Please give money to buy books for poor kids. Or don't. Up to you.

@f00l Thanks! (I think )

@baqui63
Yeah

@conandlibrarian Thanks!

@dashbutt Thanks!

@AnnaB Thanks!

@dmbock01 How about these?

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/graphing-our-way-into-the-future/2069911/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/what-we-need-is-a-little-bit-of-music/2069393/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/calculators-for-my-classroom/2080011/

I went to the site and clicked on supplies and books, teachers and schools never funded before and started reading through them…

@dmbock01 some more

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/new-textbooks-of-knowledge/2065527/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/the-composition-of-science/2117671/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/friends-fitness-and-fun/2090684/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/read-all-about-it/2027375/

Or maybe we can take on one school - for example, St Francis Indian School, which is a reservation school and conditions on reservations, including in the schools, is often very third world:

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/lakota-art/2012701/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/empowering-through-art-star-pillows/2020625/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/empowering-students-through-art-learnin/2019008/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/diverse-books-for-native-youth/2094674/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/balls-to-help-build-sportsmanship/2020677/

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/empowering-students-through-art-beading/2018999/

@Kidsandliz While I’m not against targeting a specific school or location and I’m completely behind trying to make a dent in the conditions on and around reservations, I kinda sorta like the idea of some random teacher who wasn’t expecting much to suddenly get what s/he asked for.

Ms Leon’s project languished for three months with nothing and then in less than 11 hours was fully funded, all due to a random selection by CAH because I decided to get an add-on pack.

To quote daughter unit 1, “That’s soooo random!”

@baqui63 I would agree… I was only posting ideas in case people don’t want to read request after request. I did a search of teachers and schools who had not been funded before figuring that would thrill them more than folks who got funded year after year. As I read through the requests I looked for projects that had few to no donations, were in high poverty areas (since those schools had less money for even the basics and teachers were more likely to have to pay for this stuff themselves so they could even teach, yet likely those teachers have lower pay), was looking things that were more essential than “would be nice” kinds of things. Nothing wrong with funding the “would be nice” requests, I just figured the other requests needed the money more. Heck now that you provided the link to the site, people can fund whatever tickles their fancy and make someone’s day somewhere.

@Kidsandliz Please understand that I was not faulting ANY of your selection criteria and I agree 100% with everything you say above.

Recall that you posted Mrs M’s link first, then added the others later; I had already decided on her project before I saw the others. After, I also spent some time looking for projects using search criteria similar to yours.

The only downside I see to a completely random project selection is that the teachers only get their money if their project is fully funded. Thus, there is some benefit to a process that picks one at random, but then sticks with it until it is funded.

Having said that, so many of these are so small that a few dozen people each giving “a coffee or two” will fully fund them.

I will also note that I am frakking clueless why I find this whole idea so interesting. It is almost exciting.

@baqui63 In my opinion it is always fun to make someone’s day with something unexpected. In this case we are benefiting lots of people. I have always, the few times I have bought lottery tickets (yes I know that just puts a match to the money and this state doesn’t even have a lottery so I only buy one when I go to get my cancer checked on, and then only sometimes, but I digress), I have had so much fun thinking about how I will give away most of the money and sometimes I realize I have forgotten to leave enough for myself LOL…

And you are right about making sure any project gets fully funded so they actually get the money. Maybe as a group we can decide on one or two links at a time and we can fund them, rinse and repeat until this thread dies?

@Kidsandliz

Those with even a basic understanding of probability know that money spent on lottery tickets is very likely money wasted. NYS Lottery ads used to say “You gotta be in it to win it!” and I’d always add “but the odds are about the same whether you’re in it or not!”

However, whenever the prize is large enough that someone at work puts together a group buy, I always participate so that people cannot say “I guess you and your math were wrong, huh?” or “I told you so.” I call it buying “I-told-you-so insurance.”

Since our best win to date has been only losing 87.5% of money “invested,” this is almost like most other forms of insurance: you buy it to cover the shit that happens that you cannot otherwise afford and then hope that you’ll never need it, except without that whole hoping thing.

As for working on projects as a group, I doubt that I’d have any problem supporting the vast majority of the projects targeting high poverty areas and I’m guessing that most of us would feel the same. It is likely that CAH used my delivery zip code plus some of “your” criteria to pick Ms Leon’s project. In the long run, is this method any better or worse than some other equally random method?

@Kidsandliz your second link for Mrs. Ricks… That’s not very far from me. I can attest that the city doesn’t get a very good rap. Hopefully it’ll get funded.

@baqui63 There are a ton of projects on there that range from basic supplies (pencils and paper for the kids) to enrichment/optional things. Teachers in high poverty areas often end up with fewer supplies and often have lower salaries.

I know my mom, who taught K-3 spent several hundred dollars a year of her own money on things either her kids needed (eg bought the school supplies for kids whose family could not afford them) or her classroom needed and that was in a relatively well funded school.

Special Ed teachers go through a lot of basic supplies as those kids seem to lose things left and right and it is really hard to teach with they don’t even have paper and pencils. My kid had an IEP and that poor teacher supplied my kid with a ton of papers, pens, pencils as somehow even though I’d put more in her backpack weekly they’d all vanish. I finally dropped off enough supplies to that teacher to resupply my kid for the rest of the school year so it wouldn’t have to come out of her pocket. So if you want to donate locally, buy paper, pencils and pens and drop them off at the school telling them to give that stuff to the resource/special ed teachers or any other teacher they know who routinely supplies this stuff to the kids.

I also included some reservation or right next to a reservation projects as generally most of those kids live well below the poverty line in housing that would be condemned if it were off the reservation and there is no money for anything. Further their reservations are generally isolated, often miles and miles from cheap places to shop for school supplies or other items. In addition the kids often struggle to make the link between the life that is represented in textbooks and what they see around them. Unemployment is generally over 50% on reservations and kids often have few opportunities and don’t see a world with opportunities.

@baqui63 Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share my grandson’s 2nd birthday (the 21st) with Mrs. Leon’s class. By the time I got to it about 2am Sunday morning it was already fully funded, so I just sent books via Amazon directly to her. I haven’t donated through DonorsChoose in a long time; most of my small charity gifts go though Kiva.org. I’ll add DonorsChoose to my list as well. Thanks again, from me and Bean.

@baqui63 in for 10

@Kidsandliz @baqui63 Another step closer. $56 total remaining.

As Best Buy is matching the donations, can a few fellow mehmbers pony up the last $28?

@narfcake Now down to $45 so 23.50… Cool this teacher hopefully will fully funded in less than 24 hours. And equally cool our community here is making a difference one classroom at a time.

@Kidsandliz the Best Buy matching is great. Doubling everyone’s donation makes funding so much more likely.

@mick the goal of this thread IS all about kids and books…the goal of cah is political. No one needs to buy anything from cah, but @baqui63 is pointing out donorschoose has lots of worthy teachers requesting help…

@mick Please don’t be offended by this, but in my experience, life is a lot more interesting and less frustrating when one spends more than a few seconds researching/reading about an issue before presuming to be an expert on said issue.

The TL;DR from my original post is what it is about:

This project to buy books so that 3rd to 5th graders can learn to enjoy reading is worth funding. Please send them a few bucks, maybe funded by getting a slightly less fancy coffee tomorrow? Please and thanks.

Everything else is just a story about how I learned of a way to send money to kids for books and why I was trying to get others to do it.

CAH’s political agenda has nothing to do with this at all. I wanted the Hillary and Drumpf cards for a game I enjoy playing and also wanted free shipping. I really don’t give a shit what CAH does with their profits, primarily because IMHO it really won’t really matter (tho the money for the get out and vote campaigns is a very good thing, also IMHO).

@mikibell so, i was so not understanding this right… i clicked on the first 2 things… when i should have clicked on the third, Donors Choose… my mistake… i just clicked on the first to give some money, didn’t see how ? clicked the second and did not want to give any money to any ones campaign… i was not aware something like donors choose even existed??.. i looked, schools, in my area were on the list too!!

@baqui63 i don’t even drink caffeine anything… i am really busy though… and truth to tell, i kinda fast read thru some stuff, like most of the long stuff and maybe don’t get the exact jest of things, sometimes!! my bad…bad…bad…
i’m more of a…

kinda of old lady…lol

@CaptAmehrican tc had already gone to bed by the time I realized this thread had evolved. I’ll ask her to remove it later tonight if it isn’t already done by someone else. (Not sure who all to ping on this, other than @thumperchick and I don’t want to bother the assorted big cheeses, tho I’m fairly certain they support this whole thing.)

@baqui63 I removed the funded tag.

@Thumperchick Thanks TC!

@Collin1000 I’m sure we can find a way to keep you out of it. (Hell, just create another meh account and post a couple of links.)

@Collin1000 or email me at my user name and the usual yahoo and I can post them and we will just need to be careful not to mention meh on those project pages in the comments. That should keep you “safe”.

@Kidsandliz awesome our second school is funded now forr 3 and 4

@CaptAmehrican cool… our devious plot to make people happy and change lives one by one is working LOL

@Kidsandliz looks like someone else finished off school 3 the stem fairy tales.

@Shrdlu

@Shrdlu You’re welcome, ma’am.

@djslack Awesome!! Schools need all the extra help they can get these days.

@djslack Okay, here is where I get to sound like the resident jerk (or one of them, anyway). The teacher says: “We start our day off with the pledge and a prayer.” In other words, they start their day violating the U.S. Constitution. I’m an atheist and a believer in the Constitution, so I’ll be passing this one up. I’ll find something else to fund.

@djslack We should check this school for proximity to the terrible flooding Louisiana is experiencing. Marthaville is 200 miles NW of Baton Rouge, and I know Baton Rouge and large areas around it are pretty much underwater. Anyone in the area? I’ll try to call the school in mid-morning to be sure they’re okay. If they’re flooded, folks here might want to just direct donations to the school itself since they’ll likely lose a lot of everyday stuff.

@magic_cave Your choice on funding it. I understand your point. Also, it’s a high dollar project of seemingly “nice to have” items and it is not likely to get funded in 4 days even with our attention. I was just surprised to see something at my sister’s little school in the middle of nowhere.

As for the flooding, they’re a couple of hours north/northwest of it. They’re OK. Donations to schools affected by the flooding might be a better way to go.

@djslack Thanks for relieving my concern about flooding in the Marthaville area. I spent close to an hour skimming through news outlets and flood maps, which led me to info that the area is on flood watch, not flood warning. After 50+ years of keeping an eye on hurricane watches/warnings, I’m glad they’re likely to stay safe.

I was a little taken aback by the huge amount she wants for three bookshelves, essentially $1000, compared to $856 a quick web search shows. I used to do fund-raising for a non-profit, and on small projects a $144 difference can be a make-or-break amount. There’s also a line item for $118 in state sales tax; I’ve never yet run into a public school that has to pay state sales tax, although perhaps LA is odd in that way. Reading through this and three other projects reminded me why I don’t have DonorsChoose on my own charity list: the “suggested donation” to the organization itself seems to be about 18% based on the “project cost,” which is an awfully large burden to place on funding goals. I didn’t check to see how it’s handled, though; perhaps they actually fully fund projects that have smaller or no donation amounts.

Still and all, my mom used to say the first thing I ever read was the brand name on the obstetrician’s stethoscope, and providing books for kids is a high calling. I really like the idea of mehricans taking on projects such as this one.

@magic_cave Yes, I noticed when donating that DC suggests 15% of the donation be to them. If you click the link you can choose the percentages, IIRC they were 0, 12, 15, and 19%, which was weird too. Why can’t I kick them 5 or 10% instead of 15? If you decrease the amount they want, it shows up as a dollar amount described as something like “declined donorschoose funding” in the breakdown.

So basically they are adding in money to them as overhead for each project, which is a little skeevy but at least relatively transparent, and doesn’t leave the teacher hanging for a chunk of her project budget by them taking out fees. I do like that they break everything down by line item for a project request.

I dug around and found that if a project is not fully funded they give you the choice of choosing another project, sending your donation to that teacher anyway as a gift card, or letting it go into their general fund pot. I think if you don’t choose within 30 days of notification then the funds go into the general pot.

We got our flooding in in the northwest part of the state this spring. I really hope it doesn’t affect this area again this year.