Updated March 17th: this article failed to include a qualification criteria. Eligible teachers must be at Equity Focus School. This has now been added to the criteria list below.
The Allstate Foundation is committed to empowering youth to serve and improve communities. As a part of this commitment, they’ve partnered with TIME for Kids to create themed community service content called Service Stars. You can receive a one-time donation of $500 when you submit a project that helps your students serve their community beyond the classroom.
How to qualify:
- You teach at an Equity Focus School.
-
Create a project that will support a student-led community service activity. Request resources that will be used to benefit the community beyond your classroom. Project essays must:
- Describe the student-led activity. This must be an action that your students will take to benefit others in the community.
- Define the community that you seek to serve and how your students’ service will benefit that community. Qualifying communities include the surrounding area (i.e, neighborhood, city, county) or the school community (i.e., the entire school, not exclusively your class).
- Explain how the materials you’re requesting will help students lead the initiative or activity.
- Request under $500 for your total project goal, including taxes, shipping, fees, and the suggested donation to support DonorsChoose. This is about $380 in materials.
- Focus your project’s community service on one of these eight categories:
| Mission | Goal | Campaign Code |
| Protect the Environment | Finding ways to keep our Earth clean, green, and beautiful. | ALLSTATEPLANET |
| Boost Literacy | Aiding literacy efforts in the community. | ALLSTATELITERACY |
| Speak Out | Raising awareness, educating others, or acting on issues that affect the community. Projects should explain the issue students would like to Speak Out about and explain how their actions may energize the community to get more involved or take action. | ALLSTATESPEAK |
| Promote Wellness | Helping someone or people who are feeling unwell, physically or mentally, or helping promote and encourage wellness within a community. | ALLSTATEWELLNESS |
| Raise Money | Raising money for a cause and donating the proceeds to a 501c3 organization. | ALLSTATEMONEY |
| Spread Kindness | Spreading kindness in the surrounding area (i.e, neighborhood, city, county) or the school community (i.e., the entire school, not exclusively your class). | ALLSTATEKIND |
| Fight Hunger | Combating food insecurity in the community. | ALLSTATEHUNGER |
| Protect Animals | Helping protect or care for animals in the community. | ALLSTATEANIMAL |
Looking for inspiration?
Example project ideas:
- Hunger: Food Pantry for Some Full Bellies
- Literacy: Books and Blankets: A Community Literacy Event
- Wellness: Wellness for All
- Kindness: Kindness and Friendship Bracelets
- Animal: Hands-On Habitats
- Raise Money: Holiday Community Service
- Speak out: Speaking Out Against Bullying
What won’t qualify:
- Projects from teachers who have already received a one-time donation from Allstate this school year, starting July 1, 2024.
- Projects that don’t specify their community service according to the guidelines.
- Projects containing resources that are not being directly used by students to lead a community service activity or initiative.
- Projects containing resources for classroom needs that are not connected to community service (examples: classroom health items, food and drinks for the classroom, teacher supplies).
- Resources related to transportation or other costs associated with in-person events, e.g. cost of transportation to drop off materials to an external organization. (See our current guidelines around Class Trips and Visitors here.)
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q. Can I submit multiple projects for this campaign?
No. Only one project is eligible for this campaign. If you submit multiple projects with this campaign code, only one project will receive it.
Q. How do I input the correct campaign code to my project?
You must input your chosen campaign code when you’re in the process of creating your project. Upon starting your project’s draft, on the “HI” page, click on the “Enter a campaign code” button. A pop-up window will appear with an empty field in which you can enter your campaign code. Click “OK” to save your input and now your project will be attributed to that specific campaign.
If you're already signed in to your teacher account, you can click the links in the table below to immediately start a draft with the associated campaign code. Only one project per teacher with one of these codes.
Q. What happens if my project is over the total project goal of $500?
Your project will not receive the one-time donation from The Allstate Foundation. Anything over the total project goal will not qualify for the match. Shipping charges may vary and the suggested donation amount can't be removed from a project's total goal. While you cannot remove the suggested donation, donors can choose to opt-out of giving a portion of their donation to DonorsChoose.
Q. Why are some projects approved faster than others?
Our team of volunteer screeners typically reviews projects within 2-3 business days. When our volunteer screeners are uncertain about a project or if your project is complicated, then they will send those projects to our staff screeners. During periods of high project submissions from teachers (like this back-to-school season), our staff has to process far more projects than normal, which slows us down beyond the 2-3 business day timeline. This discrepancy between volunteer and staff screeners may be the reason why your project is still being reviewed.
Q: Is there a limit to how expensive my project can be to qualify for this funding opportunity?
This one-time donation only applies to projects with a total project goal under $500 including taxes, shipping, fees, and the suggested donation to support DonorsChoose. Anything over the total project goal will not qualify for this one-time donation. Shipping charges may vary and the suggested donation amount can't be removed from a project's total goal. While you cannot remove the suggested donation, donors can choose to opt-out of giving a portion of their donation to DonorsChoose.
Q: How can I edit my project?
If your project has not received any donations, you can make any edits by returning your project to a draft status. You can do this by heading over to the Projects section of your account and clicking on the "Return project to draft" button underneath your project title. Once your project is in draft status, you can make any edits and resubmit it. Then, it will be re-screened by our team and re-posted if eligible. Read more about editing your project.