(Black PR Wire) Atlanta, GA, March 6, 2017 — Continuing its commitment to our nation’s accredited Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), The Home Depot® announced today that voting is underway for the 2017 Retool Your School Grant Program. The program is in its eighth consecutive year, and this year, nine HBCUs will be awarded a total of $360,000 for campus improvements.

The voting period began February 24 and will end April 16, 2017.

During this period, the HBCU community can vote in two ways:

By casting one online vote per day at www.retoolyourschool.com

By using a school’s unique, designated hashtag to cast unlimited social votes through Twitter and Instagram.

The nine schools that receive the highest number of votes during the voting period will advance to the final round and submit their proposals. A panel of distinguished judges will evaluate each school’s proposal. Judges will consider the quality of each proposal and the school’s ability to execute the project within the specified budget. Proposals for all three grant levels must highlight how each project will make a lasting, positive impact on the HBCU campus.

Momentum for Retool Your School continues to swell. The program received its own nod during the recent awards season from black Hollywood’s brightest stars when many HBCU alumni and supporters showed their support forthe Retool Your School program and their favorite HBCU at the 2016 and 2017 African American Film Critics Association Awards — giving celebrity shout-outs on the red carpet.

This year, The Home Depot will award a total of $360,000 to the nine HBCUs with winning proposals. The schools will be categorized in one of three clusters, based on each school’s student population. Each cluster will have three winners vying for one $50,000, one $40,000 and one $30,000 grant.

The breakdown is as follows: Cluster 1 is open to schools with a student enrollment of 4,000 or more; Cluster 2 is open to schools with a student enrollment of 1,201 to 3,999 students; and Cluster 3 is open to schools with 1,200 students or less.

The nine winners will be announced by May 11, 2017, at The Home Depot headquarters in Atlanta, GA.

The Home Depot Retool Your School Grant Program, established in 2010, encourages and recognizes innovative projects that contribute to the campuses of accredited HBCUs. Since the program’s inception, over 1.5 million dollars in grant money has been awarded to our nation’s HBCUs to make sustainable improvements.

For the last two years, the Retool Your School Program has been recognized in Washington, DC, by the White House Initiative on HBCUs during National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week.In 2014, it was awarded the Phoenix Award, the highest honor that can be awarded to an individual or group by the City of Atlanta.

“Each year, we’ve seen increased momentum and engagement around The Retool Your School Grant Program,” says Melissa Brown, senior marketing manager at The Home Depot. “The program is the embodiment of the culture and commitment of The Home Depot’s support to community. We acknowledge and appreciate the vital contributions that HBCUs have made and continue to make to our nation’s rich history, and we are honored to help support the legacy of these treasured institutions.”

The Home Depot is the world’s largest home improvement specialty retailer, with 2,278 retail stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, 10 Canadian provinces and Mexico. In fiscal 2016, The Home Depot had sales of $94.6 billion and earnings of $8.0 billion. The Company employs more than 400,000 associates. The Home Depot's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HD) and is included in the Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 index.

For more information on The Home Depot Retool Your School Grant Program, visit www.retoolyourschool.com.