As a presenter at the SalesForce.com annual conference (DreamForce ’09) I was given a $100 gift card for DonorsChoose.org , an organization that uses the web to match donors with projects in schools that require funding. From the project that I chose:
“Help me teach the language to my preschoolers! I teach public preschool in an inner city. I have 30 students ranging in age from 3 to 5 years old, 33% are special education students. Eighty percent of my students are Non-English speaking and come from low income families.”
“In order for my students to enjoy and discover a variety of music and literature, it is important to have a listening center. The listening center will allow a group of children to put on head phones and hear the phonetics of the language while at the same time listen to wonderful stories. Audio books provide students an alternative way to acquire knowledge and allow interactive learning to take place.”
You can read the rest of the info on this project here.
I thought this project was a good fit considering that I make my living in communications. A few weeks later I got a full size 8.5 x 11 envelope came in the mail. It had been a long day and I grumbled about being asked for more money (as I tend to get 2 or 3 DM solicitations a week – thanks for all the return addresses guys, I’ll never use them all), but when I opened the envelope it was a wonderful surprise – a thank you letter from the teacher, letters from the students and some photographs of the kids using the listening station.
I was really impressed with the service and the program, if you are looking for a place to make a charitable donation, DonorsChoose is worth checking out. I have to thank Brian from Salesforce and the guys at Manticore for their help with DreamForce.
Here’s one of the thank you letters from the kids:
