The Allstate Foundation is committed to empowering youth to serve and improve communities. As part of this commitment, it has partnered with TIME for Kids to create themed community service content called Service Stars.
Starting October 12, qualifying projects that help students serve their community beyond the classroom, inspired by one of the Service Stars missions, will receive a one-time donation of $500 while funds last. Projects must be approved and posted on or after this date to receive the donation.
If your project meets the criteria below, the one-time donation will appear once it is approved and live on the site.
How to qualify:
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Create a project that will support a student-led community service activity, inspired by the missions below.
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When creating your project, use the campaign code "ALLSTATEFOUNDATION."
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Request resources that will be used to benefit the community beyond your classroom.
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In your project essay, be sure to:
- 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).
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Explain how the materials you’re requesting will help students lead the initiative or activity.
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When creating your project, use the campaign code "ALLSTATEFOUNDATION."
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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.
- Use the following missions as inspiration for your community service project:
| Mission | Goal |
| Protect the Environment | Finding ways to keep our Earth clean and beautiful, whether by contributing to clean waterways or helping people recycle. |
| Boost Literacy | Aiding literacy (reading, writing, and speaking) efforts in the community, or boosting other types of literacy (for example, digital or financial literacy). |
| Speak Out | Sharing information or educating others on topics that affect the community. Projects should explain the topic students would like to speak out about, such as a new local playground and or safer roadways, and explain how their actions may energize the community to get more involved. |
| Promote Wellness | Helping someone or people who are feeling unwell, physically or mentally, or helping promote and encourage wellness within a community, such as by coordinating a product drive. |
| Raise Money | Raising money for a cause and donating the proceeds to a nonprofit that helps others. |
| 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). |
| Fight Hunger | Combating food insecurity in the community through efforts including food drives and snack-pack events. |
| Protect Animals | Helping protect or care for animals in the community, such as at a local shelter. |
What won’t qualify:
- 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 (for example, the cost of transportation to drop off materials to an external organization). See our current guidelines around Class Trips and Visitors here.
Looking for inspiration?
Here are some of example projects:
- Hunger: Food Pantry for Some Full Bellies
- Literacy: Books and Blankets: A Community Literacy Event
- Wellness: A Student-Led Wellness Campaign for Mind and Body
- Kindness: Kindness and Friendship Bracelets
- Animal: Hands-On Habitats
- Raise Money: Holiday Community Service
- Speak out: Speaking Out Against Bullying
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Can I submit multiple projects for this campaign? ▼
No. You can only submit one project for this campaign.
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. To do so, 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 on this link to open a project with the campaign code already applied. Only one project per teacher will be eligible.
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 donation. Shipping charges may vary, and the suggested donation amount cannot be removed from a project's total goal for these projects.
Q. Why are some projects approved faster than others? ▼
Our team typically reviews projects within 4-6 business days, in the order of which they are submitted. However, during periods of high project submissions (which offers like this one may cause), projects may take longer to review (up to 10 business days). This means projects submitted for this particular opportunity may take longer to screen than a project submitted outside of this opportunity.
While we do begin to screen each project in the order it was submitted, individual screening times may vary, which can result in some projects being approved faster than others, despite their submission order.
Q: Do I qualify for this opportunity if I received a previous one-time donation from The Allstate Foundation? ▼
Yes, you qualify for this one-time donation, even if you participated in previous Allstate Foundation campaigns.
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 in the Projects section of your account by 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.
Q: Do Essentials lists qualify for this funding opportunity? ▼
No. Donations placed to an Essentials list will not be matched by this funding opportunity. Essentials lists are currently not eligible to receive matching donations from any funding opportunity. You can read more about Classroom Essentials in our Help Center.