Matthew Shepard Foundation finalist for Chase grant; online voting starts today

Online voting for the American Giving Awards begins today and The Matthew Shepard Foundation is one of five finalist charities competing for grants ranging from $125,000 to $1 million.

The online contest is sponsored by Chase. Winners will be selected based on votes on Facebook and Chase.com, the Foundation said in a press release. Voting ends Dec. 8 and the winners will be announced live on NBC, Dec. 10.

Participants can vote once each day for their charity of choice.

The telecast will be hosted by Emmy winner Bob Costas at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

“The Foundation is incredibly honored to be among this group of extraordinary charities, and excited to be the only LGBT focused organization in the competition,” said Judy Shepard, president of the Foundation board and its co-founder. “Based on individuals’ votes, this award program will bring about $125,000 to $1 million in funding for new and expanded educational programs for young people who are bullied, discriminated against and made to feel alone because their peers see them as different.

The Foundation was the top voter-getter in the youth developer category in the first round of the contest.

Founded in 1998 by Judy and her husband Dennis, The Foundation has offices in Casper and Denver and programs nationwide.

“We know millions of people are alarmed by all the bullying of LGBT youth nationwide. If every one of them votes for the Foundation in the American Giving Awards, we will win enough of a grant to make an enormous difference.” said Jason Marsden, the Foundation’s executive director.

If the organization wins the grant from Chase it will be used to develop online educational exercises to combat bullying and help victims develop skills to cope with and avoid harassment.

“There’s an incredible wealth of good advice, expert study, nonprofit and government programs and supportive adults out there in this country who want to help young people who are being bullied over their sexual orientatiuon or gender identity,” Marsden said. “The problem is, it’s just overwhelming to sift through and it’s often very general or theoretical. What the Foundation wants to do is bring it to life, in almost a video-game, first-person kind of way that young people would intuitively understand – a mock-up of a day in a student’s life when something like this simply happens and they are forced to deal with it on the spot.”

Resources and the experts will be folded into that format, Marsden said.

“Statistically we can see afterward how popular certain better or worse choices are made, so we can give further feedback to the experts about what kind of advice might be working and what kind of misconceptions exist that need to be addressed,” Marsden said.

For more information and a direct link to vote go to http://votematthewshepard.org.