I read about DonorsChoose.org in the NY Times.* Local teachers who need money for their projects put in a request and DonorsChoose looks it over. If it seems legit and the costs line up, the project is offered online.
The site offers anonymous donations or you can advertise your generosity on Facebook. I choose anonymous and donated by credit card.
An easy to use interface helps keep track of the projects you donated to or the tags/categories associated with that project. CharityNavigator.org gave them a nice four-star review, writing about DonorsChoose's low overhead and 92% of funds go to people in need.
Charitable and businesses match dollar for dollar on some projects.
I donated to a class of students learning to cook and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation essentially doubled my donation's effectiveness. Other charitable oganizations include Townsend Press, which subsidizes reading projects.
To extend your donation's effectiveness, you can buy a book about schools in America containing a $15 DonorsChoose giftcard. The book is available for $6 and change. If you're short of $25 on an Amazon order and trying to get free shipping, then toss the book in. The DVD has a $25 giftcard but is obviously more expensive.
Anyway, a class of students learning to cook for job training are on their way to getting their cooking supplies thanks in part to the book Waiting for Superman and Bill and Melinda Gates' generosity.
* The actual article was from 2010 but I wasn't able to open it, so I used this other one instead.
No comments:
Post a Comment