Donate to charity

I just found out about a really cool website designed for teachers in need of classroom materials. The way the site works is a teacher will post a proposal on the site, and “donors” searching the site can give tax-deductible donations as little as $1 to the proposals of their choice. Proposals can really be anything, from pencils to a classroom computer. The main requirement is that the items requested directly benefit the students.

I have posted two proposals:

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=201316

http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=201544

The first propoosal is requesting help getting arts and crafts supplies so my students can work on a Picasso inspired art project. The second proposal is requesting a document camera, so we can read comics, childrens books, and other stories in Spanish without having to make low quality black and white copies to do so.

Personally, I am so excited a site like this exists for teachers. As it gets closer to September and I am shopping back to school supply sales I am reminded again of how quickly the small things add up and how unattainable some of the big things seem.

So, why am I posting this here for all of you to see? Well, maybe you were, are, know, or will be a teacher and could benefit from this site yourself. Or, maybe maybe you feel like helping out someone with a lot of good ideas, but not a lot of funds.

I like Doctors Without Borders and Kiva.org. The latter is microlending, which isn’t technically charity, but it’s trememendously rewarding. So far I’ve loaned the same $25 to three different people to aid in their business projects.

As a result of my de-cluttering goal, another bag of books, clothes and handbags has gone to Scope (a mental health charity)

I’ve also just set up a direct debit for my membership of Liberty, in support of civil liberties (not technically a charity but definitely a good cause).

.... and managed to fill this very large bag with good clothing, shoes, bags, and jackets…

There are so many people that are doing it tough this winter, so I hope that this can help in some small way.

Along with my knitted items, I feel that at least I am contributing somehow….

my old but in good shape clothes go to Goodwill, i dontated to my cousin’s realy for life team, etc.

I did a clear out today and so far I’m going to give away to charity:

• 16 books
• 1 DVD
• 5 CD’s
• An Ipod speaker
• 2008 Diary
• Video Boxset
• Sketchbook

Clothes

• 2 Hats
• Tie
• Jumper
• 3 Polo Shirts
• 3 Trousers
• 3 Jeans
• 4 Jackets
• 7 T Shirts
• Scarf
• Shorts
• 3 Belts
• Necklace

I need to see if I have any old clutter I can possibly give away to charity. I don’t think I have a lot at the moment but I’m sure there’s a few things I can find around my room which I no longer need.

I donated some cans of food to the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. :)

My plan was to save a dollar a day for a while to donate to charity, and for the most part I remembered to do it, so today I dontated the $100 dollars I saved up to kiva.org and donated to 4 different people/groups. It feels good!

My six year old explained that his class bought a cow for a village in Kenya. Wow. That’s a significant thought for a six year old. They are gathering more cash to buy a few more animals. As of early May, the school has bought 7 goats, 4 pigs and 1 cow for their adopted village. He also explained that there was only one more day to contribute. I gave him $25 which was all the money in my wallet. A check might have been easier for taxes and I was a little worried that he would loose the cash, but involving him in the process seems as important as making the contribution.