Chances are you've heard of DonorsChoose.org, an innovative philanthropy network for public schools created by Charles Best. Essentially, DonorsChoose.org lets donors do exactly that: select which projects, conceptualized by teachers, they want to support. Initially launched in 2000 at a public school in the Bronx, the undertaking has garnered plenty of press and funded innumerable projects.
This month, the Curbed Network of sites are joining a new DonorsChoose.org initiative called BloggersChoose. We've set a target goal of $25,000 that we're hoping to raise with your help—so we've selected a bunch of worthy projects in the Bay Area and beyond that we hope might get you to open your wallet and make a donation.
The New York contingent is already on the ball, having funded a journalism project in the Bronx, so it's up to us Bay Area folks to represent for a good cause. We've got a host of local causes that need your help, from an indoor garden classroom in Hayward to a hunger-awareness project in Los Altos. There's also a desperate need for kitchen center in an Oakland school, and John Muir Elementary is trying to get a photography initiative off the ground. DonorsChoose is tracking the overall BloggersChoose challenge, to give a sense of what's being done by the blogosphere as a whole (we'll be updating the progress of our reader challenge here on a weekly basis, too). Together, let's make a difference.
· The Curbed, Eater, and Racked Challenge [DonorsChoose.org]
· BloggersChoose Leaderboard [DonorsChoose.org]