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Employees of The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation honored DonorsChoose.org, and 13 other nonprofit organizations working to make a difference in Baltimore City, Maryland, at their Employee Giving Luncheon on Tuesday, July 15th. The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation has a cool way of involving their own employees in creative grantmaking. Once a year, The foundation encourages its employees to take a close look at the work being done by nonprofit organizations in Baltimore City, choose one making a meaningful impact on the community, and nominate the nonprofit of their choosing for a $10,000 grant.

This year DonorsChoose.org was chosen by Amy Gross, Program Director of The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Gross surprised the luncheon audience by announcing that each attendee would receive a DonorsChoose.org Giving Card so that they could help distribute the $10,000 employee giving grant among projects in their community.

Gross said of her decision to share the gift of giving with attendees, “I was so excited to be able to have this opportunity to use my employee giving grant to share the ‘gift of giving’ with others. I felt great, everyone who received the gift certificates felt great receiving them, those that have redeemed them got to feel good again as a giver, and hopefully the teachers and students we help will also feel great! It’s a win-win.”

Giving Card recipient Donn Weinberg, Vice President & Trustee of The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, said of his DonorsChoose.org experience, “The whole idea behind DonorsChoose.org is great. I was able to review many teacher proposals for funding and choose which one I wanted to fund with a gift certificate given to me. If I want to go back and personally fund other proposals, I can do so at my convenience. I have suggested to a public school guidance counselor I know that she should look into adding her proposal to DonorsChoose.org.”

On behalf of the 1,900 students who have already benefited from this philanthropic gift, a big THANK YOU goes out to The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and Amy Gross!

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My summer internship here is expanding my imagination in areas I’ve never thought of before. A couple weeks ago, I learned too many mustache jokes while working on a project for Mustaches for Kids. This week, I discovered, read, and loved many of the creative projects listed on DonorsChoose. Check out my top five favorite projects, which are awaiting funding in the Atlantic Region…

“Dem Bones Dem Bones” (Washington, DC)

Ms. L states that “At the beginning of the year, this is what most of my fourth graders believe: two long leg bones, two long arm bones, one long back/neck bone, and a skull.” To help the kids understand their bodies better, it would understandably help them if they could see and physically feel the different bones and joints. To accomplish that, Ms. L requests miniature models to enhance their learning in an interesting and intuitive fashion.

“Thomas Jefferson’s Think Tank” (Falls Church, VA)

Across the country, there are stories of the nation’s gifted children not receiving the education they deserve as they’re passed over for funding. This fun project would help right this imbalance by providing strategy games that test, teach and involve these kids. Just because they’re intelligent does not mean they are any less needful of an appropriate education.

“Library Transformation” (Coraopolis, PA)

Often, in this Pennsylvanian school library, students want to sit quietly and lose themselves in a book, but have no place to sit and read. This Pennsylvanian librarian, Ms. K, bemoans the students not having “a place to sit and read comfortably.” With beanbag chairs, dozens of kids will be able to enjoy their books in a cozy chair.

“Exposure to Differences for Preschoolers” (Burgaw, NC)

It’s unfortunate, but true that some of our earliest memories are of getting bullied. The special needs students in this preschool sadly face animosity from their classmates just because they’re different. Equally as harmful are the bullying tendencies that are reinforced because of their ignorance about what is right. Aware of this, Ms. R would like a few dolls with handicap equipment to help promote and show the correct and caring way to accept those different from us, a lesson we all probably could be reminded of more often.

“Panther Pocket Books” (Greenville, SC)

This project is not just for the kids (though they’re a major part) or just for the teacher (though she would love it), it’s also for the hard working parents who do not always have the right activity to spend time on with their children. With this project, every night, the parents would be able to read a new book to their kindergartener, which is a great way to keep parents involved in classroom learning.

If you help fund any of these, I’ll be, as one memorable 4^th grader put it, “internally grateful!”

Adam Aronow

Washington DC Intern

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“To remember him is to feel both gratitude for the gift of his friendship and grief over its brevity. In his honor, we would like to plant a garden in the courtyard in the center of our school, a courtyard that so many of our classes look out upon, as a way of honoring his spirit and his cherished, but too short life.”

These words were written by a Brooklyn teacher who suffered the loss of a first grade student in 2006. Many donors chose to give to this project commemorating his life: first in the Spring of 2007, “Andry’s Garden,” and again this year for the project “Renewing Andry’s Garden;” both projects were so moving and inspiring that we just had to see it for ourselves.

Andry’s Garden was such an oasis on the hot, brilliantly sunny day when we visited Brooklyn. Bordered on all sides by the school’s corridors and classrooms, it housed several flowering plants, a water garden, and herbs that the younger children had picked clean for their cooking classes!

The space that now holds Andry’s Garden was never used until this project came alive. It is now a place where classes are held, teachers and students can eat their lunch, and parents and members of the community can come and enjoy. Andry’s mother frequently visits this garden that was created in honor of her son. DonorsChoose.org is not only helping classrooms with their needs but also getting parents and the community involved with their local school.

Ms. R., along with her gardening club, have sent multiple thank-you packages to allow donors see how this project came to life: from the beginning stages when the children were planning the garden, to when the plants were actually planted. One of the thank-you packages was made at our visit there! Being able to experience the children thinking of what to write and getting excited about their letters to the donors was truly amazing.

The Operations team spends so much time interacting with teachers by email and phone – it was wonderful to meet the students we serve personally, to share pizza, a beautiful space, and to hear their thoughtful questions. Thanks, Gardening Club!

- Divya, Elaine, & Meghan

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In addition to receiving free car detailing and oil changes, customers of Don Beyer Volvo and Subaru in Virginia, Washington, D.C and Maryland are receiving DonorsChoose.org Giving Cards as a thank you for being valued members of the Don Beyer auto family. The Giving Cards allow customers to go to DonorsChoose.org, pick a classroom project by subject area or specific school, and then apply the funds towards that classroom project.

Customers of Don Beyer Volvo and Subaru have already begun to respond, supporting projects from Neat Nonfiction Nook to Science in Jeopardy to We LOVE Reading so PLEASE help us get this GREAT Novel!. These philanthropic customers have already helped over 4,349 students by redeeming their Giving Cards.

Thanks, Don Beyer Volvo, for sharing DonorsChoose.org Giving Cards with your customers! We hope this drives even more business your way.

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String Financial is providing a great incentive for folks to complete a survey. They have just launched a retirement planning questionnaire through the business networking site LinkedIn. If you take the survey, String Financial will donate $1 to one of 5 charities, including DonorsChoose.org! After you take the survey, you can select the charity of your choice. The other 4 options are The BELL Foundation, Children’s Literacy Initiative, Children’s Organ Transplant Association, and CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation.

All responses are completely anonymous. String Financial does not collect any personally identifiable information, email addresses, etc., and IP addresses are not recorded by their survey collector.

The survey can be found, here.

Once String Financial has gathered enough responses, they’ll apply all the money allocated to DonorsChoose.org to a proposal on our site. This is a great way to help bring a project to life for free. Click on the link and help support a classroom today!

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