Welcome, friends! It’s time to raise some money. The super-duper crazy-big six-figure blowout fundraiser for Donors Choose will return in spring 2011 — but why not rustle up a few bucks now?

The project is called the Tomato Nation Fall Classic, and as you may have inferred from the name, it honors two of my favorite things: the baseball postseason, and classic works of literature.

Part The First: Help me choose $10,000 worth of Donors Choose projects focused on classic books. We’ll put together a giving page, then polish off all the projects thereon. Knowing y’all, that should take all of 16 hours, so once that’s done…

Part The Second: Raise $10,000 for Pitch In For Baseball and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. PIFB furnishes uniforms and equipment for Little League teams and leagues around the world, and the Robinson organization provides scholarships and educational support for underserved populations. You can read more at the links above; we’ll divide the haul between them.

We’ll also have prizes! Amazon and Donors Choose gift cards, baseball tickets, and that’s just for starters.

We’ve got all October to finish the page/raise the money — but if we finish early, for every day we have left over, I’ll donate $10 to Bees Without Borders. So, if all the money is raised by 21 October, that’s 10 days x $10 = $100 for bees!

Books. Baseball. Possibly bees! Let’s do it.

What’s next? We’ll start 1 October, but first, I’ll need to build a project page. Please send Donors Choose project suggestions to bunting at tomatonation dot com by 10 PM ET on Thursday 30 September. Three (3) max per email; please do not post them in the comments. The definition of “classic” is pretty broad, but while Judy Blume will qualify, microscopes will not. Please save projects in other disciplines until the spring fundraiser.

More info to come; questions welcome.

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