US Bank helps its customers MAKE IT HAPPEN

US Bank cardholders will have the chance to win up to $10,000 in its MAKE IT HAPPEN promotion by registering their cards between October 15th and November 15th. If you’re a US Bank customer, take the opportunity to win money for your favorite cause by registering today and voting!

After registering either online or through text messaging, cardholders can win one of three ways:

1. Share Your Story On US Bank’s site, customers can upload a story about a person, community or organization that could use $5,000 in 75 words or less. After a short review process, the stories are published to the site for public voting - one vote per day per registered user. The story with the most votes by the end of the competition will net the organization or individual it’s about $5,000 as well as $5,000 for the author of the story, for a total of $10,000. The stories are already flowing in, with the some of the top spots filled with worthy causes in need of a little money, ranging from an upstart newspaper to a young man in need of a lung transplant to a Jiu Jitsu school. Check out the full gallery of stories to see more.
2. Use Your Card Each purchase made on registered cards during the contest period earns US Bank customers an entry into a December 1st drawing for $5,000. Don’t want to spend money in order to enter? US Bank also allows mail in entries.
3. Pick-a-Purchase Registered users can also play an instant win game with five daily cash prizes of $100, $50 and three $25 cash cards and the opportunity to earn bonus votes to participate in the Share Your Story competition.

Also, if you’re a business owner with a US Bank card, register that, too! Business customers enter into a parallel competition - same prizes, same charitable donation to the story winner - that’s two $5,000 prizes to two different causes.

US Bank is no stranger to charitable giving. They gave away $20.6 million in grants to charities in 2009 and in the past have run programs like 2007’s Toys for Tots promotion, where they donated $10 for every five bills their customers paid online.

If you're interested in similar crowdsourced philanthropy projects, check out http://www.casefoundation.org/citizen-centered-solutions.

Guest blogger Nikolai Stieglitz is an intern for the Case Foundation.