Stella Adler Studio of Acting Wins $25,000 in Chases Community Giving Top 100 Charities Contest

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting was named a winner in Chase Bank's Facebook election, "Chase Community Giving," to name the top 100 charities in the United States. Each winner was awarded a $25,000 prize towards their programming. The studio will use their winnings to expand their Outreach Division, which provides free actor training to underprivileged students in New York City.

"This grant will provide vital support for the Stella Adler Outreach Division, which serves over 300 low-income and inner-city youth annually with free theater programming. Students served come from families whose income averages around $23,000 a year for a family of four," said Director Tom Oppenheim. "We are going to do everything we can to bring our community together for the next and final round of voting. The cause is nothing short of funding for the arts and social justice. The arts have the power to heal and make whole, to address and serve humanity in an elemental way, to uplift and edify. Theater must be shared with everyone regardless of economic status. The Stella Adler Outreach Division democratizes access to the arts for New York City youth."

Chase Community Giving, a grassroots campaign launched November 16th to inspire a new way of corporate philanthropy, allowed Facebook's 350 million users to choose from more than 500,000 of their favorite small and local charities and vote for them to win their share of $5 million. Throughout the campaign, Chase Community Giving fans nominated tens of thousands of charities from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Throughout the nearly four weeks of Round One voting, thousands of local charities created their own grassroots campaigns to encourage supporters to get out the vote, using e-mail campaigns, appearances on the local evening news, Facebook status updates and wall posts, and many other methods.

In Round Two, the 100 organizations selected from Round One will have the option to submit a Million Dollar Grant proposal to Facebook users, detailing the difference they would make in their local community with new additional funding. Facebook users will vote starting January 15, and on or around February 1, one organization will receive $1 million from Chase, provided all eligibility requirements and standards have been met and reviewed by the Chase Community Giving Advisory Board. Five additional organizations will receive $100,000 each.

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is one of only two New York charities competing, and one of three theater organizations in the nation.

If Stella Adler wins, the studio will use the funding to expand actor training to more underprivileged New York teenagers.

About The Stella Adler Studio of Acting
Established in 1949 by Stella Adler, the Stella Adler Studio of Acting was founded upon Adler's belief in the supreme seriousness of her art, and has, for the last five decades, enriched every part of the American theater and film arts. Adler's philosophies kept many well-known members of the theater coming back for her intelligent and passionate advice and the school has since trained many of the brilliant actors of our time, including Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Elaine Stritch, Benicio del Toro, and Salma Hayek. The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is a nonprofit organization, which trains over 500 actors annually and also presents world-class lectures, poetry readings, jazz, classical music, theater, and dance theater events. www.stellaadler.com

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