Univest hosts annual ‘Caring’ giveaway

Will award $5,000 to area nonprofit

SOUDERTON » Univest Financial has kicked off its annual Caring for Community giveaway event. This is the ninth year for the event, which awards a $5,000 donation to a local nonprofit organization — an organization nominated by the community.

This year’s effort launched on Monday, Dec. 1, and nominations are being accepted through Dec. 31.

“The giveaway is a fun way to engage with the community, learn about the organizations truly making an impact and provide financial assistance to a randomly selected nonprofit,” said Nicole Heverly, Univest vice president and director of corporate communications.

She added that Univest “firmly believes” in giving back to communities, and started the Caring for Community Giveaway in 2012 as a way to ask community members which nonprofit deserves financial support, “rather than having us here at Univest decide who deserves the donation.”

To nominate a local, nonprofit organization, individuals can submit the name of the nonprofit in the comment section of the post promoting the Caring for Community Giveaway on Univest’s Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. They can also tweet the name of a nonprofit @UnivestCorp using #CaringForCommunity.

Each comment or tweet counts as one entry. An individual may submit one entry per day, per voting method. The winning nonprofit will be randomly selected from all entries on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.

The Caring for Community event sees increased interest and participation every year according to Heverly.

“Last year we ended up with about 8,100 entries on behalf of 200 organizations,” she said. That result was a record for the Caring for Community effort — with 500 more nominations received in 2019 on behalf of about 50 more nonprofits — than were received in 2018.

This year’s giveaway is off to a good start.

“Since the giveaway launched on Monday, we have received more than 300 entries on behalf of about 40 organizations,” Heverly added.

In 2019, The Kisses for Kyle Foundation was the recipient of the $5,000 award from Univest. The Montgomery County-based nonprofit provides services for families in the Delaware Valley facing childhood cancer. Previous winners of the Caring for Community Giveaway included: Quakertown Community Outreach,

Logan’s Heroes Animal Rescue, Hope Against Heroin, St. Isidore School, the Granny Project, Vets for Vets and Bucks County SPCA.

To be eligible to receive the Caring for Community award, the nonprofit organizations must be registered as a 501(c)(3) and must operate within Univest’s service area, including Berks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery counties as well as Bucks Cumberland, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Northampton, Philadelphia and York counties in Pennsylvania and Atlantic, Burlington, Camden and Cape May counties in New Jersey.

For a complete list of rules, visit www.univest.net/caringforcommunity