(Black PR Wire) Atlanta, GA, March 29, 2019 — For the tenth consecutive year, The Home Depot® is continuing to give back to our nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and today announced that voting has begun for the 2019 Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant program. Since 2009, the program has awarded more than $2.1 million in grants to our nation’s HBCUs to make sustainable improvements.

This year, The Home Depot’s Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant program will award ten deserving HBCUs $500,000 in grant funds for campus improvements. To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, The Home Depot has added a tenth grant for the HBCU that wins the “Campaign of the Year Award,” which will be awarded to the school with the most original, innovative and particularly effective campaign. Participating universities and colleges with the highest number of votes between February 25 and April 15 will advance to the final round of the program, when each school will submit a project proposal.

“For the past 10 years, The Retool Your School program has funded sustainable projects for HBCUs, like eco-friendly classrooms, refurbished basketball courts, modernized health clinics and communal student space upgrades,” says Melissa Brown, senior marketing manager at The Home Depot. “We are extremely proud of the ongoing work, commitment and investment that we’re making 365 days a year in the African American community, and in helping to preserve the rich legacy of our nation’s treasured HBCUs.”

During the voting period, the HBCU community can cast votes in these ways:

1. By casting votes online at www.retoolyourschool.com
2. By using the school’s designated hashtag to cast social votes through Twitter and Instagram

A panel of distinguished judges will evaluate the proposals based on The Home Depot’s criteria. Judges will consider the quality of each proposal and the school’s ability to execute the project within a $50,000 budget. Proposals must highlight how projects will make a lasting, positive impact on the HBCU campus.

Participating schools are categorized into three clusters, based on student population size. Each of the clusters will have three winners that will be awarded a $50,000 grant.

Clusters are divided based on these criteria:

• Cluster 1 schools with a student enrollment of 4,000 or more
• Cluster 2 schools with a student enrollment of 1,201–3,999 students
• Cluster 3 schools with 1,200 students or less

The announcement of the ten winning schools will take place on April 22, 2019 at the annual Retool Your School Winners’ Ceremony at The Home Depot Store Support Center in Atlanta, GA.

For more information on The Home Depot’s Retool Your School Campus Improvement Grant program, visit www.retoolyourschool.com.