Pepsi announced this week the first 32 winners of its $20-million Refresh Project competition, the biggest effort by a company yet to enlist consumers in helping it decide how to give away money to social causes.
Winners of $1.3-million in grants awarded during the first round of voting included a few established nonprofit organizations—such as Teach for America, which got $250,000—and new efforts, like GreenShields, a project started by a high-school student in Illinois to improve the energy efficiency of school buses. GreenShields’ 14-year old founder received $25,000.
While some groups criticized Pepsi when it updated one organization’s online submission to the competition after the deadline had passed, the company largely avoided complaints about transparency that have plagued past corporate philanthropy contests, such as one last year organized by JPMorgan Chase.
“It’s gone extremely well,” said Allison Fine, the author of a book on social change in the digital age and a Chronicle contributor, referring to the Pepsi Refresh Project.
Pepsi is working with Good, the media company, to help winning groups turn their ideas into reality. A team of grants managers is offering the winners help and connecting them with organizations like NetImpact, City Year, and others that can provide specialized assistance.
Sebastian Buck, head of corporate and product strategy with Good, said a few groups—like Teach for America—might not need any assistance but that he hoped to build relationships with most grant recipients and help communicate their progress to the public.
Marketing Money
The Pepsi Refresh Project is different than some other corporate philanthropic competitions because one of its key goals is brand promotion and it is being supported by marketing dollars, not the company’s philanthropic arm. Pepsi made a big bet on the Refresh Project this year, forgoing advertising during the Super Bowl for the social-media contest.
Ms. Fine said she wondered whether that bet would pay off and what sort of marketing returns would satisfy the company.
Anamaria Irazabal, Pepsi’s director of marketing, said in an e-mail message that the beverage company was “very pleased with the overwhelming response to the Pepsi Refresh Project from people across the country who have submitted their ideas.”
More than 500,000 consumers registered with refresheverything.com, the contest’s Web site. To date, ideas posted on the Web site have received nearly 3.5 million votes, she said.
“We are evaluating the value of this program on an ongoing basis and looking at the long-term possibilities,” said Ms. Irazabal.
The competition will continue at least through the end of the year, with Pepsi pledging to give away up to $1.3-million each month to those organizations and ideas that attract the most votes.
Ms. Fine said that while the buzz around crowdsourcing corporate philanthropy has started to fade, the smoothness of Pepsi’s project might lead to “more corporations that want to jump in.”
