The economy might be about to tank, but why should the children have to suffer? If you are going to give to charity this year (and you should, every one of you), we highly recommend giving to DonorsChoose. Each donation funds a classroom project or equipment for teachers who too often have to fund supplies out of their own meager paychecks. This year we are once again participating in the Donors Choose Blogger Challenge, which raised a total of $420,000 in 2007.
You can give as much as you want (the minimum donation is $10). Last year, I bought a digital camera for a classroom in Illinois, and got hand-written thank-you notes from each student. It really brought home how a few hundred dollars can make a big difference to a roomful of students. But to encourage some serious donations, we decided to make it a little more interesting this year. The top three donors who give at least $1,000 each will receive an All Events pass from TechCrunch. This pass will be good for two tickets to any MeetUp or conference that TechCrunch helps to put on between November 1, 2008 and November 1, 2009. All of them, including TechCrunch50 and the Crunchies. (A single ticket for TechCrunch50 alone cost $2,995 this year).
Not only that, but as an extra bonus, whoever donates the most will also get a one-hour pitch session with angel investor Ron Conway, who has generously agreed to donate his time for this worthy cause. All proceeds go to DonorsChoose, a tax-deductible charity. We’ll even throw in five TechCrunch t-shirts as runner-up prizes (they are very rare, you know).
We’ve picked some classroom projects worth looking at, or you can find your own. As long as you donate via this TechCrunch page or through the widget below, it will count towards our total and put you in te running for the tickets and the Ron Conway session. Also, if you are an American Express cardholder, vote here to give DonorsChoose a chance at an extra $1.5 million donation.
Erick: Is is OK to embed and distribute this widget?
yeah of course. thanks!
This is a great cause. Kudos to you for promoting it. Hopefully it will generate a lot of interest/donations.
Any assumptions on how much will be raised through TechCrunch?
I say at least $10,000.
Last year, rather than give us free schwag for the holidays, Google gave us (MerchantCircle) a gift card to give out over DonorsChoose. We ended up buying an overhead projector for a classroom that didn’t have one! It’s crazy how you can sometimes take things for granted.
If your company gives out goodies over the holidays, it would be worth considering giving out DonorsChoose gift cards as well. It was well worth it when the classroom sent us pictures of them smiling and learning. Every student made a sweet card as well.
These kids’ parents caused this whole financial mess by taking out mortgages they knew they couldn’t repay.
AND NOW YOU WANT US TO BAIL OUT THEIR CHILDREN!!!
SEE:
http://www.tech...conomic-crisis/
nice
nice joke.
ComedyLocator.com
lol very funny
Can I donate blood? I am pretty sure money doesn’t exist anymore.
nice cause
People might be hesitant to donate because they might not be in the top.
And to make it legal, you may be required that no purchase is necessary to enter.
My solution: I suggest that you also give a chance to win some BIG awards to ALL who donate any amount or they can enter by LINKING to this post, which will promote it as well.
Awesome. Great stuff.
Great cause to promote. It gives right to the most motivated teachers who will post to DonorsChoose, not to top-down projects that tend to be implemented wastefully, if at all.
If you have kids in public school, you might want to tell their teachers about DonorsChoose. (TC gang – any way you can get TechCrunch into the grant requests to let people see how many teachers you can turn on to this?).
When’s the last day to donate for the challenge?
Is there a deadline for donating other than what is posted next to the projects? Once all the projects are funded will more be added?
I understand the principle here and I am always eager to donate to a good cause, especially one that is so personalized, but (coming from a 24 year old who lives in his parents basement because I am bootstrapping a startup) $1,400 is literally every penny I own and that will require me to sell my car. I will gladly put forth the effort and the funds to make this donation but the thought of me missing out on the TC events because some else donates $1,401 would kill me (although I would be pumped for the kids to say the least) Can you please provide any more details as they become available – is there anything else we can donate beside capital?
Very cool.
Mike,
I too am included as one of the Bloggers in the Bloggers Challenge this year! It should be alot of fun. I teach Music Lessons on Ustream and a few other places, and I think its important for others to learn music and be a part of something. So I hope to bring my community together and do great things for others!
DonorsChoose is doing a great thing, and I’m thrilled that we both get to be a part of this as we do what we can in order to make a difference! Stay well
One of the projects on your list is for 30 microphones:
Microphones to Implement Audacity Program – $268
I have 40 sealed lapel microphones and headsets from Creative. We just got them because we send out tons of webcams. Is there a way you guys can get credit for that towards your total or is it just cash? We will take care of shipping etc.
Let me know – figured this is the best way.
Mark Newman
Mark, we’ll look into this. thanks very much.
I would love to meet with Ron Conway about Twitturly. Unfortunately cash is tighter than I’d like on this project, so I doubt I could get to be the top sponsor.
Hey Ron, if your interested in a good solid investment, please get in touch.
This is class act! Good job Tech Crunch!
This is a really great idea. When does the contest part of this end?
hi. thank you for the alert about donorschoose. i followed your link and donated over $1000. how do i follow up on your promotion that you mention in your post on a free pass to all your events? thank you. -eric
Thank you for featuring my DonorsChoose grant.
I am an urban educator desperately in need of 6 laptop computers for my classroom. I have designed a classroom website to teach students the value of using blogs, wikis, forum discussions, and digital media to understand content. I also teach digital journalism to our students in the hopes of creating a student run blog for our school in lieu of a print newspaper (very expensive).
Again, thank you for the bump!
Donors Choose emailed me and said my project was one on your challenge list. I couldn’t find it, but my technology related project did get funded yesterday, so THANK YOU! As for the mortgage crisis, that sweeping generalization is so innapropriate I don’t even know how to respond. My students’ families barely make enough to pay the rent and eat.
Thanks a million for donating to my project. My students would love to use more technology and it’s generous, caring people like you who will make it happen!!
I help them too in technology.
I am proud of you participating for kids in need!
LiveCrunch.
http://www.tiny...om/donorschoose
Thank you for what you have done. We can continue teaching and motivating our students because of the generous donors out there.
Hi Everybody,
I recently wrote a grant (Swimming into the 21st Century) and posted it on the Donor’s Choose website. I think that it is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to be able to provide state of the art education to students that the school district would otherwise not be able to afford. I am also grateful for TechCrunch to have chosen my grant to be on their website.
Thanks for all you do to help teachers! We all appreciate it.
Thank you guys very much for promoting this. My girlfriend is a 4/5′th grade teacher and shells out HUNDREDS of dollars from her own pocket each year, not much of which is ever reimbursed due to the tight purse strings around her district’s dwindling budget.
I’m also very happy that my current employer, LiveOps Inc., matches employee donations and will be doubling my gift.
Education is the single best investment we can make for everyone’s future. Thanks again!
Thank you for the donations! The grant I wrote for my students is closer to being funded. I really appreciate it. Only two days left.
Thanks again!!
Erick-
What’s the deadline for making a donation to be considered for the top three donors for the contest?
Hi Erick,
When should we expect the results to be announced?
Thanks!