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In the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Kidder is third grade teacher who’s not only growing a garden, but a village. His students at Palma Ceia Elementary school love learning about the environment, but they lack the resources they need to grow a successful garden.

Mr. Kidder has a deep passion for environmental education, and his students are fascinated by gardening. This gifted teacher says, “I want my students to be able to understand that by eating plants means that they need to respect the plants — how they grow, what goes into the ground, what is in the air that the plants are taking in and converting through photosynthesis to provide us with oxygen.” To further bring the message of the importance of a garden home, Mr. Kidder has invited some of his students’ parents, who are themselves gardeners and landscapers, to help with garden planting and maintenance. In this way, the third-graders gain a deeper appreciation for the work their parents are doing and the interconnectedness of their “village.” DonorsChoose.org is proud to have helped by bringing Mr. Kidder’s vision to the attention of citizen philanthropists, who provided plants and nonfiction books about plant life-cycles.

San Francisco television reporter Lyanne Melendez ran a story about Mr. Kidder’s garden recently, as part of her award-winning series on DonorsChoose.org. You can view the video of Mr. Kidder and his classroom, here .

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Sean Stannard-Stockon of TacticalPhilanthropy.org is working on getting folks (of all backgrounds—individuals, foundations, nonprofits and companies) blogging about philanthropy. To do this, he started the One Post Challenge on his blog (http://tacticalphilanthropy.com/2007/10/one-post-challenge).

The point here is not just to express your views on philanthropy, but to engage in conversation. Therefore, the author of the post that generates the greatest number of commentators will win the challenge and receive a $500 “Good Card” that lets the receiver make a grant to the nonprofit of his or her choice!

Please read the below and share away! ‘Tis the season of giving–just the time to share what philanthropy means to YOU!

One Post Challenge

Get ready for the first annual Tactical Philanthropy “One Post Challenge”!

I’ve spent a lot of time and energy encouraging the philanthropy blog conversation and prodding foundations to launch their own blogs. Now I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.

During the month of November, anyone who wants to post a blog entry to Tactical Philanthropy can do it. Just email me your post, with a short bio. Every coherent, relevant post will be published.

But wait, there’s more!

The point here is not just to express your views, but to engage in conversation. Therefore, the author of the post that generates the largest number of commentators will win the challenge. I’ll personally write a check for $250 to the nonprofit of the winner’s choice [update: Network for Good has matched my grant and we will jointly award a $500 “Good Card”, the new “gift card” from Network for Good that let’s the receiver make a grant to the nonprofit of their choice] and buy the winner their choice of one of these newly released books:

• The new 3rd edition of Inspired Philanthropy: Your Step by Step Guide to Creating a Giving Plan and Leaving a Legacy by Tracy Gary
• Beyond Success: Building a Personal, Financial, and Philanthropic Legacy, by Randy Ottinger
• Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, by Bill Clinton
• Effective Foundation Management: 14 Challenges of Philanthropic Leadership–and How to Outfox Them, by Joel Orosz
• Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits, by Leslie Crutchfield & Heather McLeod Grant

So who should enter? If you’ve always wanted to launch a blog, but don’t have the time. If you write a non-philanthropy blog and want to write about giving. If you’re a philanthropic leader who thinks you can’t blog, but can email me your thoughts. If you’re young and new to the field and have something to tell the world. If you work for a nonprofit and want to tell foundations a thing or two. If you work for a foundation and want to tell nonprofits a thing or two. Or if you already write a philanthropy blog, but want to win the competition!

Entries will start being published on November 1. The last day for entries is November 30. The winner will be judged by the number of individuals who comment on the post (not the number of comments; the number of unique people who post a comment including the original author and myself). The comments will be counted as of December 3 at midnight pacific time. Anonymous posts will be included as long as you provide context for who you are (for instance, “I am a program officer at a large foundation”). You can also submit your post via the comment function on this post if you really need to protect your identity. I will retain the right to decline or edit posts for any reason (although I expect to do neither).

Here’s your chance to help jump start the conversation. Post your own thoughts. Talk your boss into writing just one post. And no complaining about not understanding technology or being too old for the online conversation. If you need some inspiration, read about this 95-year-old blogger.

I can’t wait to read your posts!

- Sean Stannard-Stockon, TacticalPhilanthropy.org

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