Get Ready to Rock the ACF Vote!

October 10, 2017 (Toronto, ON) – Aviva Canada is pleased to announce that voting for the 2017 Aviva Community Fund (ACF) competition begins today. Over the past three weeks, ACF has received over 540 incredible ideas for positive change in communities across Canada. Voting opens at 12 pm ET today and continues until October 19th – closing at 5 pm ET.

All Canadians are encouraged to check out the submitted ideas in each of the> four ACF categories: Community Development, Community Health, Community Resilience, and Community Legacy. Your votes will help determine which ideas will move onto the finals to be evaluated by a panel of judges. You can cast a total of 18 votes any time during the voting period from October 10th to 19th. Your votes can be spread across multiple projects, or you can cast all of them to support one project.

"We are beyond excited for voting to begin and to see these amazing ideas become a reality," said Debora Hendrickson, Senior Vice President, Customer & Marketing, Aviva Canada. "We want to thank all idea submitters for their commitment to positive change. Each of the 541 ideas submitted is proof of how much Canadians care about their community needs."

When voting closes, the 35 idea submissions with the most votes will be evaluated by a panel of judges. Evaluation criteria include: impact on the community, sustainability, and innovation.

Finalists will be revealed on November 1st, and winners will be announced on December 5th.

Media Contacts:

Priscilla Wong
Public Relations Specialist
Aviva Canada Inc.
Mobile: 647 208 7523
Email: priscilla.y.wong@aviva.com

Notes to Editors:

More information about the voting round & getting to the finals

• The 15 ideas that receive the most votes in each of the two funding levels in the Community Development, Community Health and Community Resilience categories plus the 5 ideas that receive the most votes in the Community Legacy category and the idea with the highest Aviva broker partner votes (Top Ranked Broker-Supported idea) will become Finalists.
• The 35 Finalists are then evaluated by our independent panel of judges who choose the Grand Prize Winners.
• Grand Prize Winners receive up to $100,000 (if entered into the large level of funding), up to $50,000 (if entered into the small level of funding) and $150,000 (if entered into the Community Legacy category).
• Finalists that do not become Grand Prize Winners will receive a $5,000 donation to a charity of their choice.

About Aviva Canada:

Aviva Canada is one of the leading property and casualty insurance groups in the country, providing home, automobile, leisure/lifestyle and business insurance to 2.9 million customers. A subsidiary of UK-based Aviva plc, Aviva Canada has more than 4,000 employees focused on creating a bright and sustainable future for our customers and our communities.

Aviva Canada invests in positive change through the Aviva Community Fund, Canada’s longest running online community funding competition, which has awarded $8.5 million to over 280 charities and community groups nationwide since its inception in 2009. Aviva Canada was the first insurer to become a national corporate partner of the Canadian Red Cross’ Ready When the Time Comes program, to be there for Canadians when disaster strikes. With a strong commitment to prevention and protection, the organization has partnered with the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, and launched the Plan & Protect app, to help Canadians prepare for unforeseen weather events and natural disasters. In 2016, it received The Burns & Wilcox Award for Philanthropy & Community Service. At Aviva Canada, protecting the people and things you love, supporting the causes you care about most and strengthening your local community is just good thinking.

For more information visit Aviva Canada’s Corporate Responsibility page, Aviva Canada’s blog, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.