Contest: Welcome to Matchdome
…Okay, proud Nation. It’s the 30th. $275,660 right now; 1,068 of you have given to 44,801 students in the last 30 days.
Others of you have given prizes; shared and forwarded and cheerled; watched the widget and wiped away single, gorgeous tears; written recaps; and sent me pictures of your own Master and Miss Readerheads.
atta boy, sleepy grape tomato
Above, please enjoy a family portrait from reader Alicia M. “I won these hats as a prize in last year’s Donors Choose contest. So here’s a picture of me and my two-week-old tomato, I mean son, at his very first trip to the zoo. Thanks for being awesome.” That’s pretty freakin’ cute, Alicia. Way to affirm your commitment to field trips as a key element of the educational experience! (And to wear green. Very chic.) (Thanks again to the talented Claire J. for the hats, which you may recognize.)
…All right. Less than 5K to 280K. At 280K, we get another 20K. My day today is what a client of mine likes to call “a fuckshow,” but I’ll have my computer with me and check in frequently. Can we get this done today, and spend Halloween Saturday celebrating? I bet we can. Let’s try.
Speaking of chic, I’m giving away two (2) copies of Thom Filicia’s Style, donated by Susan, and five (5) copies of Civilization IV, donated by Lisa M. Just donate to anything you like and send me your receipt to bunting at tomatonation dot com by midnight tonight ET.
280, friends. Do it for the class of 2027.
Tags: contests friends snif! The Class of 2027 Thom Filicia
$290K? Whee! That was fun.
You know what, they’re BOTH named Bernie.
I’m “lunching” on a warm Budweiser and some Swedish fish. Try not to let the glamour bowl you over.
Wait, does something bizarre happen if we hit 300k? Because it’s $290,564 as I type this… and add another $25 to MMMMM Math.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=306575&challengeid=23248
Was the 10K jump part of the 20K match or something else…?
Just adding my vote for helping the big kahuna!
*does happy dance*
…wait, $290,000??? Did part of the match hit already, or did we somehow raise $10,000 since I looked an hour ago?
(Either way, I will be over here continuing to do my happy dance.)
@Sars – ah, the taste of victory. Warm Bud and Swedish fish.
I assume that some of the $290k is the match coming into play, but still — amazing stuff. This is beyond my wildest dreams.
You know, I opened up the browser a few hours ago and we were at $278k. I left it open on the widget, and then got busy, busy, busy and just checked, hoping we had hit the $280k mark, only to, like many of you, find we’d hit $290k! Unbelievable. I am so proud to be part of this group of caring, generous, awesome people, who value education enough to do something meaningful to help. It’s really quite something, what we can accomplish when we all get together.
@JeniMull, c8h10n4o2 – I really agree. The teacher is so enthusiastic and appreciative of Tomato Nation. We should totally help him out. And there are only 18 days left: http://tiny.cc/5AgBc
See, every time I hear “Budweiser” I think of the “King of Pain” essay you wrote YEARS ago that informed most of the beer-drinking choices I made in college.
Think we can do 310? Nice, even 100K over the original goal?
$300K!!!!!! I really needed that today.
Is that $300K without the match?! AWESOME! I guess everyone did the same thing I did and held a little back for the final push. I am honored and humbled to be a member of Tomato Nation. Now, let’s get going on those documentary filmmakers.
300,918! We definitely need a new word for Awesome.
WOW!!! I was so excited (and frankly a little surprised) to see that the 280k mark had been reached. I stepped away from my desk for an hour, decided to make just one more donation, and saw that in just over an hour and a half we hit 300k!! How did that happen?!
TomatoNation…you rock! There is a special section of heaven waiting for you all!
The match has hit. Raise those glasses to Mighty Big TARhead — generous AND speedy.
Did we already get the 20K match? How did we jump so much so fast?
I gave what I could this year, but I’ve already got plans to “donate my birthday” next year and hopefully get more friends and family involved. (I’m an October baby.)
DONE! OMG! WHEEEEEEE! I came in to see if there was anything I could do at the last minute and it’s DONE! So I’m-a throw in my extra $$ anonymously and keep going WHEEEEEE!
WHEEEEEEE!!!
[er, I may or may not have busted into the Halloween candy.]
Looks like something happened to “Hear It, See It. Now I’m Learning” and it’s back to being $75 in the red. No Halloween for anyone until it’s funded.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287475&challengeid=23248
Here’s to the prettiest,
Here’s to the wittiest,
Here’s to the truest of all who are true,
Here’s to the neatest one,
Here’s to the sweetest one,
Here’s to them all in one — here’s to you.
THREE HUNDRED AND ONE THOUUUUUUUUUUUUSAND DOLLARS! ROCK ON, NATION!
Thank you Mighty Big TARHead…you’re better than the Great Pumpikin! Maybe…the Great Tomato??? Mysteriously appearing at Halloween to share your goodies with the Tomatonation and the children of the world.
Down to $40, Richard.
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=287475&challengeid=23248
Mr. E and his documentary project is at 23 donors…get it to 35 and he will make it to page 1 of the popularity sort! Get out the remaining dollar in the piggy bank. Lets get him some more attention http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=279669&challengeid=23248
going now!
Throwing down for Mr. E. and his kids again to get him to 35. C’mon y’all!
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=279669&challengeid=23248
Awesome, awesome, awesome, and then some!!! Congratulations everyone!!! I’m so proud to be part of this. The power of many is a truly amazing thing. I had no idea this wonderful group of people existed, until about 2 weeks ago (was curious who raising all that money ;-)) but my world is a better one for it. I was getting a bit bummed by the news from across the ocean, but now I know that there is hope, lots of it. Thank you for this wonderful experience.
@ Sars: Thank you for doing this, you are an inspiration. And yes, it was cocktail hour over here ;-)
And funded! Cheers Christina and Karen!
This is just so fantastic. I love the warm fuzzies I’m feeling right now. Okay, everyone—GROUP HUG!!
I just helped some kids get some candy for learning German! http://tinyurl.com/yae9fa9 Seemed appropriate, since I’m eating away on our trick or treat candy while I work on Halloween costumes.
So, I’m a geek, and I went through to add up the projects that are left…
We have 171 projects left on the list, and $125,522 to go (that number includes the $21,681 for Mr E’s young filmmakers). If the HP match cards arrive before Nov. 17, we could fund every single project on this year’s list.
And that…that would be beyond awesome.
~ Waves hands in the air like she just doesn’t care ~
Pats on the back all around!
Oh hell yes. *dance of joy* I love this Nation so much.
This one is one of the lonely few left among November-expiring projects on the TN list. I was first to contribute to it, and 10 others have joined me, but there’s still a ways to go. Anyone else in?
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=288343&challengeid=23248
Looks like the documentary project requires full support of teh Awesome. I think we can, I think we can, I think we can…..
I have a question, and I checked the FAQ and thought I found the answer but then I looked at the DonorsChoose website and I’m confused all over again.
My question was originally going to be: How does the “give to the most urgent project” deal work? Because there’s this project
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=319176
which has been up for over a month, with less than two hours to go, which got absolutely NOTHING – not one single donation – and it’s not for laptops or A/V equipment or digital cameras… just for desks and chairs. And not one single donor.
Then I decided to reread the FAQ (I never read the instructions until after I’ve run into a problem) and saw that there is a specific list of Bet Red projects which readers suggested and Sars vetted. And I still felt sad for the desk kids, but even though I am a “worthless bleeding-fucking-heart liberal,” as my father so often says, I am pragmatic enough to realize that no one can help everyone; people are going to be overlooked or left out or miss the boat. I was still sad, but it made a bit more sense, and I’m still of course thrilled for the tens of thousands of kids who have been reached. I adjusted my mindset to “well, it’s a shame, but that’s life.”
But then…
When I go to the link for Bet Red, it takes me to the page with our totals on it, and the projects on the left/center of the screen. At the bottom is a little notation that says “1-4 out of 670.” I didn’t count line by line, but it sure doesn’t look like there are 670 projects on the spreadsheet, so it seems to me like the BR/DC page includes more projects than just the ones Sars signed up for.
And now I’m back to wondering about the “most urgent” thing and how it all works, exactly, and if the spreadsheet has extra pages that I’m just not seeing or what. (And feeling sad for the kids with crummy desks. And wondering what other big-name bloggers might be convinced to host a donation-thon month… imagine if DonorsChoose ran out of projects because everything, everywhere got funded?!)
Hey y’all, can I make a plea for this one?
http://tinyurl.com/yzwnzry
These kids need desks. DESKS, for heaven’s sake! Less than $400 to go. Let’s do it!!!
Hey Sars and All Quiet on the Western Intern:
After the challenge is over, can you keep the spreadsheet going for another month-ish so we can use it as we spend our HP matches and monthly-donation-sign-up giving cards? There are still a lot of good projects that the readership suggested that we could clean up!
E:
The BR/DC page includes both funded AND unfunded projects, where the spreadsheet lists all the (500+) funded projects on the Completed! page and those still needing funding on the State/Poverty Level/Project Name/Category/Expiration Date/Grade Level sheets. (All 160-odd projects still needing funding are on each of those six pages, they’re just in a different order on each page.) Total, the projects on the Completed! sheet plus the incomplete projects sorted on each of the other six sheets equals 670.
Jenno:
At this point, I plan to leave up the spreadsheet indefinitely. It will probably be updated slightly less often through November – a few times a week rather than once or twice a day. Towards the end of the month, barring catastrophe, I’ll update the FAQ and leave the spreadsheet up as an archival demonstration of what mountains people who care can move when they try.
e,
The spreadsheet has the completed projects moved to a separate section — on the top towards the right there’s a link marked “Completed!”
As for the desks, well, I sat in chair-desks all through junior high and high school, and I managed to get educated. It’s not like their existing furniture was destroyed in a fire or flood, as is the case with some other classrooms vying for the same donor dollars. And $7,500 is a lot of money. And that teacher has already had 26 projects funded. And his school is not tagged as being high- or even moderate-poverty. I’m not saying it’s not a worthy project — they’re all worthy projects — but there are geography teachers who don’t have wall maps, and English teachers who don’t have enough copies of any one book for the whole class to read at the same time, and it just comes down to subjective priorities.
There are projects on the list that some people here are gung ho about but I don’t particularly support (and which fall into the “laptops or A/V equipment or digital cameras” category), but that’s okay because I don’t have to.
@e. — if you simply follow the link to the spreadsheet, you’ll only see the projects that still are open. If you then click on the link at the top of the spreadsheet page that says “Completed!” you’ll see all the rest that are now fully funded. There’s about 250 that we haven’t finished off,
Happy Halloween to everyone! As the final day begins, there are 2 projects I think we could really help…
First as Kathryn said about Student Desks “I helped because kids need the right-sized desks, for goodness’ sake.”
I agree, for goodness sakes…lets finish off the desks $358 to go
http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=294807&challengeid=23248
Second Mr. E and his Documentary project needs about 5 more donors to secure a place on the 1st page of the popularity sort. Even the smallest donation gets counted as a donor and bumps the balance. Lets get him some more help. http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=279669&challengeid=23248
And finally there is only one more projects set to expire in November. A project for “My Bloody Life: The Making of a Latin King” by Rey Sanchez. and it only needs $243 http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=288343&challengeid=23248
So again happy halloween from Europe! Let’s have a great last day. Thank you to everyone, especially Sarah, for making this October an incredible one. So glad I stumbled across Bet Red! It has made my month.
The desks have 307 to go…we can totally do THAT.
The entire donation list for them is Bet Red. Impact, indeed.
@ e, re: your “most urgent project” question, this is how the DC website defines “urgency” —
———-
How is “Urgency” determined?
The Urgency ranking looks for projects which:
– Come from high poverty schools;
– Will help teachers who’ve never been funded before;
– Have been partially funded by several donors; and
– Don’t have much time left.
It’s tough to match all these criteria, but our Urgency ranking finds projects meeting as many of those criteria as possible. The ranking is automated and updated thoughout each day.
Thanks to everyone for clearing that up for me – I totally missed that there was a “completed” section of the spreadsheet. If I’d been thinking straight, I should probably have figured that out, but you know how Fridays are.
Thanks again – and I’m beyond thrilled to see that my tongue-almost-in-cheek suggestion of “Now that we hit $210K, we’re upping the ante to $300K, RIGHT?” turned out not to be so tongue-in-cheek after all. !!!
I want a tomato hat. I will pay for one. I will pay for the pattern for one. I want a tomato hat.
The teacher who requested the Ping Pong tables has posted photos of them being used. Cool.