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Mashable (www.mashable.com), the world’s largest blog focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media News, ranked the Crate and Barrel / DonorsChoose.org GivingCard partnership as one of the top 5 Winning Corporate Social Good Campaigns.

The Crate and Barrel GivingCard campaign is praised for the positive impact it has had on customers (82% of customers who redeemed the certificates were “very likely to consider Crate & Barrel for their next home furnishings or accessories purchase” compared to 76% of a control group of customers that didn’t get certificates), as well as public school teachers and students (over 14,500 projects benefiting 347,000 students).

Please click here for the full blog entry:  http://mashable.com/2010/02/18/corporate-social-good-campaigns

DonorsChoose.org is thankful to Crate and Barrel for its continued support of public school teachers and students across the country.

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Yesterday afternoon, DonorsChoose.org supporter Adam Lambert, of “American Idol” fame, surprised music students at Belvedere Middle School in Los Angeles with a special visit to their classroom, bearing supplies funded through his DonorsChoose.org challenge.  Adam unpacked composition books with the students, who are learning to compose their own music, and even performed a live acoustic set for the class (video below). The students then presented Adam with their own surprise by performing one of his American Idol songs using instruments that were also funded previously through DonorsChoose.org. Read more about the event at the Los Angeles Times website.

Belvedere Middle School is a high-poverty public school whose budding music students have benefited greatly from DonorsChoose.org’s generous donors.  This past fall, Adam and DonorsChoose.org launched a challenge to Adam’s fan groups to support students and teachers across the country by funding critical music and arts supplies for high-need public school classrooms.  Thanks to the enthusiasm of Adam’s fans, to date more than 2,300 fans have contributed over $290,000 directly to project requests, subsequently benefiting 215,000 students.

Members of one of Adam’s fan groups ONTD_AI, which raised the most during the challenge, received a special thank-you of their own, as Adam joined them after the school visit for a live online video chat. Adam answered tons of questions submitted by his fans and thanked them personally for their overwhelming efforts to help students and teachers in need across the country.

HP is giving folks an even bigger opportunity to help classrooms. Now through May 30, 2010, when you purchase any HP product through the Create Change program, HP will contribute 4% of the purchase to the charity of your choice, including DonorsChoose.org.  That adds up to a lot of critical supplies for students!

You can also check out this video for more information about how you can give back to schools when you purchase HP products. Thanks so much HP for helping students and teachers get the resources they need to succeed!

Thanks to The Dallas Foundation’s generosity, Dallas County teachers from high-need schools who submit classroom projects will be eligible for a “Double Your Impact” match. Any project posted to DonorsChoose.org that meets the above criteria will receive 50% funding via this offer once other donors choose to join in and fund the rest of the project. Funding will be spent on a first come, first served basis until the grant is spent out.

The Dallas Foundation, established as a community foundation in 1929, serves as a resource, leader and catalyst for philanthropy by providing donors with flexible means of making gifts to charitable causes that enhance our community. The Dallas Foundation awards grants for a broad array of charitable purposes in the areas of the arts, education, early childhood development, environment, health, aging, human and social services, and public/civic benefit that improve the well-being of the residents of the City and County of Dallas, Texas.

Donors: Please click here to view all projects eligible for funding through The Dallas Foundation.

For School Visiting Day, the San Francisco office had the opportunity to visit two fantastic kindergarten classes at El Dorado Elementary in Visitacion Valley, and meet their amazing teachers!

Marisa Martinez, the self-styled “Queen of DonorsChoose” at El Dorado Elementary has worked tirelessly on behalf of her students—to date Ms. Martinez has had forty projects funded, transforming her classroom and the lives of her students. We loved the dinosaurs that the students had made, and it was great to see Ms. Martinez’s beautiful classroom library, funded mostly through DonorsChoose.org–including the recent addition of a set of science books!

Ms. Martinez has also taken on the role of ambassador, inspiring other teachers at El Dorado to post projects. One such teacher is Jennifer Moless, who has used DonorsChoose.org to fund gardening projects in the school’s community garden and summer sacks for students so that they can continue their learning over summer break. According to Ms. Moless, these packs are particularly helpful for her ESL students.
We would like to thank Ms. Martinez and Ms. Moless at El Dorado for their generosity in opening their classrooms to us, and for their incredible efforts on behalf of their students!