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Home » Donors Choose and Contests

Contest: Loosest Slots In Town

Submitted by on September 24, 2009 – 11:57 AM17 Comments

Triple_Rainbow_7s_Slots

…Heh.

Not sure you can donate to the 2009 Tomato Nation/Donors Choose fund drive?   I understand; money’s pretty tight these days.

But one of the awesome things about Donors Choose is that you don’t have to make a big donation to make a big difference.   In honor of today’s number theme, I made a little list of 7 things you could do to shake a few bucks loose (if you don’t do these things already):

1. re-route your Starbucks/Coffee Bean/Dunkin budget for one week (I probably spend $2/day minimum on third-party coffee), or brown-bag lunch

2. pause your Netflix subscription for a month, or drop to the next cheapest membership (for me, $7 for the month; hey, topical!)

3. Hoover your couch, floor, bureau top, car, and pockets for change and take it to the bank; it’s also a rad activity for kids, who usually like to help and definitely rock at spotting shiny stuff (my coin jar usually totals $25-ish)

4. select a few DVDs with obvious dust on them, and sell them on eBay or Half.com

5. see a matinee ($4 savings here in the 718) and smuggle in your own concessions ($3 just on the Diet Coke)

6. do something yourself (car wash, $11; pedicure, $15 + tip) that you usually pay for

7. drink at home for one night ($5 pints x 3 + tip = $18; calamari I wouldn’t have wanted if it weren’t on the menu, $9; car fare, $7)

All relatively painless; most quite temporary.   Again, a lot of you may do, or have thought of, these things already, but I always have a lot more “room” in my budget than I realize when I look at my spending.

Another thing you can do: when we launch on October 1, tell 7 friends about the contest and Donors Choose — acquaintances, co-workers, in-laws, teachers at your old school or your child’s school.   Spread the word; get more people involved and excited.   Especially if one of those people is Donald Trump, and he’s drunk and waving a checkbook.

(…7b. invite Donald Trump over for a yooge evening of absinthe and philanthropy)

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17 Comments »

  • Leigh in CO says:

    I love this, and am SO excited for next week.

    Additionally, I’m totally jealous your pedis only cost $15. I think I’m getting majorly fleeced.

  • LynzM says:

    “(…7b. invite Donald Trump over for a yooge evening of absinthe and philanthropy)”…. LMAO. :D

  • Trash says:

    I’m so excited and impatient – I want to start NOW. I know, I know, it’s only a week.

    I’m sitting on my hands to prevent myself from starting early.

  • Katherine says:

    I’m with trash- I can’t wait to start hitting refresh every 5 seconds, watching the goals being hit left and right. Come on 10/1!

  • ADS says:

    What’s the number? I want to know the number!

  • Karen says:

    I’m thinking of having a TN:DC Contest party where I provide snacks and drinks and guests donate the difference of what the same night out would have cost them.

  • Sarah D. Bunting says:

    @Karen: That is a GREAT idea, and I hope other readers steal it.

    In fact…*I* may steal it, and schedule an NYC/Brooklyn meet-up of some sort. Hang out, meet fellow readers, drink some beer (or Sprite), raise some money. Eh? EHHHHHH?

  • Cij says:

    Ms. Bunting,

    I would cordially accept your invitation and bring my visa card to make an on-the-spot donation.

    Yours sincerely etc.

    :D

  • Maria says:

    @Karen: BRILLIANT.

    @Sarah: What Cij said. I’ve got a DC gift card that’s been burning a whole in my email inbox, dying to be spent.

  • Krissa says:

    @Karen – was that DC as in Donor’s Choose, or District of Columbia? Because if you’re organizing a District get-together-donate-dammit party, I am so there.

    If you’re not near the district, though, I am sad panda.

  • Hannah says:

    I am totally naming my band Absinthe Philanthropy.

    …that, or Sad Panda. And we will write songs about first graders getting excited about Shakespeare.

    Dammit, I wanna live in New York. Anybody down for a southwest Florida DC partay?

  • Katie L. says:

    “Third-party coffee” is brilliant.

    Also, in honor of the theme:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GksEo8EDXiE

  • Academic says:

    Can’t wait!!!!

  • Kelsey says:

    Houston party? Anyone?

  • attica says:

    Man, imagining The Donald on absinthian hallucinations is simply too scary to do.

  • Margaret in CO says:

    attica – the hair alone, huh? Ooh-how do I make that my Halloween costume? :-)

  • JenV says:

    So are we supposed to be taking all these gambling pictures as hints for a theme? Perhaps the Tomato Costume will be visiting Vegas this year or something?

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