The Pepsi Refresh Project (PRP) was a 2010 initiative by PepsiCo to award $20 million in grants to individuals, businesses and non-profits that promote a new idea that has a positive impact on their community, state, or the nation. The project is completely separate from the Pepsi Corporate Foundation and uses money budgeted for marketing.[1]
Rules
Pepsi Eats Carrots
Power votes
Codes printed on Pepsi sodas can be redeemed for "power votes",[2] in a way a hybrid of a loyalty program and crowd funding.
NFL
Prior to Super Bowl XLIV, the National Football League website hosted a one-week Pepsi Refresh Project contest for ideas suggested by NFL players. Drew Brees was the winner of the "Super Bowl Refresh Project" with more than half a million votes. A $100,000 grant was given to the Hope Lodge in New Orleans for no-cost housing of cancer patients and families.[3]
Gulf disaster
In response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, on July 12, 2010 a special competition was announced within the PRP: Do Good for the Gulf. An additional $1.3 million was committed to projects for communities in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas which were adversely affected by the disaster.[4] The application period was a full month, the response was overwhelming, and 32 projects were funded with grants,[5] which ranged from providing mental health services for oil disaster victims, to building seafood farms to help employ displaced workers, to creating shelters for animals that lost their homes.[6]
References
- ^ Howard, Brian Clark: "Pepsi Refresh Project Inspires Kids to Eat Veggies and Puts Solar Panels in New Orleans" The Daily Green, November 15, 2010
- ^ "Power Vote". Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ^ "Pepsi Refresh Project" NFL.com, February 5, 2010
- ^ Schwartz, Ariel: "Pepsi Refresh Project's "Do Good For the Gulf" Campaign Takes Off" Fast Company, August 2, 2010
- ^ "Do Good for the Gulf: Be a Part of Another Winning Team" Refresh Everything website
- ^ Schwartz, Ariel: "Pepsi Refresh Project Announces Do Good for the Gulf Finalists" Fast Company, September 2, 2010