Today, in partnership with Donorschoose.org, SONIC® launches its new Cause Program, Limeades for Learning®. This program allows SONIC customers to take an active role in a national $500,000 grant making initiative aimed at supporting U.S. public school teachers.
When customers purchase a small through Route 44® sized fountain or frozen drink at SONIC (Wacky-Pack® Meals and Premium Roast Coffee drinks excluded) they will receive a unique code used to “vote” for a teacher’s project online at LimeadesForLearning.com. Teachers’ projects receiving the most votes will be awarded grants throughout the month of September.
For more information on Limeades for Learning and how teachers, students and customers can get involved, please visit LimeadesforLearning.com.
To view the official campaign press release, please click here.
It’s that time of year again, as you are well aware: new notebooks, new pencils, and a new chance to help students grow and learn in the classroom.
Numerous studies have shown that more than any other factor, quality teachers do make a difference… Thank you for the great work you have done, are doing, and will do in the classroom this year!
Many of you have asked for tools to help you tell other teachers about us. Below, find a few tools you can use to share DonorsChoose.org with the teachers at your school and at other public schools in your district:
This year Best Buy launched www.at15.com, an innovative site that harnesses the power of online interactivity to provide a platform for teens to speak their minds and, among other things, direct $1M in Best Buy corporate giving.
One component of this site is the Best Buy @15 Change Exchange, in which Best Buy selects four non-profits to vie for $250,000 each quarter. DonorsChoose.org is part of the current Change Exchange campaign that runs until October 31st. From now until October 31st teens can register at www.at15.com and earn points completing different activities. Then at the end of the campaign (October 15 to 31st) they allocate their points to the non-profit they want Best Buy to support. Each non-profit receives the percentage share of $250,000 that matches the percentage of the total points they received from @15 members.
We’d like to thank Best Buy for this awesome opportunity!
Teens – check out our profile on www.at15.com/changeexchange and give your points to DonorsChoose.org to support public school classrooms in need!
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Adam Lambert, “American Idol’s” eighth season runner-up, will support high-need public school classrooms on DonorsChoose.org. Watch this YouTube video of Adam asking his fans to join the cause and support arts and music projects on DonorsChoose.org.
“My fans have been so amazing in their support that I would love for them to contribute to something I believe in,” said Adam Lambert. “Every kid deserves a great education and access to the materials and experiences that make it possible. I’m so thrilled to team up with DonorsChoose.org and encourage my fans to support arts and music projects in classrooms.”
New York Times technology blog writer Jenna Wortham posts about, An Easy Way to Donate Unwanted Gift Cards to Schools—which features DonorsChoose.org’s partnership with gift card company Plastic Jungle. Owners of unused gift cards can use Plastic Jungle to exchange those gift cards for DonorsChoose.org GivingCards.
Read the full article here. “Ever wonder what to do with that lingering $11.86 left on a gift card for Lowe’s or Bloomingdale’s? What about donating it to charity?…”
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We work with public school teachers every day, and we occasionally hear from principals at the schools we support. We’ve created this post to help answer some of the most common questions school leaders have for us.
What is DonorsChoose.org and how does it work?
DonorsChoose.org is a nonprofit website that helps public school teachers get funding for materials and experiences that will help their students learn.
Visit the About section of our site for details about how our program works.
Read our eligibility criteria to learn more about who can submit project requests.
How can I follow my teachers’ DonorsChoose.org projects and help make sure they receive their materials?
Review and share our fax notifications. As soon as we purchase the materials for any funded project, we send a fax to you at the school specifying the teacher and the specific materials to be shipped. Pass this notification on to anyone who receives or signs for packages so they can make sure materials reach the right classroom.
Opt into email updates. If you like, we can add your email to our system to provide updates about funded projects via email (just contact us at principals(at)donorschoose(dot)org to set up email notification).
View projects from your school using our search page. See search tips.
Who owns the materials funded through DonorsChoose.org?
Control and use of the materials funded through DonorsChoose.org should be dictated by the teacher’s project request, to reflect the intent of the donor(s) who chose to fund the project. Generally materials are considered property of the classroom described in the project request.
In cases where a teacher is leaving your school, we rely on the teacher and school administrators to review our guidelines and work together to determine the best course of action.
What happens if materials are lost or stolen after reaching my school?
We rely on the school to help make sure teachers get their materials. To that end, we send a fax notification to the school office anytime materials are purchased for a project to help raise awareness of pending delivery for a particular teacher.
It happens rarely, but if materials are delivered to the school and don’t reach the intended teacher, we’ve created a policy to help your students receive their resources and also ensure the integrity of our donors’ contributions.
We have a two-strike policy for lost or stolen items.If materials cannot be found in a school and we have proof of delivery, we make a note in the school’s record and reorder the items for the classroom. If materials are lost or stolen again, we’ll suspend DonorsChoose.org activity at the school while we work with the school administration to ensure the security of future deliveries. Read more.
Do I need to keep records of DonorsChoose.org donations or follow up with the donors?
We are a 501(c)(3) entity and process all donations to classroom projects, so your school does not need to account for these donations in its books. We also work directly with teachers to provide follow-up for the donors.
Starting August 17th and running through the 24th, Twitter users will have the opportunity to enter PayPal’s back-to-school sweepstakes for a chance to win $50 and a $50 DonorsChoose.org gift card! For each day of the sweepstakes, a back-to-school themed trivia question will be posted to the PayPal Shopping Twitter handle; all users who “@reply” the correct answer will be automatically entered into the daily drawings. Visit PayPal Shopping on Twitter to learn more; http://twitter.com/PayPalShopping and follow DonorsChoose.org on Twitter too; http://twitter.com/DonorsChoose
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Starting August 17th and running through the 24th, Twitter users will have the opportunity to enter PayPal’s back-to-school sweepstakes for a chance to win $50 and a $50 DonorsChoose.org gift card! For each day of the sweepstakes, a back-to-school themed trivia question will be posted to the PayPal Shopping Twitter handle; all users who “@reply” the correct answer will be automatically entered into the daily drawings. Visit PayPal Shopping on Twitter to learn more; http://twitter.com/PayPalShopping and follow DonorsChoose.org on Twitter too; http://twitter.com/DonorsChoose
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Just in time for Fashion Week, we’re giving our annual philanthropic throwdown for a cause, the Blogger Challenge, a makeover. The Blogger Challenge Social Media Challenge will pit Bloggers (from various communities) against Twitterer’s (Tweeple?) and other online media personalities. Despite the name change, we hope to inspire a similar level of awareness to the scarcity of resources for public schools using various online channels.
As with years past, hundreds of individuals will partake in the Challenge, which starts on October 1st. It’s a friendly but fierce competition to find out who has the most engaged and philanthropic following. More than 165 bloggers, ranging from Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark, to VC Fred Wilson and the BlogHer community rallied for the cause last year, offering to perform various stunts to encourage their readers to donate. All told, they raised over $275,000 for educational projects to benefit nearly 67,000 students in low-income neighborhoods around the country. Here’s a link to last year’s leaderboard and the final results.
Interested in participating in the upcoming fall Social Media Challenge? Email us challenge (at) donorschoose (dot) org!
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iRobot (the company behind the Roomba Vacuum) just unveiled their latest product, $10k work of support for public school classrooms across the country. This week, iRobot kicked off a 3 week-long challenge, “That’s inGenious Contest,” where 9 bloggers and their communities are on a race to come up with an idea that has “online and offline utility, an impacts that is intimate and far-reaching and can incorporate innovation in everyday life.”
When the contest ends (Sept. 1), iRobot will select a winner and give that blog community $10,000 to spend on projects at DonorsChoose.org. I imagine with all those creative juices flowing, the winning community will have an equally clever way to bring $10,000 worth of resources to public schools via our website.
