foundations that wish to complete a major community building project. Participants — namely, you! — describe in 500 characters or less how you’d like to honor your community by nominating a charitable organization. And if the organization you nominate is chosen by popular vote on social media, Stanley will award a grand prize of $10,000 plus a Stanley Prize Pack of assorted Stanley Black & Decker tools totaling $1,000.
So, in a sense, you help Stanley help an organization of your choice give back to your community. It’s a circle-of-giving sort of thing!
If this is the first you’ve heard about “Build Your America,” the 2016 contest is actually embarking on the third and final phase of entry/nomination periods, which will take place next month. The first phase, with an awarded grand prize winner, took place in July. The second phase just wrapped up in September, and the grand prize winner will be announced by the end of October. Entry/nominations for phase three will open Nov. 1 and close on Nov. 22.
“Our July ‘Build Your America’ contest received a total of 164 valid entries, and there were over 11,000 votes for the nominated organizations,” Bade reports. The July grand prize winner was Active Heroes Retreat Center of Shepherdsville, Kentucky. The retreat center is where veterans, active duty military and their families come to heal through outdoor activities. Active Heroes plans to use the prize money and tools to build a new Welcome Center.
Phase two of Build Your America received 147 valid entries for the September nomination period. You can view the range and descriptions of those nominations and the number of votes each received by visiting the voting gallery on Stanley’s “Build Your America” Facebook page (click here).
That’s the other clincher for this contest: in addition to a 500-character write-up about your nominee, plus a photo of the intended project or logo of the organization, you need to encourage your Facebook friends to go to Stanley’s Facebook page and vote for your entry. No matter how worthy your organization’s cause may be, it will take votes to make your charity the grand prize winner.
“Anyone who has an active Facebook account can vote,” Bade says. “When a participant votes for their organization, they are prompted to share a message with their Facebook friends to encourage others to place a vote. It adds an extra competition component where fans are working to gain the greatest number of votes for the organization of their choice.”
The voting period for November’s phase of “Build Your America” will open on Nov. 22 at 5:00 p.m. (Eastern Time) and close seven days later on Nov. 29 at 4:59 p.m.
“At that point, the organization that receives the greatest number of votes as determined by our social media audience will go through the vetting process to ensure the organization meets all of the requirements outlined in our official rules, Bade says. “If the organization fulfills all of the requirements, they will be named the official winner.”
Stanley plans to announce the November winner before Dec. 1, 2016.
“Build Your America” is in its third consecutive year. Two years ago, the contest focused on “Honor Your Community” with a format and prize package similar to this year’s contest. Last year, Stanley partnered with House of Heroes™, which works to provide no-cost home repairs to military veterans and their families. Participants nominated a veteran of their choice, and five winners were chosen by a panel of Stanley and House of Heroes employees. They received up to $10,000 each in home repairs.
“Going into year three, we really wanted to return to the idea of helping the community and decided to harness the power of our social media audience to not only nominate but help determine the winners,” Bade says of this year’s contest.
So, if you know of a worthy charity who could use a financial boost and a hefty sampling of tools and accessories to get a big project done, here’s your chance to help Stanley spread good will among your community.
“We’re trying to build, rebuild and protect our world not only with the products we make, but also with the services that our people provide to communities,” Bade says. “With these types of programs, what we’re really doing is recognizing and rewarding people around the country who hold similar values to our company and our employees.”
Learn more about the “Build Your America 2016” by visiting Stanley’s website (click here) or Facebook page (click here).
