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Posted by jenny on
Monday,
January 30, 2012 at 2:21pm
As we near the end of the first month of 2012, we’d like to share amazing donor Rachel Sklar’s New Year’s message:
In addition to wishing them well, Rachel is thanking her friends and family for donating over $8,000 to her birthday giving page. She and Lizzie O’Leary have a $10,000 goal and can still use your help! It’s a fun and meaningful way to honor Rachel and Lizzie’s birthdays and their generous spirit. And if you’re wondering how you too can send such awesome notes, check out RedStamp, which Rachel used to design the fun correspondence above.
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Posted by jenny on
Wednesday,
January 25, 2012 at 3:17pm
Carrie Alling is a TakePart Account Executive and DonorsChoose.org is thrilled to share her guest blog post below:
DonorsChoose.org has some big fans over here at TakePart.com. REALLY. BIG. FANS. As the online voice of Participant Media (An Inconvenient Truth, Food, Inc.) our mission is and has always been to drive individual action through powerful storytelling and proof of impact. Ultimately, we’d like to create a sustainable world of peace and prosperity. Yep, you may say we’re dreamers, but we actually do believe that if each of us takes a few tiny steps to make a difference, that dream can become a reality. So whenever we see someone out there who shares our mission, we get excited. And DonorsChoose.org does! We greatly admire the way this organization enables individuals to choose their level of engagement – by either giving a little or a lot to the teacher/classroom/project of their choice – and then closes the loop with proof of impact on REAL children. It shows that every little bit helps.
We want to show how small steps can make a difference, too, so we launched 30 Ways in 30 Days, our daily action calendar full of simple and meaningful ways to improve your community, your planet and even yourself. Take action, and you’ll also receive a chance to win some amazing prizes, including an outdoor adventure with the Sierra Club.
To start using the calendar, you can either visit us at www.takepart.com/30Ways30Days OR text 30WAYS to 77177 to receive daily action alerts on your phone. It’s easy, fun and fulfilling!
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Posted by Katie on
Thursday,
January 19, 2012 at 6:25pm
To celebrate their availability from coast to coast for the very first time, Cuties California Clementines recently launched an interactive website created especially for kids (and their proud parents!). The site, CutiesKids.com, showcases parent-uploaded videos and pictures showing kids doing what they do best: having fun, acting silly, and of course, looking incredibly cute. Every approved video earns that parent a $10 gift card they can use to support any classroom project posted at DonorsChoose.org. Cuties has generously donated $100,000 to DonorsChoose.org, and Cuties Kids is just the beginning!
Every week, visitors to Cuties Kids vote for the videos they find the cutest, and each week’s winner receives: an Xbox 360 + Kinect; a $500 DonorsChoose.org gift card; and a coupon for one free bag of Cuties California Mandarins. At the end of April, every weekly winner, plus two “wildcard” entries, will compete for the Cuties Kids’ grand prize: a $150,000 college scholarship and a $5,000 DonorsChoose.org gift card!
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Posted by jenny on
Wednesday,
January 18, 2012 at 10:32am
We couldn’t be more excited to announce the launch of our nationwide Public Service Announcement (PSA) campaign, Tools for Classrooms. Thanks to our friends at Clear Channel Communities ™, we have an awesome group of celebrities and music artists spreading the word about DonorsChoose.org! Folks like Ryan Seacrest, JR Martinez, Kelly Clarkson, and Daughtry are letting their fans know how to help classrooms in need. You can check out all the PSAs here.
2. Pick a project you’re passionate about. Give any amount, and thanks to the leadership of Chase, your donation will automatically be matched up to $50!
3. Spread the word and help Clear Channel Communities™ and Chase empower teachers by providing Tools for Classrooms.
Click below to see New York City teacher Mrs. Zimmerman describe her favorite project funded through DonorsChoose.org (and support her current projects here):
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Posted by jenny on
Friday,
January 13, 2012 at 1:25pm
We would like to thank YOU (our awesome teachers, students, donors, corporate partners and and foundation partners) for a fantastic 2011! We hope you enjoy some of the coverage from our efforts in 2011:
The Microsoft Alumni Foundation recently honored our Chief Technology Officer, Oliver Hurst-Hiller, with its Integral Fellows Award for making a difference in the lives of others.
Prior to joining the DonorsChoose.org team in 2006, Oliver managed product engineering projects at Microsoft for four years.
Having benefited from some amazing New York City public school teachers during his formative years, and with a brother teaching at public schools in high-need communities in Massachusetts, Oliver always felt strongly about the importance of empowering great teachers in our highest-need communities.
The award was announced on November 16, 2011 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. Bill and Melinda Gates personally presented the Integral Fellows award to Oliver on stage!
Along with the award, the Microsoft Alumni Foundation generously donated $25,000 to DonorsChoose.org. Oliver invited his former Microsoft colleagues to decide which classrooms receive the funds.
If you’re a Microsoft employee and you’d like to help choose which classrooms will benefit from Oliver’s award, send a note from your @microsoft.com email to microsoft-award (at) donorschoose {dot} org and we’ll send you a gift card too!
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Posted by jenny on
Tuesday,
January 10, 2012 at 2:50pm
Author Lisa Rogak has covered topics far and wide: cookbooks, business guides, novels, and biographies. Her latest biography, And Nothing but the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert, covers our favorite funnyman (and DonorsChoose.org board member!) Stephen Colbert. Lisa was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.
DonorsChoose.org: What kind of role did public education play in Stephen Colbert’s life?
Lisa Rogak: He attended public school up through the sixth grade. I interviewed his fourth-grade teacher who described him as a happy-go-lucky kid who excelled at his studies and wasn’t afraid to stand out.
DC: What was the hardest part about writing this book? The most fun?
LR: For me, the hardest part of doing any book is buckling down and writing it, even after authoring 5 biographies. The research part is definitely the most fun where I essentially have to play detective. The process leads me down many blind alleys but also turns up the occasional gem.
DC:How would you describe Stephen using only five words?
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Posted by Kirk on
Sunday,
January 8, 2012 at 5:22pm
Given the overwhelming support and success of Next Jump’s SA500 Kids campaign so far, they have decided to continue the effort of helping public school kids who need access to technology resources beyond the original end date! Teachers and supporters will be able to continue to accelerate project funding by voting for their favorite projects via OO.com.
Since the launch of the program in late November, nearly $250,000 has been raised to fund more than 450 projects across the country reaching more than 41,000 students.
“We are so excited to be continuing this partnership,” said Next Jump CEO Charlie Kim. “It is our dream to bring technology to children in need with the hopes of inspiring future generations of engineers. Through this partnership, we are able to do that.”
To learn more about how the partnership works, visit our Help Center. To Shop, Save, and Give visit OO.com.
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Posted by jenny on
Friday,
December 16, 2011 at 8:00am
This Friday, December 16, our awesome friends at YouTube are going to hold a Holiday Giving Flash Mob… They won’t be dancing or pretending to be frozen in Grand Central Station (that we know of), they’ll just be funding as many projects as they can! It’s such a fun and generous idea, and we’re so excited to team up with them.
Help them mob us for good by picking a project you’re passionate about on the site, and donating to it.
And be sure to check out Charles Best’s message to the participants:
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Posted by Risa on
Wednesday,
December 14, 2011 at 8:44pm
Many of you have noticed our exciting partnership with OO.com, a Next Jump company. Through this partnership, Next Jump is supporting critical technology projects on DonorsChoose.org and inspiring the next generation of engineers. As you may have also noticed, this partnership has evolved since it first launched in November, leading to many exciting changes on www.OO.com/SA500Kids.
As a pioneering technology company, Next Jump is continuously creating, tweaking, and innovating. In the words of their Founder and CEO, Charlie Kim, “We have a culture of innovation, and the ability to experiment is key in our investments.” These investments include SA500 Kids and Shop Save Give on OO.com.
This philosophy and approach explain an upcoming change that will impact the way voting works on www.OO.com/SA500Kids. To make sure our teachers and their supporters know what to expect, we’ve published full campaign details in our Help Center, along with information about this upcoming voting change. We’ll continue to add details to that page as we learn more, so stay tuned!
We’re grateful for the passion that DonorsChoose.org teachers and the Next Jump team display to bring technology into more public school classrooms across the country.
