The local nonprofit agency Kind Tree – Autism Rocks was awarded a $5,000 grant from Wells Fargo on Wednesday (March 13), after emerging as this year's top pick of students in the University of Oregon's "American Philanthropy" freshman seminar.

Kind Tree's Tim Mueller was awarded a ceremonial, oversized check by Wells Fargo representatives and students from the philanthropy class in Wednesday's Hendricks Hall reception. 

The seminar, "American Philanthropy: The Science and Practice of Giving Money Away,” educates first-year students about the nonprofit sector. Each student in the class chose a local organization to nominate for consideration. Class members voted to narrow the nominees to a list of five finalist organizations, then a student team was assigned to each and gave a presentations to the rest of the class based on site visits.

Kind Tree was the students' choice to receive the $5,000 grant from Wells Fargo.

The American Philanthropy class is taught by adjunct instructor Paul Elstone, the UO's assistant vice president for development. The UO and Wells Fargo have collaborated for the past 11 years to provide a learning experience for students and a total of $55,000 in funding for nonprofit organizations in Lane County.

- from the UO Office of Strategic Communications